money worries

[TonyUchiha]

just a quick question, and iv not doubt in hindsight ill find out this is a silly one.
but i was jus wondering if someone who has been to Japan or lives there, could possible give me a rough idea about how long i could possible stay in the country with £2000+ savings?

now I know we all have diffrent life/living styles, but if i was tight with the purse strings how long would you say I could stay and what kinda experiences could have? This is really worryin me and is kinda the main reason why I keep puttin of putting money down for a plane ticket.

Also if anyone has any tips on cheap living then please let me know.

p.s.
I plan on stayin in youth hostals as much as possible as they do tend to be cheaper

[Nyororin]

If you`ll be staying hotels, and youth hostels when possible.... Presumably traveling.... Probably not all that long at all. You`ll be forced to eat out instead of cooking for yourself (one of the best ways to keep costs down).

The best way to keep costs low would be to rent a monthly apartment, stay in one area, and cook for yourself. If the price of the ticket is NOT included in that money, then you could pull of 2 or 3 months that way.

[TonyUchiha]

nah thats not including my flights.

2months would be ideal really. I mainly want spend my time in Kansai region, just visiting temples etc, chillin out and sortin my head out, before headin to Tokyo and cutting loose.
have got a few ideas on what i actually want to do but no real itinerary planned as yet

Thanks for you advice though Nyororin

[Keaton421]

Why don't you save up some more money until you can feel comfortable? You won't enjoy the trip as much if you're always worried about money

[TonyUchiha]

perhaps your right.
Am gonna have a think about this.

[Keaton421]

You should. I know it's hard but Japan isn't going anywhere. And you'll be glad you waited, instead of getting there, staying in a crappy youth hostel with annoying roommates, and not getting to eat good food, buy things you want, or even go on a couple of dates.

[godwine]

My estimate for my 2.5 weeks honeymoon is that it will cost us about 10K US including flight and all:

- round trip air fare from Canada to Japan ~1300 per person = 2600
- Transportation cost including JR Pass ~ 800 per person = 1600
- Accommodation, including hotel and a few resort ~average 65 per person per night = 130x 18 = 2340
- food and drinks ~ 30 per person per day = 60x18 = 1080
- Shirnes and temples (approximately 10 in total) ~avg 3.5 per person, = 7x10 = 70
- Other attractions and museums (about 8 in total) ~ avg 18 per person = 36X8 = 288

Total: 7978

That will leave me with just about 2000 to spend on sovenirs and other stuff that I want to buy.... These are just rough figures, and the esitmate is on the low side of things already....

[Firebird]

I travelled quite a bit and found that Minshukus can also be a cheap alternative (specially in smaller citys) to Youth hostels. I did alot of hitchhiking wich also saved me money and i ate cheap every day.
I ended up spending 7400yen a day while travelling and around 4500yen a day while staying in a Guesthouse in Tokyo.
So, we are talking about around 260 000yen budget wich would keep me travelling for around 1 and a half month and i could probably live for 2 month in one city. I think it should be possible to cut my budget down, but then your trip will end up not beeing enjoyable. Sleeping in internetcafes, eating conbini food everday, only travelling by night bus and not spending any money on going out and i´d say you can do around 6000yen a day.
My one month spending for travelling in Hokkaido (Sapporo, Furano, Biei, Asahidake, Wakkanai, Rebun iland, Monbetsu, abashiri, Shiretoko, kawayu, Akan kohan, Kushiro, Obihiro, Erimo, noboribetsu, Murano, Toyako Onsen, Otaru and back to Sapporo) looks like this:
Accomodation: 110 000 (sleeping in Minshukus, capsule hotels and youth hostels, spending 1 night in a 9000yen Hotel)
Food: 45400 (eating mostly ramen, fast food, convinience store food, sometimes something nice)
Entryfees: 1500
Transportation: 32400 (using local trains, buses and hitchhiking )
Other things: 37400 (wasted most of it on games, bought a prepaid card for my mobile phone, paid for my new driving license,...)

Oh, i dont smoke and hardly drink alkohol, so if you´d like to do that, ad it up on top (or change it with my gaming cost

[godwine]

Originally Posted by Firebird

I travelled quite a bit and found that Minshukus can also be a cheap alternative (specially in smaller citys) to Youth hostels. I did alot of hitchhiking wich also saved me money and i ate cheap every day.
I ended up spending 7400yen a day while travelling and around 4500yen a day while staying in a Guesthouse in Tokyo.
So, we are talking about around 260 000yen budget wich would keep me travelling for around 1 and a half month and i could probably live for 2 month in one city. I think it should be possible to cut my budget down, but then your trip will end up not beeing enjoyable. Sleeping in internetcafes, eating conbini food everday, only travelling by night bus and not spending any money on going out and i´d say you can do around 6000yen a day.
My one month spending for travelling in Hokkaido (Sapporo, Furano, Biei, Asahidake, Wakkanai, Rebun iland, Monbetsu, abashiri, Shiretoko, kawayu, Akan kohan, Kushiro, Obihiro, Erimo, noboribetsu, Murano, Toyako Onsen, Otaru and back to Sapporo) looks like this:
Accomodation: 110 000 (sleeping in Minshukus, capsule hotels and youth hostels, spending 1 night in a 9000yen Hotel)
Food: 45400 (eating mostly ramen, fast food, convinience store food, sometimes something nice)
Entryfees: 1500
Transportation: 32400 (using local trains, buses and hitchhiking )
Other things: 37400 (wasted most of it on games, bought a prepaid card for my mobile phone, paid for my new driving license,...)

Oh, i dont smoke and hardly drink alkohol, so if you´d like to do that, ad it up on top (or change it with my gaming cost

Thats really pushing it. I spent over 200000 yen in 10 days in 2006 (Don't remember how much I spent to trips prior) and over 450000 yen in 2 weeks in 2007....

I don't know for the others, but numbers under 150000 yen a month is not even feasible in your own local country, not unless you have no other expenses. Let alone a long trip, it won't even be enjoyable. Your day to day will just be walking around, granted, there is nothing wrong with that, but you you will be really really sick of the trip if you don't have enough money, imagine having to walk everywhere and live off convenience store food for a while. My guess is that £2000 will last you about 2-3 weeks. Transportation alone will chew off a good chunk of this, unless you really want to walk everywhere

How much you spend on a trip will change your experience

[Firebird]

If you calculate my budget together for that month, than it will add up to around 220000, i also think 150000 or less will not be enough to have a nice trip, but maybe enough when staying in one city.
I just dont like it that people talk at about 20000 a day everytime someone asks for budget. I think that it is ok to spend that much if you stay 2 weeks or so, but i can have a really good day with 10000yen. I wouldnt know where to spend 20000 (well i would, but i would feel its a waste of money).
When i stayed in Sapporo for a few days, i ended up spending alot more than while travelling, so its very easy to come over "my budget".
But you can definetly have a great day with less money, and you dont need to spend that much money!
Lets say you stay around Ueno in a cheap place (3200yen). In the morning you get something sweet from the Conbini (300yen). You take a walk through Ameyokocho and buy some stuff (lets say 2000yen). For lunch youll get a 600yen bowl of rice topped with fresh raw fish. You jump on the train to Asakusa (160yen) and see the temple. Its free, but lets say you get a small souvenir 700yen. Later on you jump on another train going towards Shinjuku (230yen). You walk around and see all the "crazy Japan", maybe try pachinko (1000yen) or do some arcade games. Get some dinner (lets say 1500yen) and than 2 beers (1000yen). Head home with the train (230yen).
That day will than run you on 11000yen and you walked out with a little souvenir and some stuff from the market.
I wouldnt say that was a boring day!

But its definetly very easy to spend more than that and i never denied that. I just wanted to point out that you can do it with less. And i had a great time with my budget and ive seen many places others haven´t and i even got to waste quite some money on arcade/coin-games.

Oh and one more thing: Tonyuchia was asking how long he could survive if he watched the money carfully and stayed in cheap places and not how much he´d need to have the time of his live, so i answered that question.