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Planning a trip, in serious need of help! -
10-07-2010, 03:36 AM
The other morning I woke up and thought "Hey, let's all go to Japan!"
At first, of course, I dismissed it thinking it was only a random thought. But it's been a personal dream of mine to travel to Japan, and the more I thought about it the more excited I got about the concept. So that day I announced to my friends that I'd like to organize a group trip with them. At first hey were almost as excited as was, but then they were like "It's gonna be too pricy, everyone's too busy, it' too early to plan this kind of thing." I kept reassuring them that I could handle it, but they were and still are skeptical. I want to prove them wrong and show them I can successfully organize a really fun trip. However...  IM LOST! Of course, I plan on getting a job and a passport. I just need help planning. So the group hopefully attending consists of 12 people, give or take a few, with a wide variety of ages from twenty-somethings to a couple of 15-yr-olds, and a handful in between[current ages]. Thankfully, one of my friends has an older brother who can speak Japanese. I wish for te trip to take place no less than 3 or 4 years from now, just to make sure everyone is technically an adult. I'll be the only girl on the trip....  We want to shop for electronics clothes and otaku goods, play a ton of video games, visit an onsen, ride a bullet train, see a japanese love hotel, be in the live audience of a japanese gameshow, tour japanese castles, attend festivals, eat everything in sight, see one of those beautiful gardens near the temples and stuff like that. I've wanted to go sometime when the Japanese kids are still in school so I can see the adorable uniforms. I also want an excuse to wear a kimono ^^ Erm, please help me sort out this chaos into something that might actually work... 
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10-07-2010, 04:38 AM
To be honest I reckon you're friends are right in that it's a little early to commit to anything. It's great to have a goal and start working towards it but 3-4 years away is a fairly long time. How many of those friends will still be around? How many will have moved on, have careers,gotten married, had kids, etc, etc...
If I were you I'd just worry about organising the trip for yourself as a first step. So yes you'll need to get a job as it's not entirely cheap to travel overseas, certainly far more expensive than just staying at home. And of course you'll need to get your passport. So work out the things you would really like to do, how long you would like to stay. Work out a daily budget for the trip to work out how much you'll need to save to be able to do it. Then in a few years when you've got the money saved and a pretty good idea of an itinerary then go to your friends and try and sell them on the idea. To be honest organising a trip for up near 12 people can be a huge undertaking. I'd plan for a lot smaller group. Something like only 1 or 2 others. If more want to jump onboard last minute then that's fine.
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10-07-2010, 10:14 PM
You and 11 guys? That's not going to be so fun at the onsen.
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10-07-2010, 10:17 PM
Yeah, I second GoNative's concern, me and my friends had a dream of being a band and travel to Japan for a debut...but I'm a writer and teacher now, lol :P Of course, I love your enthusiasm, and I hope that you will be able to go to Japan some day!
Something to think about: get a financial plan! You gotta have a goal for how much money you need to go there, for one. Plane tickets are around $1,250, if you buy them during off-season (aka NOT the summer or Christmas). Depending on how long you plan on staying, calculate how much each day will cost, where you plan to go, and include travel expenses, food, and lodging. Hostels are very convenient because for around $25 dollars a night, you can stay in Tokyo! It's very nice! Food's kinda expensive, so try to aim towards $10 per meal. There are cheaper alternatives, which I found out in my thread here. And, even though all your friends might not plan on going four years down the road, if you stick to your guns, perhaps a couple of you still will? It's difficult to save money for it, I'll tell you. You'll probably have to save around $2,000-$3,000. On top of paying for school, bills, and books... I found it was very difficult, and just got a loan instead :P I could say so much more, but I think just taking one step at a time is way better, it's a lot to research, but you can do it! It's great to see you have a clear goal, just continue to focus on it! Edit: I just realized, I'm assuming you're in America, lol. Of course price of a plane ticket varies from place to place, but still avoid traveling around summer. 
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10-08-2010, 03:00 PM
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Figure out your objectives and then work down from there. Determine the amount of time and travel required along with the associated costs and work your way down until you're left with the smaller things such as train schedules. Since you have time on your side, try organizing trips to adjacent cities, states and of course Canada. Build up your travel organization skills and enjoy it. For me at least, the planning stage is just as fun as the journey.
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10-18-2010, 03:38 PM
Large groups will cause nothing but issues, just saying. However I you are talking in over a years time or more then most will have dropped out (sorry to say it but probably true)
A basic guide to planning a trip, do them in order. 1. Get the money - Roughly you need about £2000 for 2weeks and 3000 for a month at least to be able to buy a few things, based on a very basic hotel, not buying anything really expensive and mainly going to cheap attractions. 2. Do you need a passport? Visa? Insurance? Health? Time off school/work? Will you have to pay rent/bills on your home while you are away? These are important things not to overlook! Make sure this is all sorted. Do you need to tell people where you are and have emergency back up plans for getting back? 3. Flights, where from? to? How much? If it is cheaper at a diff time/day can you move part 2 to fit that? Also a good time to think how will you get to and from the airport on the day as it may be crazy times and you dont want to waste precious holiday money on taxis doing that. 4. Accommodation. Hotel? hostel? Rented Apartment? Alone? Sharing? spend time sorting this out. a bit of Japanese language will go a long way in getting cheaper things. Decide now which cities you want to visit and if you are staying in more than one place. 5. Convert your money. do NOT do this at the airport, shop around for the best deals at money conversion shops in your town. If the exchange rate suddenly peaks in your favour do it then for all the money you have so far, you can always get more later. 6. Plan roughly what you want to do each day and where you want to visit, have print outs and a get good directions to all the important places ready. Don't forget how are you getting you and your bags to and from airport/hotels. Dragging a heavy case very far by foot is not fun. 7. Current airport and import/export rules, be safe don't bother with any liquid on the plane at all. It is not worth the fuss they make these days. Even if we all know DS isn't going to make the plane crash, declare it as a mini laptop at the scanning machine, let them look at it, and don't turn it on till they say you can.It is best at airports and in foreign countries to just air on the side of caution and obey every single tiny little rule and custom just to make sure! Certain medicines ain't allowed into Japan, worse some are seen as illegal drugs including sudafed type cold medicine. Think about your travel outfit, be comfy, nothing with metal all over it to set off scanners. something you can easily take the jacket off or similar if they ask. 8. Travel phrases. Being able to say このネコはカワイいいいいいい。（＾＿＾） may make you happy and impress your 0-speaking friends but will be pretty useless when you need to check-in to the hotel, ask someone which train goes to Shinjuku and various other real world scenarios. It can be seen as boring but take the time to learn a few handy things and it will go along way. Be well prepared and the trip will go well and you will have a great time  Don't spend forever on step 6 and 8 and miss out crucial things from step 2 for example, do it just about in this order and you should be fine. 
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10-22-2010, 07:39 PM
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