This is a guide for those who plan to visit Japan during 10 days and dont want to spend more then 500 euro for the whole trip (not counting airplane tickets):
- Pack your bags light, don’t take more than one pair of shoes etc. If you cant fit everything in a school backpack, youre packed too heavy.
- Do bring your camera and laptop
- Don’t buy a JR Rail pass, they’re a good deal but too pricey for the ultra-budget traveller like you.
- Don’t buy anything to bring home: that easy rule saves you money and excess baggage fees. If you like something, take a photo of it instead! This works great for clothes.
- Don’t be afraid to ask people where the cheap food is nearby! It is possible to eat out for 250 yen.
Day 1 – get to Tokyo- get hotel!
Day 2- Tokyo
Day 3- Tokyo
Day 4- Tokyo
Day 5- Tokyo whole day and catch midnight bus to Kansai KANSAI Osaka
Day 6- Go to Kyoto and walk the path of Philosophy for the day
Day 7- Go to Nara for the day
Day 8- Kyoto -Explore Manga and Inari Shrine!
Day 9- Kyoto -Explore Arashiyama! Catch night-bus to Tokyo!
Day 10 –Bus arrives in Tokyo! Fly home!
THE PLAN
1- Fly to Narita - depends where you flying from you can get more or less good ticket rates. From Europe normally is possible to find a low cost return ticket for 500 euro (KLM, AirFrance, Lufthansa, Finair)
2- Exchange 500 euro into yen at a good place before you leave. You now have 65,000 yen
3- Day 1- Arrive in Narita, go straight to the JR desk and buy a Suica (train smart card) with the Narita Express discount. Catch the N’EX (narita express) to Tokyo Station (2000 yen).
4- From Tokyo station, catch the Hibiya subway to Minami-Senju station (Use your SUICA instead of buying a ticket).
5- From minami-senju go to the hotel EBISU. Its 1500 yen a night, dorm style. Book
it for six nights. If its full, ask the staff if there are other good nearby hotel. This is a cheap-hotel area. A good second choice is New Koyo (2500 yen a night)6- Sleep and be rested, if you need it. There is a supermarket nearby where you can get cheap food, next to the supermarket an old man makes very cheap (200 yen) bento (rice and food boxes), these are good to stock up on for a hungry budget traveller. Explore this area, its called Sanya and is part of Tokyos ‘Shitamachi’ downtown area. The people are quite poor in this area but are just as polite and friendly as any other Japanese. Ask your hotel person to show you how to get to the famous restaurants and temples in Sanya.
7- Day 2- Wake up at your own leisure. Go to Akihabara by the subway. When you get out in Akihabara station, make your way for 200 metres towards the Electric Town exit of the JR Train station (not the same as the subway station). Pick up two of the free maps of the area, one is in English and one is in Japanese. The Japanese one is much better. The best places to go are
obvious on the map, costume stores and fetish stores and maid cafes etc. You can’t find the best parts of Akihabara just by looking off the street, theyre hidden in basements, 6th floors and alleys. That being said, you cannot miss the Love Merci sex store and the massive Don Quihote store. See if you can get a foot massage and a beer at a special maid café and try your luck at the massive video arcades. If you get tired, go to a super-net café (manga kissa) scattered among the higher floors in some of the bigger electric town buildings and sleep or just surf the net and read Japanese comics in yoru private cubicle. If it’s a weekend you will see a lot of cosplayers near the metro station listening to free bands.
8- Day 3- Is it Sunday? Go to Harajuku station. From there, go straight to Y
oyogi park and check out the Tokyo Rockabilly club doing their thing. On the way you might see many people dressed up in weird fashion for no reason except to get their photo taken by tourists. (especially on the bridge over the train tracks) Go through Takeshita Street and Harajuku street looking atthe teenage fashion. The best places to see are the upstairs areas of burger joints like ‘Mac’ and
Lotteria, this is where the multicolour teenage fashion victims hang out to escape the rain, crowds or the bright sun wrecking their makeup.
9- Day 4 – Go to Shinjuku and wander through the various alleys. At night, Go to Kabukicho, the famous yakuza area full of hostess bars, host bars, and brothels. Try walking alone and see how many people try to tout and pull your business. Of course, never go anywhere that a stranger on the street tries to drag you, they’re liars.
Other Tokyo activities:
Go to the Suginami Anime museum. Its free -go to the massive 100 yen store in Kinshicho, great
for budget souvenirs. Buy some fireworks and set them off in a park!
-Spent a night at any karaoke place (there is one on EVERY STREET) and make sure you get the ALL YOU CAN DRINK (nomihodai) Deal! (usually around 2000 yen per person, per hour)
- Go to the bohemian area of Shimokitazawa, see a band and do some second-hand-clothes shopping!
- Go nightclubbing/gig seeing in Shibuya, look through trendy stores or bars for their flyers and find one that looks suitably Tokyo-ridiculous, you might need to plan ahead to dress the part (and spend some time in harajuku or akihabara buying a costume..). Goth nights/fashion nights/cyberraves are suitably excellent and usually start at midnight and end at 5am. Definitely bring your camera here. Warning: this is an expensive thing to do, but a very special ‘only in Tokyo’ experience if you pick the right even. It should set you back around 3000 yen to get in plus (maybe?)4000 yen for items to past the dress code (body paint? Maid costume? Who knows) Don’t drink alcohol in these clubs or youll go broke, buy a cheap jar of sake and drink it on the street before you go in (not illegal)
-Go to a flea market!
Leaving Tokyo… Into Kansai!
1- Depending on how budget-conscious you’ve been, you will probably still have spending money after 6 great days in Tokyo. On your last day, check out of your hotel. You can catch a midnight bus from Tokyo to Osaka, which is only around 4000 yen, saving you the cost of a train and the cost of a place to stay that night! You can buy these over the phone from pirvate companies (get a brochure from tourist assistance) or from a JR station (the jr buses are slightly more expensive). Most of these buses have a lot of recline on their chairs, so sleep tight!
2- Youre in Osaka! Get the train to Shin Imamiya station . Look for the big building that says HOTEL RAIZAN on it and walk towards it. There you will find around a couple dozen cheap hotels. The cheapest is 1000 yen a night, but has no showers (theres a public Sento bath attached to the hotel, so you can get naked and refreshed Japanese style!) Many of these hotels do not accommodate women, so you can check at the tourist information desk underneath HOTEL CHUO (there are signs) and the students volunteering there will help you. My pick: Hotel Raizan, 2300 yen a night including a free yukata robe hire, private shower facility, additional public bath, no curfew, free wi-fi and a small but comfortable private room with a TV and free videos! Oh not to mention, a beer and sake vending machine
3- Osaka is a metropolis but not so exciting compared to Tokyo. You can easily get up early and go to Kyoto for a day, then after sunset in Kyoto head back to Osaka to sleep. It takes a bit less than an hour each way.
OPTIONAL INTERMISSION?
By this time, you might be really darn tired, so spending a day just catching up on sleep in Osaka and maybe going to a public bath and just cooking cheap packet noodles for food could be a low-cost and very helpful day. There is a cheap ramen place near the hotel area which you can easily visit (300yen-ish)
Kyoto
Day 1- Get up in Osaka early to get to Kyoto early (8amish)! Catch the JR train to Kyoto as soon as you can. You need to beat the busloads of tourists. In Kyoto, get a daily bus pass and head straight to the Silver Temple (Ginkaku-ji). Wander around the gardens and feel very Zen. Today you will go from the Silver Temple and walk south along the Path of Philosophy, stopping at every temple along the way! Bring food with you however, such as a cheap bento box from a convenience store, as the local food is quite expensive. Half of the temples and shrines are free. Go through Honen-in and Zenrinji Eikando temples, admiring the gardens, it’s the most beautiful place and you get great views from the mountains. You should end up at Sannen-in to
look at the big gates and roman-acqueduct there, don’t pay any admission fees at sannen-in though. If you got up early it shouldn’t be sunset yet, you can go check out Gion which is the old Geisha district, only a short bus ride or leisurely walk from the bottom of the path of philosophy. Head back to Osaka after you eat dinner in Kyoto.
Day 2 Nara. Catch the train from Osaka to Nara. Cost – 760 yen. Go straight to nara-koen park and feed the deer, and check out the giant Buddha. Theres plenty of tourist information if you want to find other thigns to do, but youre only spending one day in Nara and it will be a fairly cheap day, you wont need more than 3000 yen for the whole day. Head back to your hotel in Osaka for the evening for a night out on the town… if you have the cash.
Day 3 - Kyoto- you’ve come from Osaka again. Youre spending the night in Kyoto tonight, though. Book a bed at J-Hoppers in Kyoto, it’s the best hostel and is 2300 a night and easy walk from the JR station. For a second choice, K’s house is less friendly but much newer and shinier and the same price. 3rd choice could be Sparkling Dolphins Inn, right next to J-hoppers and
also quite cheap, or BAKPAK hostel. Book one or two nights. Buy a couple of bus passes Drop your bag off and go to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Spend the entire morning reading manga,and if you like you can check out their displays and performances. You’ll probably be tired today anyway (1000 yen) There are a couple of museums and galleries within a short walk from the manga museum if you are tired of the manga. After, go straight to InariJR station and check out the Fushimi Inari shrine, a massive fantasyland over a whole mountain covered in
tunnels of a million red gates. It includes hundreds of mini-shrines and a few excellent teahouses. If you are an excellent walker you might make it to the top, but I know no one that has, its not important anyway. The Inari shrine is free and has no closing hours, so could be a good choice for a dawn or later-afternoon visit if the sky is not too dark. Cost of today should be around
900 yen plus food and bed.
Day 4- Kyoto- Youre up and ready to get out the door at7am! Check o
ut of the hotel. Head straight to Arashiyama when the temples open. Walk across the bridge and back simply for the view, then go toTenryū-ji (天龍寺), check out the awesome world-heritage garden. As you leave, walk through the bamboo forest and go to Okochi Sanso Villa. After the villa make your way to Jojakko-in and whatever other attractions in this awesome area you feel excited for.The cost of this day should be around 2000 yen plus food and bed. After the temples close you can catch another night bus from Kyoto to Tokyo.(4000 yen) and take your return flight home!
At this point, you have seen a really satisfying look at urban and ancient Japan. With more money, of course, you would stay at beautiful ryokan, visit hot springs and eat fugu, but this is about having an amazing time with low cost by exploring Japan via the less commercial methods. You can always go back when you are richer!
Total Cost:
36000 on trains, buses and accommodation
6000 on club, temple and museum entrance fees.
18000 yen, that’s 1800 yen a day for food, video arcade games and making mistakes (like drinking Shochu!).
If you bring more money, you’ll have more freedom with eating out and even drinking booze :-)
Our plan is slightly different, since we will be staying in people houses and also plan to visit Miyajima island. But these are good tips for any traveller who plan to visit Japan!
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