Japan

Ponkle22

choc_mouse wrote: »

On budgets, Japan is expensive but I think it's about the same as Switzerland and not much more than London if you think about it. In fact, better quality food is cheaper in Japan.

Excluding accommodation, in my experience you can survive on 1500 JPY / £10 per day just by eating at cheap chain stores or obento (lunch boxes), walking to places and not buying much! Suggested for long stay English teachers on a poor salary. Fortunately, I did this by choice to save money.

For those who can afford about 5000 JPY / £40 per day, you will have a decent trip with the odd meal at an izakaya (Japanese style pub).


I find when I'm in full holiday mode, I'll spend at least 10,000 JPY / £80 per day. This includes travel, tickets for attractions and gift shopping!

For those who need cash, most retailers accept credit cards these days and the majority of ATMs in tourist hot spots will accept foreign cards. If you're ever stuck, look for an ATM belonging to the Japan Post (JP). They will almost always accept foreign cards and have English menus.

Great info - thanks!

heth

Have just booked a hol to Japan - found a lot of useful pointers in this short thread. Tarky tarks, did you do anything further with Inside Japan? "(I've found a few companies but I think it was Inside Japan that caught my eye.)" - as after some research that's who we've booked with

claire16c

If you need to book a cheap hotel in Tokyo, we stayed there at the beginning of our round the world trip, and we booked the Oak Hotel in Ueno. It cost us about £52 a night. There was a room with free internet and microwave, and you could pay to use a washing machine. The rooms are tiny but clean. I would only stay there with someone you know very well - or get 2 rooms because the bathroom is micro sized so you might not want to close the door lol!

Easy to get to from Narita and very friendly english speaking staff. I love Tokyo, its such a safe and friendly place.

markandkate

We flew into Narita and got the airport express which is not cheap but does take you into Tokyo central station. On the way back we got the local express train which was a lot cheaper but very uncomfortable. It was packed and we did not get a seat for quite along time and it took ages.

We stayed in the Mercure hotel in Ginza https://www.accorhotels.com which was very comfortable and had an extensive breakfast buffet. We could walk to the fish market from there and there were some American food chains in the area for quick snacks.

There is a website Tokyo for free and we went to the Toyota experience which was great and also the beer museum!

WE also used public transport and if you don't want to buy a pass you pay for the lowest price ticket and then pay the balance when you get to your destination

VfM4meplse

I booked a trip to Japan for April 2010 which was canceled by the ash cloud. I took lots of advice beforehand as the plan was to hire a car and do the length of the country but was consistently told by those in the know that self-navigation would be difficult, to say the least. Sadly I never got to test my orienteering skills.

This is going to sound less than adventurous but bearing in mind how difficult navigation can be, and the fact that you are travelling with children, have you thought about a cruise instead? Depending on cabin arrangements, it can work out a lot cheaper, you'll get a taste of the port sites and won't have to worry about what the kids will eat. Some liners depart from Shanghai, that reallly would be a great adventure for the kids.

tarkytarks

heth wrote: »

Have just booked a hol to Japan - found a lot of useful pointers in this short thread. Tarky tarks, did you do anything further with Inside Japan? "(I've found a few companies but I think it was Inside Japan that caught my eye.)" - as after some research that's who we've booked with

To be honest the earthquake/tsunami hit and I put off researching and we haven't really decided when we might go now. Sorry!