Japan - cost saving tips?

sarah69696pink

Hi All,
We are hoping to do a trip to Japan next year (thinking Tokyo for a week (inc Disney) and Kyoto (and trips there .e.g Hiroshima) also considering a countryside stop in-between.

From research so far a Japan holiday is not cheap, but wondered if anyone had any tips for reducing some costs? e.g. certain websites to check out or certain areas to stay in.

We've seen to buy the train pass in advance so that's one way we plan to reduce money...

Thanks in advance for any tips...

agrinnall

It's a few years since I went (2006) but I did a similar trip to what you propose (minus Disneyland, I've never really understood why any adult would go there without kids, and certainly not in Japan where there are far more interesting things to see than pseudo-American nonsense, but each to his own I suppose) and I actually found it less expensive than I thought it might be. I suspect a similar holiday in the UK would be at least as expensive, and possibly more given the price of accommodation in London. The rail pass is definitely worth considering, and the other thing to save money on is eating out, pick the right sort of places and it can be quite reasonable, the wrong ones are pretty expensive (unless you want to splash out occasionally of course), department store restaurants are usually good value.

tocsin

There's been a few threads on Japan - one I remember was https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5565431
(because I wrote on it )

Shove 'Japan' into the advanced search option and highlight this forum to get a full list. Hope that helps!

bigadaj

sarah69696pink wrote: »

Hi All,
We are hoping to do a trip to Japan next year (thinking Tokyo for a week (inc Disney) and Kyoto (and trips there .e.g Hiroshima) also considering a countryside stop in-between.

From research so far a Japan holiday is not cheap, but wondered if anyone had any tips for reducing some costs? e.g. certain websites to check out or certain areas to stay in.

We've seen to buy the train pass in advance so that's one way we plan to reduce money...

Thanks in advance for any tips...

We went twenty years ago, almost exactly in fact as it was over the Hong Kong handover holidays. Flights were obviously a lot cheaper for us then.

We stayed in a few ryokan which were quite reasonable, though finding them was very confusing, streets aren't numbered logically, but the locals were very helpful. Also stayed in a love hotel and a capsule hotel which were cheaper and an experience.

Getting around Tokyo is easy and cheap on the underground and local trains. Local restaurants were reasonable and they had the habit of having plastic models of dishes so just pointing at what you wanted avoided the language barrier. Hakone circuit was excellent, and we got a sleeper coach to Kyoto, and a bullet train back.

It's a long time ago, but if you are careful it's not that much more expensive than Europe, even allowing for the pounds recent woes.