How to Travel Japan on a Budget

A trip to Japan can be very expensive. Believe me, the first few times I went there I spent a ton of money. But since then, I've been to Japan several times in my life, and every time I've learned a couple things that helped me to save. Here is what I learned. First and foremost you should buy a Japan Rail Pass. Believe me, unless you're staying in one city the whole trip (which will not give you the whole Japan experience), you're going to want to get the Japan Rail Pass. The pass gets you unlimited travel throughout Japan on its trains and is very inexpensive compared to how much trains actually cost. Buy one and use it to your heart's content. Now let's break down how you're going to keep track of your budget. Limit yourself to how much money you can spend per day. There are ways to fall within almost any budget. Here's a very good budget sample breakdown courtesy of Japan Travel [http://www.japan-travel.info]. 1200 Yen food 1000 Yen Tourism 1000 Yen shopping 4000 Yen lodgings This gives you 7200 Yen for a day. If for some reason you want to spend more money on food or shopping, then take it away from your tourism budget and go to free events. Basically make sure that you stay within budget every day and you'll find that you'll have some leftover money. You can save this money and then have a lot of fun on the last couple days while you're in Japan and have a little spending spree. Now let's get to how you're going to keep yourself at such low budgets. Food For food, there are many places that sell cheap food for about 300-400 Yen for a meal. These meals can be dishes like curry with rice or tempura ramen. Don't get sucked into the expensive restaurants because those can easily destroy your budget. Also fast food places will have very cheap meals. Tourism There are many places in Japan that are free! Check out temples and shrines, which are great sightseeing spots, and are oftentimes free. Museums are also very cheap. Avoid theme parks like Tokyo Disneyland or Universal Studios because those places are very expensive. If you do have money left over then go ahead and visit those places. Lodging Simply find capsule hotels or minshukus. These will be the cheapest places while you're on your Japan trip and can easily save you thousands of yen on hotel fees. Western style hotels are expensive, so forego them and try out the traditional Japanese lodgings. They are both a unique cultural experience and also a money-saving tactic! Shopping Don't shop every day. Avoid buying useless trinkets. In Japan although you may be tempted to shop a lot, it's usually more advisable to spend that money on things like food and entertainment. A lot of the things you can buy in Japan are also found in the US in specialty stores. If you do HAVE to buy something, make sure its within budget. Have a great Japan trip and I hope I saved you some money!