How much money should you bring to Japan? Our real budget for two.
Before our trip to Japan, I read a lot of articles.
Some said Japan is insanely expensive.
Others assured it's almost cheaper than Europe right now.
The truth, as usual, was somewhere in the middle.
We spent 7 days in Japan in April (flying out on the eighth), visited Tokyo, Fujiyoshida, Kyoto, and Osaka, and I made sure to track all our expenses.
An important disclaimer right off the bat.
We flew in from Bali.
So the airfare will be most relevant for those flying from Southeast Asia. The rest of the expenses can be used as a solid benchmark.
✈️ Flights
97,750₽ for two ($1,150)
These were tickets for Bali - Tokyo, Osaka - Bali.
🏨 Hotels
We spent about 99,000₽ ($1,165) on accommodation
Tokyo - 44,500₽ (14,800₽ ($174)/night)
Kyoto - 30,165₽ (15,080₽ ($177)/night)
Fujiyoshida - 12,250₽ ($144)
Osaka - 12,200₽ ($143.50)
This is where the biggest surprise awaited us.
We went right after cherry blossom season, hoping the tourist crowds would thin out and prices would drop a bit.
But this summer, I checked the prices for the exact same hotels on Trip.com again.
Most of them were going for just 3.5-4.5 thousand rubles ($44-56) a night instead of our 12-15 thousand ($144-180).
A 3-4x price difference!😨
So if catching the cherry blossoms isn't a dealbreaker for you, picking the right season can save you a pretty penny (I have a separate post on when to go).
🚄 Transport
We spent 29,300₽ ($344) on all our travel within Japan.
And that was without the JR Pass.
Before the trip, I ran the numbers several times to see if it was worth buying. In the end, two JR Passes would have cost more than booking all our tickets individually.
If you have a similar itinerary (more details in a post on my profile), I highly recommend calculating the cost of regular tickets first before making a decision.
🍜 Food
We spent ~38,000₽ ($447) in a week.
We didn't budget strictly, but we didn't eat at pricey restaurants either.
We had breakfast at Denny’s, lunched at small cafes, and sometimes grabbed ready-to-eat meals from 7-Eleven.
By the way, Japanese konbini (convenience stores) turned out to be way more exciting than I expected😍.
You can easily put together a full meal there for a very reasonable price.
At the very least, you have to try the strawberry sandwiches at 7/11🤤🤤🤤
💰 What was the total?
For a week for two:
≈ 264,000₽
or about $3,100 at the exchange rate at the time.
If you subtract the international flights, the actual Japan trip came out to about:
166,500₽ for two (~ $1,950)
That’s roughly 83,000 rubles (under $1,000) per person for a week.
How much should you budget for the trip?
If you're not flying during peak season, I'd aim for roughly these amounts, excluding international flights:
💰 Budget-friendly
From 60,000-70,000₽ ($875) per person a week.
💰 Comfortable, like our trip
Around 80,000-100,000₽ ($1,250) per person.
💰 If you want upscale hotels, more entertainment, and dining, the budget is truly the limit)
The most unexpected discovery after the trip was just how drastically the season affects your bottom line.
We purposely went after the main cherry blossom bloom to dodge the massive crowds and inflated prices.
But accommodation still ended up being our biggest expense.