It was another early start in Hiroshima as we pulled into Hiroshima Station at 6am. Knowing it was too early to even store our bags at our guesthouse we looked for the nearest Starbucks to satiate our caffeine cravings. Unfortunately for us the Starbucks wasn’t due to open till 7am (second time in Japan this had been an issue) so it was a whole hour of standing around before we could even find somewhere to sit down. We surfed the net and caffeinated for an hour before setting out on the 3km walk to our guesthouse. For 2 people who have always claimed not to be hikers we were getting pretty good at walking with our packs in ever increasingly large increments. Lucky for us our guesthouse, Casa Viento (¥4170/$50.55 AUD/38.10 USD per night for a studio apartment) were willing to store our bags for the day (we were staying in an apartment so we weren’t sure this would be the case) and at 8.30am they opened the doors with big smiles and let us know that we could check in earlier and they’d put our bags in our room for us as soon as the room was clean and ready. This still left us with quite a few hours so we headed into the centre of Hiroshima to start exploring. We saw the Atomic Bomb Dome from a mile away in such a stark contrast to the modern skyline that surrounded it. Interestingly though, there was a real sense of peace in the air and the dome was framed across the river by branches of cherry blossoms just starting to bloom. Hiroshima is a city I have felt I needed to visit since I read a book called Hiroshima No Pika when I was a kid. It was a children’s picture book about what happened on August 6th 1945 and the story has stuck with me my whole life. Arriving at the Peace Park and seeing the dome it brings a sense of reality to what happened but also the beauty of the memorial and the real sense of forgiveness you get. The Peace Park has a number of things to check out from the incredibly moving museum (I’m not going to lie I shed more than a few tears), the cenotaph dedicated to the victims, the peace bell, the children’s monument where people donate thousands of paper cranes and the hall of remembrance. Despite being knackered we didn’t leave the Peace Park until 3pm after having walked for hours. We probably could have stayed longer but our weary legs wouldn’t carry us and we stumbled back to our apartment. The next morning we decided to head back to the centre of town and because it was a Sunday we thought we’d check out the once weekly samurai show on at Hiroshima Castle. The grounds of Hiroshima Castle are free and on Sundays at 1pm and 3pm there is the most entertaining (in one of those 90’s romcom kind of ways) free performance which is somewhere between samurai/ninjas meets the Backstreet Boys. Totally worth it, if not only to check out the groupies who know all the words and actions to the songs. The grounds of this castle are really pretty and would be a nice spot for a picnic. We were also lucky enough to be there just as the cherry blossoms were really starting to bloom and even as two people who aren’t that into flowers, we were starting to understand the giddiness of all the Japanese people around us when walking under all the sakura suddenly bursting into life. It really is a beautiful sight that does feel just a little bit magical. Hiroshima was quickly becoming our favourite city in Japan. It’s strange the feeling of peace you get there. I think Dani and I were kind of expecting a very sad and dark vibe due to the nature of what happened there. We had been to Auschwitz a few years prior and there is a feeling of despair in the air there and we both thought Hiroshima would perpetuate but it was completely different. Contrary to the despair of Auschwitz there was a feeling of hope, peacefulness and tranquillity that abounded throughout the city. Our final full day it was time to check out Miyajima Island, which involved a tram to the ferry and then ferry to the island. Worth noting is that you can get a tram+ferry pass for the day which costs ¥820 ($10 AUD/7.50 USD) and gives you unlimited tram rides as well as a return ticket on the ferry. If you already have a JR pass though there is a train to the ferry terminal and a JR ferry you can catch all included in the price of the pass. There is plenty to do on Miyajima but the major attraction is the Itsukushima Shrine and its Inari gate. You don’t have to enter the shrine to see the gate but it is best to time your visit with the tide being in so that the gate appears to be floating on water (tide times can be got beforehand on the internet to ensure you’re there at the best point). While there, you can also check out the world’s largest rice spoon, which is worth a funny picture. Apart from this Miyajima is just pretty to walk around. It has a traditional setting although all the shops now sell generic souvenirs and there are good snacks to try as well. I’d say you only need to spend half a day on Miyajima unless you’re going to go up the mountain which you can either walk or take the cable car up. The weather the day we went wasn’t great, so we chose to give this a miss. We were sad to be leaving Hiroshima, as despite it being true about there not being a lot to do it had really captured us with its vibe and we could have easily just hung out there for a few more days. At this stage we were leaving Honshu and were going to be entering Kyushu, known for its thermal and volcanic activity. I hadn’t been able to find any information online about buses from Hiroshima to Fukuoka but it turns out it was really easy to get from one to the other. It cost ¥4150 ($50.65 AUD/38.15 USD) to get to Fukuoka’s Hakata Station from Hiroshima and was completely direct. It was here we checked into one of the worst hostels we’ve ever stayed in anywhere in the world. We are fairly tolerant when it comes to basic cheap accommodation (we once had to choose between proper flooring and window with panes of glass in Ecuador and in hindsight flooring should really be more of a priority) but in a country that prides itself on cleanliness, when is it ok to not change sheets between guests and just lint roll them instead..?! I am not kidding and the worst thing is we had already slept in someone/many someone elses skin cells and sweat for a night before we discovered this. Not only this, but some of the people we were sharing the dorm with had some of the worst hygiene habits of almost any people we’d ever encountered! I woke up to find a used sanitary napkin stuck above my head from the girl in the bunk beside me…I wish I was joking about this! We made the decision that we were too old for dorms now and after seeing out the dorm reservation we had made for a few weeks time, from that point on we were paying the extra for privacy and the guarantee of only each others questionable hygiene levels. Fukuoka itself is a strange city. It doesn’t have a lot to offer tourists but it can be used as a good base to see other things around the island. We hadn’t really done our research properly though because we had decided to use it for day trips to Kumamoto and Aso or Kagoshima. However, Kumamoto castle was heavily damaged in an earthquake in 2016 and Aso and Kagoshima were currently erupting in a way that made them a little too dangerous to visit (not if you were in Nicaragua). This meant we had a few days to enjoy the cherry blossoms, eat as much Matsuya as we could handle as we were about to loose it and chill out. We did find one day trip that we think was highly worth it and that was the trip to Yanagawa and Dazaifu that you can get a package for ¥2930 ($35.75 AUD/26.95 USD) which is transport on the train, shuttle to the boat trips and a boat trip around Yanagawa as well as vouchers for discounts on local delicacies. Dazaifu turned out to be our favourite location on this pass and it was only really a side thought to our Yanagawa trip. Dazaifu is a pretty little town with some beautiful temples and shrines to wander around. If you find yourself in Fukuoka needing something to do even if you don’t want to go on the Yanagawa boat trip through the canals I would recommend a trip to Dazaifu which isn’t far on the train. The other thing to do in Fukuoka is the Asahi Beer Factory tour, which like the Kirin Tour we did in Yokohama is free. In this free tour you also get 3 glasses of beer to try and in the spirit of responsible drinking (the tour guide actually said this) you have to down these glasses in 20 minutes. It is a great way to get a little merry while drinking some great beer for free in Japan. Grateful to be leaving behind the awful dorm we jumped on our bus to our last destination in mainland Japan. Nagasaki is a short journey away on the bus (¥4115/$50.20 AUD/37.85 USD return to Fukuoka) and curious about the city that was hit by the second atomic bomb we decided this would be a good stop. Nagasaki is a strange little place. Set in a valley a thin strip of city winds its way through the hills. We had found another AirBnB close to the Nagasaki Peace Park, which is worth checking out. The museum here is also incredibly touching and very well thought out. Other than these things there isn’t really a lot to do so we spent our time eating great food and drinking good Japanese beer (we’d highly recommend Asahi Clear as a cheaper delicious alternative to Asahi Dry). We had a flight to catch from Fukuoka to Okinawa and lucky for us there is actually a bus from Nagasaki to Fukuoka airport. Okinawa is a very different part of Japan. We came in quite late and settled into our Hostel Inn Grace Naha ($44.70 AUD/33.70 USD/¥3685). We had booked 2 nights in the centre of town due to our late arrival and then 5 nights in an AirBnB further out. Deciding to make the most of our one full day in the centre we walked the main strip, which is sadly full of tourist shops each almost identical to the next. In saying that Okinawa doesn’t really feel like Japan. It may be all the Americans, it may be the tropical climate, I’m not really sure what it is but it feels different. It is also the poorest district in Japan and that shows in the level of how run down it is. Again though before booking we hadn’t done enough research into Okinawa and on the ground we were faced with a very expensive decision. The reason one goes to Okinawa is to visit the surrounding islands which really do look like tropical paradise however as the accommodation on those islands had been so expensive we had decided to day trip it instead. The problem came when we were on Okinawa itself and discovered just how expensive the ferries to the islands are. They aren’t really worth it if you’re only doing a day trip, but to stay is so expensive…it was a catch 22 we weren’t really ready for having booked to stay for a week. Having seen just about all Naha had to offer we were starting to wonder if we had made a very expensive mistake by coming here. It turns out that there are places to go they are just not that easy to get to. I think to really experience the best of Okinawa you need to have the money to do it and it really isn’t a backpacker destination. We did find some reasonably priced snorkelling trips to the islands but unfortunately for us they cancelled our trip and it was on our last day there so we can’t tell you if they’re worth it but it is definitely an option. We also took a bus to American Village and Sunset Beach, which is probably the closest pretty beach to Naha itself. American Village is a little strange but it has a cool ferris wheel on the top of the mall that gives you some pretty views and there are some fun shops to wander around.
We also booked to do a cooking class with Taste of Okinawa (price), which was wonderful as we were able to learn a bit about the difference in culture between the mainland and this little group of islands and how that impacted the food. Okinawa has it’s own vibe and is quite different to mainland Japan I’m not sure it’s as Taiwanese as people say it is either. All in all we’re glad we went as it certainly gave us a wider view of the range of things on offer in Japan. It was time to say goodbye to Japan after 6 amazing weeks of wonderful and weird. From snow-capped mountains to tropical islands Japan has it all. I can’t say we loved every minute because traveling Japan on a budget can be hard work but it was always worth it. Japan is a fantastic country full of weird and wonderful surprises, ultra modern cities and ancient temples. Coupled with a wonderful cuisine Japan has it all. Best of all it is accessible on a budget as long as you are willing to work for it.
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Awaiting us in Yuzawa were 2 smiling, waving friends, which felt so nice in a country as alien (in a good way) as Japan. It was going to be great spending 2 days with people who would be able to help us navigate and understand Japan a little better. Yuzawa is a mountain resort town, so unless you’re into skiing, there’s not much on offer. This being said, it’s a beautiful place and has some great onsen (that are used to and accepting of tattooed foreigners). Our first day was spent visiting a sake factory in the afternoon and then at an onsen set at the base of a mountain in the early evening. It was magical; soaking in the steaming bath while the snow fell around us (this is however after the initial awkwardness of being naked with complete strangers – not something most westerners are used to!). We were then up early the next morning ready to head to Nagano to see the snow monkeys. Miho (one of our hosts) had made us a delicious breakfast of homemade rice balls, rolled omelette (which she taught me how to make!) and miso soup. Heartily fed, we set off on what may have been one of the most beautiful drives of the trip. Snow-capped mountains, little villages, evergreen pines covered in snow...it was stunning. All this, before arriving at a place Dani and I had been dreaming about since we met Canadian friends of ours 5 years earlier in Laos who showed us their pictures of these gorgeous fluffy monkeys bathing in hot springs to warm up in the snow. It did not disappoint. The monkeys were as cute and fluffy up close and not even a little bit phased by the people around. It was well worth the effort to get there (we were lucky enough to get a ride one way but having done the journey in reverse it’s not a cheap or easy place to get to as it requires a Shinkasen from Tokyo Ueno Station to Nagano then an electric train to Yudanaka). After a delicious lunch of soba noodles we had to bid farewell to Miho and Yu with promises of seeing them again in New Zealand. In Yamanouchi (the onsen town nearest to the snow monkey park) we had decided to splash out a little on staying in a ryokan that we had found on AirBnB. As it was the cheapest ryokan in the area we should have guessed it wouldn’t live up to expectations but just how disappointing it was upset us. I guess we had expected a level of cleanliness in Japan that we actually learnt wasn’t the case in a lot of hostels as they cut corners and costs by using volunteers rather than paid staff who aren’t invested in the business or it’s customers. It meant we ended up paying twice the price of somewhere else to sleep on the floor in a room covered in creepy crawlies, with half a bathroom, and a sink that had been dismantled and was dripping brown slime from the hair clogging the pipe into a bowl on the floor. Needless to say it wasn’t our favourite accommodation in Japan! The town of Yamanouchi itself was pretty enough and we didn’t dislike our day there after the snow monkeys, but given the opportunity again we wouldn’t bother staying there for a night. A better alternative probably would have been a night in Nagano as this is relatively quick and easy to get to from the snow monkey park. Upon returning to Tokyo we were actually going to stay with a friend in Matsudo, which is sort of part of Tokyo, sort of not. Again, luckily for us. our friend Natsuki had kindly offered to pick us up from Oomiya station so all we had to do was make it there. Easy right? Well as you may have already gathered Japan is expensive so to save a few hundred yen (it does make a difference when breakfast only costs ¥400/$4.80 AUD/3.65 USD) we walked the 2.5km to the train station instead of taking the bus. The train being your only option to Nagano means that it costs ¥1260/$15.20 AUD/11.50 USD (as they can basically charge what they want) and then you can take the shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo. The Nagano Dentetsu line is a private line so cannot be taken with any JR pass but the train from Nagano to Tokyo is covered by both the JR pass and JR East pass (see post about ‘How we beat the JR pass’). Staying in Matsudo meant we got a different perspective on life in bustling a metropolis. It is still as quiet and orderly but there seems to be more space and the people seem less…intense! We had a great night out with Natsuki and her friends on our first night and Dani finally got to achieve another food goal of eating chicken sashimi (yes she really did eat raw chicken...and survived). Natsuki being a nurse, had to work on the other days of our stay but it really gave me a better insight into nursing in Japan (honestly, nursing friends look into the expectations of nurses in Japan, we should count ourselves lucky in Australia and NZ...sorry UK I still think you guys may have it the worst because they still pay you well in Japan). On our first full day back in the Tokyo area, we decided to head to Yokohama via the Tokyo Fish Market. We arrived at the fish market and wandered the stalls noting that this didn’t look much like what we were expecting at all. The samples of snacks were fantastic and we sampled our away around but it turns out we never did make it to the heart of the fish market where the tuna auctions are held. I’m not sure why we didn’t find it but if you’re heading to the fish market make sure you don’t make the mistake of thinking the stalls outside are it. Having eaten all of the snacks we headed back to Yurakucho station but made a little detour to the basement entrance to the nearby metro line to geek out over the home of Jiro’s Sushi (If you don’t know who this is he’s an 80 year old sushi chef who has a Michelin stared restaurant in a metro station. You can watch a fantastic documentary about him that we saw on a trip to Adelaide years ago called Jiro Dreams of Sushi). Standing outside and listening carefully we could hear the kitchen prep going on but unfortunately it was closed so that was as close as we were going to get to a Jiro experience! Next stop on our day trip was the Kirin Beer Factory. We had found out online that you could do a free brewery tour after which you could try the beer for free. This turned out to be a great trip because not only is the tour really well done (they give you an English translation guide) but they give you 3 glasses of free beer and a snack at the end! When do you ever get to drink for free…let alone free in a country as expensive as Japan?! We would both highly recommend this tour if you’re heading to Yokohama. It’s a 15-minute walk from Shin-Koyasu station and you just head in a put your name down for the next available tour. Sufficiently tipsy we headed for our final stop of the day the Ramen Museum (¥300/$3.60 AUD/2.75 USD pp). This was fast shaping up as a day of great discovery and also a day of great mistakes. Having missed the centre of the fish market that morning and having only had snacks to eat we were starving. Mistaking the Ramen Museum for an actual museum we thought we’d stop at Matsuya on the way. It turns on out the museum is more like a food court of all the ramen varieties found around Japan in a room that has been made to look like a street in Tokyo in the 1930s. Because we had already eaten this made this stop a little redundant as we had no desire to sample any of the wonderful looking ramens, but it was fun to wander around anyway.
We had plans the next day to meet up with another friend Noriko in the kitchen district of Tokyo, Kappabashi. Kappabashi is where all restaurants and chefs go to buy all their equipment at wholesale prices...If you’re wanting to pick up anything kitchen related in Japan this is where you need to come. Having emptied our bags of Central American souvenirs in Taiwan we made the mistake of believing we should fill all free space. This means I’m now the proud owner of a rectangular pan for rolled omelettes, cooking chopsticks, a thermos, tongs and a fish slice with my favourite character Gudetama on them and Dani needed (yes needed) the sushi covered green tea cup. This place was amazing but very dangerous when it comes to packing. After wandering the length of the area and bankrupting ourselves in the process, it was an easy walk to Asakusa, which is known as Old Tokyo. It’s pretty there, but rammed with people, which takes away slightly from what I’m guessing is a really nice area when you can see it! On our last full day in Tokyo we decided to have a planning day. This may confuse most but those of you long term travellers will understand not only the need for a rest day but also that it takes a lot of time and effort to budget backpack. We had a night bus booked for later that night so we thought it would be good to chill before the 2 hour long trek across Tokyo to catch the bus to Osaka (¥4500/$54.30 AUD/41.10 USD). After 2 weeks of dipping in and out of Tokyo it was time to head down to the more historic part of the country (The buses around Japan were definitely a huge money saving tip that we learnt from other travel bloggers. They are extremely comfortable, much cheaper than the trains and can save you a night of accommodation in some cases). We arrived into Haneda after midnight, tired and ready for bed. Immigration printed our entrance stamps and we were waved through. Desperate to catch the 1.40am bus to our hotel, we were mildly irritated when the customs officials decided to thoroughly check both our bags, but luckily we still made it onto the bus…just! Tip number one for Japan (specifically Haneda), try not to arrive after midnight as they have no public transport after 12am and the private buses are expensive. We paid ¥800 ($9.65 AUD/7.30 USD) each for a 5 minute bus journey! We’d booked ourselves into a fancy hotel by the airport because it was cheaper (including the bus) than catching a cab to Tokyo Disney which was our first stop in Japan. Hotel Relief Premium was amazing and we really wish we’d been able to stay longer but at $86.95 AUD (¥7,130/$66.70 USD) a night we couldn’t really justify it. However, if you’re looking for a reasonably priced (for Japan) airport hotel next to Haneda airport (don’t mistake it for Narita airport) this one was great. The following morning we got ready to make the cross Tokyo journey to Disney. Now, having taken the advice of other backpackers in Japan we had decided against getting a Japan Rail Pass, which meant having to plan our journeys quite carefully. It was on day one I discovered the massive difference that walking to a alternative station could make to the price of a journey. Worth noting that JR trains cross-country are often really expensive but inner city they are often the cheapest option. On our first day I discovered if we walked 2km to a different station it would save us over ¥500 each which is actually enough to buy you breakfast. The walking with backpacks isn’t for everyone but we thought we’d just see if we could get there and if not we’d jump on the metro line to the station. This became a common theme during our time in Japan...”we’ll just see how far we can walk and if it’s too much we’ll get on the train” (we didn’t take the transport option once in 6 weeks). Crossing Tokyo was surprisingly easy given its reputation. We also noticed almost immediately how clean and quiet it was. Here we were in one of the busiest cities in the world and you could literally hear a pin drop! As I had spent my 30th birthday at Disney California it only felt fitting that as a belated birthday treat, Dani got to go to Tokyo Disney. Having had the full Disney experience in California we decided we could book the cheaper and more grown up version this time...the Robot Hotel! (Henn Na Hotel Maihama Tokyo). This is about a 20 minute walk from Disney and, if you book in advance, better value than the Disney Resort Hotels. In saying this, it is not within our or anyone’s ‘backpack Japan budgets. For this reason and because it was a birthday treat we had a separate Disney budget’. Good to know though is that Tokyo Disney is actually cheaper to visit than it’s American and European counterparts. We weren’t heading to the parks until the next day so we decided to pop to 7-Eleven for some snacks before we could check into our hotel. We soon discovered that the snacks we had been led to believe were cheap in Japan such as rice balls were actually pretty expensive and the cost would really add up quickly if you were trying to make a meal. Luckily for us it was this day that we discovered what would become our staple all through Japan...Matsuya. Matsuya is a fast food chain that does mainly rice bowls and they’re delicious. We discovered we could easily get a good meal there for around ¥1000 ($12.20 AUD/9.35 USD) for both of us and at breakfast they have a set that includes a bowl of rice, an egg, a sausage, salad, nori and a side of your choice (tofu for me and beef for Dani) for ¥400 ($4.85 AUD/3.75 USD) for one. This was by far the best value meal we had in Japan and actually made it possible for us to stick to any kind of budget. I won’t bore you with details of our Disney trip if you want tips on Disney (prices, how to beat the queues etc) check it out here. After 4 wonderful nights in our Robot Hotel we were ready to tackle Japan. I had mapped out the cheapest route to our hostel and it would involve another 2km walk and a change at Tokyo station. Yet again it was surprisingly easy to change lines, find our way around Tokyo station and get to our hostel contrary to what we had both been led to believe about the busyness and potential chaos of Tokyo. Our first full day we had decided to head to Kamakura and for once, transport wise this looked like it was going to work out in our favour. There was a JR train going all the way from our hostel stop to Kamakura. There are 2 stations in Kamakura, the first being Kita-Kamakura which, is where we got off to visit Kenchoji temple (¥500/$6 AUD/4.55 USD). This turned out to be our favourite temple in Kamakura and although we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji from the top of the hill when we were there, it’s better if you arrive earlier in the day (we were there at midday) for the best chance. From here we walked to Hokokuji bamboo grove (¥200/$2.40 AUD/1.80 USD). Although smaller than its Kyoto counterpart it’s actually in our opinion more magical because it is quieter and you can actually walk through the bamboo. The adjoining gardens are also full of beautiful plants and flowers, making it a very worthwhile stop. Our final stop was to walk to Kamakura main town in search of the Buddha (¥200/$2.40 AUD/1.80 USD) at Kotoku-in. The statue is large but I feel we have been spoilt by other large Buddhas we’ve been lucky enough to see, so if you’ve travelled SE Asia you may want to skip this one. It’s a long day of walking if you’re doing it on foot but Kamakura is definitely worth the day trip. Tokyo has a lot to offer and is actually many villages that have been lumped together and given the name Tokyo, which literally translates as east capital. This means that there is a vast difference between areas. Obviously we had to do some proper exploring and our first stop was Shibuya, famed for the world’s busiest cross walk. Lucky for us we managed to walk across relatively unscathed because there were fewer people out at 11am on a rainy midweek day. Also popular in this area is high-end shopping, not something either of us have a particular interest in, so we just wandered through on our way to Harajuku. This is the area that you’ll see in your mind when you think of ‘cutesy’ Japan. It’s where you can purchase all your Hello Kitty merchandise, pick up food that is more suitable for a picture on Instagram than for consumption and play with a variety of animals while sipping on strawberry lattes with your face printed on. In short, it’s where all your weird Japanese fantasies can come true. I could have spent hours there people watching but unfortunately the rain wouldn’t let up, so, cold and wet we admitted defeat and headed back to the hostel after about an hour of solid rain and solid weird.
The last area we decided to explore before taking a break from Tokyo in the mountains was Akihabara. This is the area that all the eccentric Japanese gamer geeks hang out. This is postcard Tokyo...the flashing billboards, maid cafes, manga and anime everywhere. We thought the best way to get to know this area was by walking tour. We signed up for Tokyo Localized Free Walking Tour and got a great guide Hiroshi who splits his time evenly between L.A. and Tokyo giving him the greatest mix of mannerisms. As a good way to learn about some of the eccentricity of Japan and get a good in-depth look around one of its many districts, we can highly recommend this tour. After our day in Akihabara, it was time for a break from all the weird and wonderful Tokyo provides, so we set of to see some friends in Yuzawa. To JR or not to JR?! That is the question…Historically the JR pass has been the absolute ‘go to’ for people planning exploritative travel around Japan. Being offered in 1, 2 and 3-week increments they are pretty comprehensive and all of the information about them will tell you that you can pay off the cost of the pass in as little as two train journeys. While this can certainly be the case, it is not quite as clear-cut as that, as JR train travel is absolutely not your only option to get around Japan. The JR pass is definitely a worthwhile consideration if you plan on moving regularly around the country over a set amount of time. In addition, it makes things a lot easier with much less planning and preparation needed on the ground to get around. It is also almost unquestionably the most efficient way to navigate around. If ease and efficiency are your primary focus when visiting Japan then there is little argument I can make against acquiring a JR pass. Having said that, if you’re willing to put in the effort both in terms of planning and executing journeys you can travel around the country a lot cheaper using buses and alternative train routes/companies. In many ways the countrywide JR passes are great, but the do limit you exclusively to JR trains ONLY and there are a huge range of other train, bus and boat options available. Furthermore, in places like Osaka and Kyoto they are completely useless in terms of local transport. A lot of people travel to Japan and buy a JR pass believing this is all they will need to pay for all transport for the whole time they are in the country and 99% of the time this is just not the case. We carefully considered and eventually vetoed the JR Pass for our recent 6-week trip to Japan, which turned out to be a very wise choice! These are the three most effective methods we used to ‘beat’ it!
Overall, a combination of these methods proved to be massively effective for us. To put this potential saving into real perspective for you, here’s a little glimpse at some final facts. We were in Japan for 6 weeks (41 days) in total and we went all the way from Tokyo down to Okinawa Island in that time. Our TOTAL travel costs for entire time in Japan including local and intercity buses/trains/trams etc and a flight from Fukuoka to Okinawa: ¥50,992pp ($619.25AUD/$465.10USD) vs 3 week JR rail pass ONLY: ¥70,000pp ($849AUD/$639.89USD) I’m not gonna lie and say it was easy to achieve that, but it is possible. We didn’t hitchhike anywhere, we didn’t steal a car and we didn’t hide out in train toilets to avoid paying. We did plan meticulously and we did walk...a lot...but the numbers speak for themselves. It was worth it! Other money saving tips…
By using all of these hints, tricks and methods combined we managed to do absolutely everything we wanted to do in Japan, visit everywhere we wanted to go and see everything we wanted to see. We went in with what we believed to be a bit of an optimistic budget of $130AUD (¥10,650/$100USD) per day for two people. At the end of the trip we came in at $121.36AUD (¥9,943/$91.15USD). Japan on a budget DOES exist! What it actually cost: $4,368.85 AUD for 36 days (We spent 5 days at Disney which was a separate budget). Transport: $1238.51 Accommodation: $1226.76 Entertainment: $557.37 Drinks: $155.68 Souvenirs: $82.47 Miscellaneous: $79.38 This works out at $60.67 AUD ($45.70 USD) per person per day, which is well under the $100 USD that the lonely planet recommends. |
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