I just gave a "Like" to increment the count from 999 to 1K. The point about commission fees and bad rates by currency exchanges are true. It's best to withdraw money from an ATM that links to your bank account via a network given on your card, such as Star and Cirrus. I've had a small fee of $1 or $2 when I did this in Australia, and the exchange rate was very close to the value in big money market exchanges. I withdrew my max limit (US$500) to eliminate the fees of multiple withdrawals. Cash withdrawal on a credit card is the worst option, as high fees and interest rates are applied immediately.
When we went to Japan this year we just bought one way tickets from the ticket dispenser machines whenever we took the train, and for the most part that worked just fine.
i am going to japan next month on my birthday and these are amazing tips thank you so much!! especially,buying tickets ahead thing i will definitely start planning that now as well!!
To add to point 5 - Good option if you want to try the traditional japanese breakfast for pretty cheap you can go to Yayoiken, it is a chain and they serve nattou, rice, miso soup and fish set for under 500 yen if I remember correctly In case of transport, one thing to keep in mind is that public transport stops around midnight so if you arrive to the airport late you might have no other option than to take a taxi or stay at airport hotel (or around the terminal). I remember spending around an hour at 1AM waiting in line for taxi at Haneda and paying like 12k yen to get to Akihabara (luckily split between 3 of us). In terms of food, while convenience stores might seem like a cheaper alternative to restaurants it is not always the case. Chains like Yoshinoya or Matsuya you can get beef bowl starting at 500 yen which is around the price of convenience store sandwich + onigiri
first year stayed in shibuya tokyo, this year im staying else where thats less touristy and saw there was was a thrift store a 5 minute walk away. im excited for that
Found the Sugamo (/Otsuka) area on the Yamanote line on my 8th stay in Tokyo. Best place I've stayed. REAL local vibe, quieter, cheaper restaurants and shops, thrifts, street market 3-times each month, JR rail, Subway and Sakura Tram. The hustle and bustle of Tokyo is only a few stations either direction without being constantly in it. Sugamo #1 👍
A good rule of thumb is a 7 day JR pass before the price rise was equivalent to 1 return trip between Tokyo and Osaka on the Tokaido Shinkansen. Now over one and a half return trips before its worth it. (eg: Tokyo -> Osaka -> Tokyo -> Osaka and a bit more), which most tourists don't do. However, if you are planning to travel long distances extensively by train the JR pass may still be worth it, so you need to compare before deciding now. The extra charge is for the Nozomi (or Mizuho on the Sanyo Shinkansen). For tourist purposes, the Hikari is only a little bit slower and there's no extra charge for JR pass users on that train.
Good ideas here! I usually only do All You Can Eat restaurants if it's a new cuisine type that I want to try because I'm not familiar with the dishes enough to order a full meal.
I'm travelling around the country at the moment and it looks like the tax free sale value has increased to Y5500. Also, if you're looking to save on evening meals, don't bother with a desert. Seems that most restaurants have a very limited selection anyway. Stop off at a convenience store and pick one up from there. Most of the puddings are awesome and are less than Y200. And they will give you a spoon if you don't have one.
Good to know! Another thing I would add is about transportation. I think bus are generally cheaper than train. And if you prefer train then try comparing different company. JR is the most expensive in my experience. Correct me if I'm wrong!
Here's how I saved costs on my recent trip: 1. I booked all my hotels more than a month before the trip. I did the occasional review to see if cheaper prices came up until about a week before my trip; 2. Since I like to cover a wide area, I used a JR pass to travel from Hokkaido to Tokyo over 2 weeks; 3. I looked for local 'day pass' options, like in Chiba where I stayed (instead of Tokyo, to save costs), they had a day pass for the monorail; 4. I went to the Tourist Information offices at the train stations, and sometimes they recommended a bus/entrance combo ticket to save money to certain places of interest; 5. I ate out at the supermarkets and konbini a lot lol; 6. I booked some hotels that had breakfast included; 6. I didn't buy drinks often from vending machines, I looked for supermarkets or even Daiso or Don Quijote, for cheaper prices; 7. I used a JR Pass, like previous trips. I was able to save at least $200 Canadian overall in ticket prices using it, even used it on a bus in Tohoku that was run by JR.
Surprised you managed to save money buying a JR pass considering it now almost never worth it after the price rise from last year (80,000 Yen for a 2 week pass). A return journey from Tokyo to Sapporo on the Shinkansen is 60,000 Yen. And you used roughly another 40,000 Yen worth of trains/buses within that two week period (as you said you saved 200 CAD)?
@@marcbridson2773 Yes. I took the Green Class pass, and always made sure to book those where possible. I went up to Asahikawa, made my way down through Aomori, Yamagata, and used the Narita Express between Tokyo and Chiba when I was in that area. There was also an added bonus of the Tohoku Bus from Aomori station, that was run by JR, so I used my pass on there too.
Suica card is literally just a digital wallet. you need to top it up. JR pass is promotional offering for using transportation service within JR company. you need to look it up for the detail and very important if you plan to use it.
I've been 3 times now and been up to Hokkaido and down to Kyushu all over and never seen a supermarket at all, just Konbinis, Don Quixote and the like...maybe they're in suburban areas or I'm walking past them in the big cities!
It depends on where you are exactly. And Don Quixote can often act as close enough in a lot of cases. Some areas have nothing. And some areas have stuff like MyBasket which is something sort of between a conbini and supermarket. Super downtown they can be hard to find. But just as an example, there's a Seiyuu UNDER the Rox Building, right in the middle of the NW section of the tourist district of Asakusa, about 100 meters from the DQ. And I was just staying out of there for a while, so I know there's an Ozeki as well as the MyBasket. These sorts of things have pretty good coverage. It's just hard to find stuff like that right on top of Shinjuku, Shibuya, Akihabara, Ueno, etc. Even the small urban grocery stores like MyBasket take a relatively large amount of space and are a low margin, so you'll find a lot more of them a station or so away from the big stations. Though some of the department stores technically have a grocery store connected to them. eg, B1 will be all the fancy specialty foods and B2 might be a grocery. So yeah, you're probably walking past them. They're either fairly small or B1 or B2 downtown. Gotta watch for signs.
If you are looking for an inexpensive meal, try the hospital shop. Motor fuel, petrol/diesel, is cheaper is more expensive in some prefectures than others. As example, in Gunma prefecture, regular can be down to 161 yen per litre. The car wash is 200 yen for a basic wash. Jack, the Japan Alps Brit
Why would tourists care about fuel costs? 99% of tourists do not drive in Japan. There are plenty of inexpensive and decent food options like supermarkets. There's no need to eat in a hospital 🤣
@@octopussiithere has been reports of Visa Cards and certain credit/debit cards not working with Smart EX, due to the cards being from outside Japan. I had issues with mine as well.
We were 2,5 weeks in Japan in September 2024, and I felt we paid a lot of money for the JRail pass. I did like that the shinkansen was included, but in the end for locals trains for me it was the most useful in Tokyo. In Osaka, Kamakura, Hakone, Gotemba, Kyoto and Nagoya I felt we barely used it. I'll be going back to Japan in 2025 in March for 10 days and was wondering if buying the JRail pass will be worth it this time around. I'll mainly be in Kitakyushu and travel back and forth between the major cities in Kuyshu (and land/leave Japan from Osaka). Just want to avoid wasting money on transport this time around. Any tips are welcome :)
JR pass is hardly ever worth it anymore. You might consider a couple of the regional passes. There is a Kyuushuu pass. And, while the price also increased somewhat recently, there are two similar passes that cover the area between Osaka and Fukuoka. If you are interested in stopping by Hiroshima or part of the inland sea one of these passes may work out for you. JR one week pass is 50000 yen. One week Setouchi pass is the JR from Osaka to Hakata for 22000 yen. There's also the Sanyo Sanin pass which is a similar but slightly different zone for 23000 yen (covers more to the north and less of Shikoku. Because of the way JR West is set up... basically infringing upon JR Kyuushuu's region because it owns the shinkansen tracks from Osaka to Hakata, it ends up still being pretty easy to justify so long as you want to go to both Osaka and Kyuushuu.
I've long thought that they should offer a 10 day pass... but they don't. So if you can't go both ways on a 7-day pass it's much harder to justify. eg, it probably is worth getting if you spend 3 days in Osaka/Kyoto/Nara and then go to Kyuushuu, and make the trip back to Osaka before pass expires. The one way price Osaka to Hakata is 16000 yen so even if you just use it to go back and forth the regional pass should pay for itself- again, if you can actually just go back and forth. If you only go one way it'd be paying 22000 for something you could have bought for 16000.
@@redfish337 Wow. thanks for the information. This time the trip is with a focus on visiting Japanese friends more than seeing the typical tourist places as this, so I have no immediate plans to go 'east' towards Tokyo but only maybe a SMALL stop in Nagoya but that isn't even sure yet. Those 10-11 days would be mostly just landing in Osaka, maybe be there depending when and where I meet people and then haul south to Kyushu, maybe Hiroshima or Nagasaka and be around Kitakyushu mostly. And well, eventually return to Osaka as my inbound and outbound flight is from that airport. I appreciate the insight as I was so surprised how much more expensive the JR pass has become these last 10 years!!!
@@celinevanruyskensvelde7448 It hasn't been increasing slowly over the years... they just suddenly made it nearly uselessly expensive a year or two ago. Basically trying to take advantage of the exchange rate. But the single trip tickets still cost the same, so it now makes the usually but not always useful JR pass usually but not always a waste. I've often joked that Japan's solution to too many tourists in Tokyo and Kyoto is making sure they can't go anywhere else by doing stuff like making JR pass cost more. Japan would eaaaaassily handle the increase of tourists if they would encourage more of them to spend less time in Tokyo/Kyoto and instead visit Nagoya, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Nagasaki, Kobe, Kanazawa, Okayama, etc.
Hi we will be in Japan in may.staying at Godzilla hotel.We want to do the Grand Bullet train. So we can book tickets for the UK. Thank you Chris and kitty Liverpool England.
Yes, bring your passport, as its info is needed for the paperwork. Too many folks tell visitors to lock up their passports in the hotel safe. I carry mine whenever I'm outside the US.
I am planning to widraw money from ATM, however i already have 500 USD on cash, do you know the best place to exchange? (for those wondering, USD is not used in my country)
@@imalinski Thank you, i will use them to widraw. I remember seeing some youtuber saying that 7eleven also have a machine that exchange money, but nothing about the rates.
Lets see. I will be buying two weeks JR Pass for $520. I will travel from - to => ticket price Sapporo - Tokyo $191 Tokyo - Nagasaki $175 Nagasaki - Tokushima $130 Tokushima - Tokyo $130 Tokyo - Matsumoto and back $70 x 2 = $140 Total $766 Also I will use local JR trains and bus lines. I think that pass is the way to go.
@@MegLog_JAPAN I will fly to Sapporo and snowboard for a week. Also traveling on trains in Japan is part of fun. This will be my six trip. I most likely visited more places in Japan than most Japanese. I did hachijūhakkasho-meguri on a bicycle, two times plus shimanami kaido. I love Japan.
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Share your thoughts and questions in the comments!
I just gave a "Like" to increment the count from 999 to 1K.
The point about commission fees and bad rates by currency exchanges are true. It's best to withdraw money from an ATM that links to your bank account via a network given on your card, such as Star and Cirrus. I've had a small fee of $1 or $2 when I did this in Australia, and the exchange rate was very close to the value in big money market exchanges. I withdrew my max limit (US$500) to eliminate the fees of multiple withdrawals. Cash withdrawal on a credit card is the worst option, as high fees and interest rates are applied immediately.
Thanks!
@@williamyang6197 Thanks to you, too!!!
Thank you so kindly for all your very important info on when visiting Japan . Your valuable tips on do and don's are much appreciate . God bless you .
Appreciated 👍
When we went to Japan this year we just bought one way tickets from the ticket dispenser machines whenever we took the train, and for the most part that worked just fine.
i am going to japan next month on my birthday and these are amazing tips thank you so much!! especially,buying tickets ahead thing i will definitely start planning that now as well!!
To add to point 5 - Good option if you want to try the traditional japanese breakfast for pretty cheap you can go to Yayoiken, it is a chain and they serve nattou, rice, miso soup and fish set for under 500 yen if I remember correctly
In case of transport, one thing to keep in mind is that public transport stops around midnight so if you arrive to the airport late you might have no other option than to take a taxi or stay at airport hotel (or around the terminal). I remember spending around an hour at 1AM waiting in line for taxi at Haneda and paying like 12k yen to get to Akihabara (luckily split between 3 of us).
In terms of food, while convenience stores might seem like a cheaper alternative to restaurants it is not always the case. Chains like Yoshinoya or Matsuya you can get beef bowl starting at 500 yen which is around the price of convenience store sandwich + onigiri
I like your little hat. Good video!
Thanks so much
My pleasure!
first year stayed in shibuya tokyo, this year im staying else where thats less touristy and saw there was was a thrift store a 5 minute walk away. im excited for that
Found the Sugamo (/Otsuka) area on the Yamanote line on my 8th stay in Tokyo. Best place I've stayed. REAL local vibe, quieter, cheaper restaurants and shops, thrifts, street market 3-times each month, JR rail, Subway and Sakura Tram. The hustle and bustle of Tokyo is only a few stations either direction without being constantly in it. Sugamo #1 👍
Thank you for all the updated information!
Hello Meg! I hope youre doing well! 1 more week to go my friend! Have a good weekend and thanks for the informative video!
Thank you! You too!
A good rule of thumb is a 7 day JR pass before the price rise was equivalent to 1 return trip between Tokyo and Osaka on the Tokaido Shinkansen. Now over one and a half return trips before its worth it. (eg: Tokyo -> Osaka -> Tokyo -> Osaka and a bit more), which most tourists don't do.
However, if you are planning to travel long distances extensively by train the JR pass may still be worth it, so you need to compare before deciding now.
The extra charge is for the Nozomi (or Mizuho on the Sanyo Shinkansen). For tourist purposes, the Hikari is only a little bit slower and there's no extra charge for JR pass users on that train.
I always enjoy the information you provide. Thank you.
you always use full information. thanks. i will see soon in tokyo
Good tips, thank you Meg.
Good ideas here! I usually only do All You Can Eat restaurants if it's a new cuisine type that I want to try because I'm not familiar with the dishes enough to order a full meal.
I'm travelling around the country at the moment and it looks like the tax free sale value has increased to Y5500.
Also, if you're looking to save on evening meals, don't bother with a desert. Seems that most restaurants have a very limited selection anyway. Stop off at a convenience store and pick one up from there. Most of the puddings are awesome and are less than Y200. And they will give you a spoon if you don't have one.
I never eat breakfast at hotel unless it is included for free. I generally go to Matsuya for breakfast.
Great video! Do u have any suggestions where to buy souvenir like keychains and tshirt cheap?
Good to know! Another thing I would add is about transportation. I think bus are generally cheaper than train. And if you prefer train then try comparing different company. JR is the most expensive in my experience. Correct me if I'm wrong!
Here's how I saved costs on my recent trip: 1. I booked all my hotels more than a month before the trip. I did the occasional review to see if cheaper prices came up until about a week before my trip; 2. Since I like to cover a wide area, I used a JR pass to travel from Hokkaido to Tokyo over 2 weeks; 3. I looked for local 'day pass' options, like in Chiba where I stayed (instead of Tokyo, to save costs), they had a day pass for the monorail; 4. I went to the Tourist Information offices at the train stations, and sometimes they recommended a bus/entrance combo ticket to save money to certain places of interest; 5. I ate out at the supermarkets and konbini a lot lol; 6. I booked some hotels that had breakfast included; 6. I didn't buy drinks often from vending machines, I looked for supermarkets or even Daiso or Don Quijote, for cheaper prices; 7. I used a JR Pass, like previous trips. I was able to save at least $200 Canadian overall in ticket prices using it, even used it on a bus in Tohoku that was run by JR.
Surprised you managed to save money buying a JR pass considering it now almost never worth it after the price rise from last year (80,000 Yen for a 2 week pass). A return journey from Tokyo to Sapporo on the Shinkansen is 60,000 Yen. And you used roughly another 40,000 Yen worth of trains/buses within that two week period (as you said you saved 200 CAD)?
@@marcbridson2773 Yes. I took the Green Class pass, and always made sure to book those where possible. I went up to Asahikawa, made my way down through Aomori, Yamagata, and used the Narita Express between Tokyo and Chiba when I was in that area. There was also an added bonus of the Tohoku Bus from Aomori station, that was run by JR, so I used my pass on there too.
Waaaw.. You saved me 200 bucks.. Thanks
Thank you!
Thank you ❤
The vending machines can have my money. Hot corn and ice cream wherever I go.
I still don’t really understand what is the difference between the JR pass and the Suica card?
Suica card is literally just a digital wallet. you need to top it up.
JR pass is promotional offering for using transportation service within JR company. you need to look it up for the detail and very important if you plan to use it.
Look out for 100 yen shops like Daiso. Convenience stores are not that cheap but they are convenient.
I've been 3 times now and been up to Hokkaido and down to Kyushu all over and never seen a supermarket at all, just Konbinis, Don Quixote and the like...maybe they're in suburban areas or I'm walking past them in the big cities!
It depends on where you are exactly. And Don Quixote can often act as close enough in a lot of cases. Some areas have nothing. And some areas have stuff like MyBasket which is something sort of between a conbini and supermarket.
Super downtown they can be hard to find. But just as an example, there's a Seiyuu UNDER the Rox Building, right in the middle of the NW section of the tourist district of Asakusa, about 100 meters from the DQ.
And I was just staying out of there for a while, so I know there's an Ozeki as well as the MyBasket.
These sorts of things have pretty good coverage.
It's just hard to find stuff like that right on top of Shinjuku, Shibuya, Akihabara, Ueno, etc. Even the small urban grocery stores like MyBasket take a relatively large amount of space and are a low margin, so you'll find a lot more of them a station or so away from the big stations.
Though some of the department stores technically have a grocery store connected to them. eg, B1 will be all the fancy specialty foods and B2 might be a grocery.
So yeah, you're probably walking past them. They're either fairly small or B1 or B2 downtown. Gotta watch for signs.
I would probably keep one coin of each value just as a souvenir. 😁
If you are looking for an inexpensive meal, try the hospital shop.
Motor fuel, petrol/diesel, is cheaper is more expensive in some prefectures than others. As example, in Gunma prefecture, regular can be down to 161 yen per litre. The car wash is 200 yen for a basic wash.
Jack, the Japan Alps Brit
Everywhere in Gunma?
Also you mean hospitals have gas stations in Japan?
@@il400, he wrote "meal" then changed the subject. I guess he meant a cafeteria in a hospital.
@@michaels3003 very sneaky
Why would tourists care about fuel costs? 99% of tourists do not drive in Japan. There are plenty of inexpensive and decent food options like supermarkets. There's no need to eat in a hospital 🤣
I didn't know Smart EX was cheaper for shinkansen tickets. I'll use it next time, thank you!
Don’t bother with SmartEx if you’re a foreigner. Total bs.
@lazyhusband why do you say that? 😮
@@octopussiithere has been reports of Visa Cards and certain credit/debit cards not working with Smart EX, due to the cards being from outside Japan. I had issues with mine as well.
We were 2,5 weeks in Japan in September 2024, and I felt we paid a lot of money for the JRail pass. I did like that the shinkansen was included, but in the end for locals trains for me it was the most useful in Tokyo. In Osaka, Kamakura, Hakone, Gotemba, Kyoto and Nagoya I felt we barely used it. I'll be going back to Japan in 2025 in March for 10 days and was wondering if buying the JRail pass will be worth it this time around. I'll mainly be in Kitakyushu and travel back and forth between the major cities in Kuyshu (and land/leave Japan from Osaka). Just want to avoid wasting money on transport this time around. Any tips are welcome :)
JR pass is hardly ever worth it anymore.
You might consider a couple of the regional passes.
There is a Kyuushuu pass.
And, while the price also increased somewhat recently, there are two similar passes that cover the area between Osaka and Fukuoka.
If you are interested in stopping by Hiroshima or part of the inland sea one of these passes may work out for you.
JR one week pass is 50000 yen.
One week Setouchi pass is the JR from Osaka to Hakata for 22000 yen.
There's also the Sanyo Sanin pass which is a similar but slightly different zone for 23000 yen (covers more to the north and less of Shikoku.
Because of the way JR West is set up... basically infringing upon JR Kyuushuu's region because it owns the shinkansen tracks from Osaka to Hakata, it ends up still being pretty easy to justify so long as you want to go to both Osaka and Kyuushuu.
I've long thought that they should offer a 10 day pass... but they don't. So if you can't go both ways on a 7-day pass it's much harder to justify.
eg, it probably is worth getting if you spend 3 days in Osaka/Kyoto/Nara and then go to Kyuushuu, and make the trip back to Osaka before pass expires.
The one way price Osaka to Hakata is 16000 yen so even if you just use it to go back and forth the regional pass should pay for itself- again, if you can actually just go back and forth. If you only go one way it'd be paying 22000 for something you could have bought for 16000.
@@redfish337 Wow. thanks for the information. This time the trip is with a focus on visiting Japanese friends more than seeing the typical tourist places as this, so I have no immediate plans to go 'east' towards Tokyo but only maybe a SMALL stop in Nagoya but that isn't even sure yet. Those 10-11 days would be mostly just landing in Osaka, maybe be there depending when and where I meet people and then haul south to Kyushu, maybe Hiroshima or Nagasaka and be around Kitakyushu mostly. And well, eventually return to Osaka as my inbound and outbound flight is from that airport.
I appreciate the insight as I was so surprised how much more expensive the JR pass has become these last 10 years!!!
@@celinevanruyskensvelde7448 It hasn't been increasing slowly over the years... they just suddenly made it nearly uselessly expensive a year or two ago.
Basically trying to take advantage of the exchange rate. But the single trip tickets still cost the same, so it now makes the usually but not always useful JR pass usually but not always a waste.
I've often joked that Japan's solution to too many tourists in Tokyo and Kyoto is making sure they can't go anywhere else by doing stuff like making JR pass cost more.
Japan would eaaaaassily handle the increase of tourists if they would encourage more of them to spend less time in Tokyo/Kyoto and instead visit Nagoya, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Nagasaki, Kobe, Kanazawa, Okayama, etc.
How I saved money in Japan? Being in Japan. Even the overpriced tourist traps were WAY cheaper than my own country of NZ lol
On 6: Tax Free shopping, it would not longer be offered on-site starting next year. Tax refunds will be handled at the airports instead.
Hi we will be in Japan in may.staying at Godzilla hotel.We want to do the Grand Bullet train. So we can book tickets for the UK. Thank you Chris and kitty Liverpool England.
7:25 don't forget to bring your passport 😄
Yes, bring your passport, as its info is needed for the paperwork. Too many folks tell visitors to lock up their passports in the hotel safe. I carry mine whenever I'm outside the US.
I am planning to widraw money from ATM, however i already have 500 USD on cash, do you know the best place to exchange? (for those wondering, USD is not used in my country)
You get good exchange at the airport, I hear.
I’ve heard from the TH-cam travelers that 7-11 has their own ATMs and they are cheaper than banks, airports etc
@@imalinski Thank you, i will use them to widraw. I remember seeing some youtuber saying that 7eleven also have a machine that exchange money, but nothing about the rates.
Lets see.
I will be buying two weeks JR Pass for $520.
I will travel from - to => ticket price
Sapporo - Tokyo $191
Tokyo - Nagasaki $175
Nagasaki - Tokushima $130
Tokushima - Tokyo $130
Tokyo - Matsumoto and back $70 x 2 = $140
Total $766
Also I will use local JR trains and bus lines.
I think that pass is the way to go.
Yeah, it could be but that's a very tight schedule. Plus, when you visit Sapporo, I recommend taking a plane instead of Shinkansen.
@@MegLog_JAPAN I will fly to Sapporo and snowboard for a week. Also traveling on trains in Japan is part of fun. This will be my six trip. I most likely visited more places in Japan than most Japanese. I did hachijūhakkasho-meguri on a bicycle, two times plus shimanami kaido. I love Japan.
I'm a very big eater 🤤
just came back from Japan. what a waste of money.