How EXPENSIVE is it to visit Japan? | Expected Trip Costs, Budget Breakdown 🇯🇵
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily eSIM data plans! Download Saily app and use code allisonintokyo at checkout ⛵
Thanks to Saily for sponsoring this video.
Is Japan really as cheap as everyone says it is to visit? 🧘♀️🇯🇵
For many American and European travelers, as long as the exchange rate stays the way it is right now, then...yes! It's really not that expensive for the kind of destination it is. So today let me talk a bit about what you may expect to spend while you're traveling Japan!
Let me know down below what you learned while watching this video or if you have any other topics you think you'd like covered!
🌸 follow me on social media 🌸
twitter: @allisonintokyo
instagram: @allisintokyo
tiktok: @allisintokyo
⭐️ Support me on Ko-fi! ⭐️
ko-fi.com/alli...
-----
🚃 TRAVEL JAPAN WITH JR PASS (affiliate link so buy through here to support me 🥰)
NATIONWIDE PASS (prices unchanged before October 2023): click.jrpass.c...
REGIONAL PASSES: click.jrpass.c...
-----
❤️ music ❤️
🎈Daystar -
/ daystarproject
Epidemic Sound
How EXPENSIVE is it to visit Japan? | Expected Trip Costs, Budget Breakdown 🇯🇵
🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily eSIM data plans! Download Saily app and use code allisonintokyo at checkout ⛵
Congrats on hitting 60K Allison! I remember when you were just hitting a couple thousand!
My wee lil' TH-camrs - they grow so fast! 🥲
Keep up the great work, and thank you!
As a mostly solo traveler, I have no problem staying in a capsule hotel at all! Though after one week it becomes a little much and you want a little more room to sprawl out so to speak lol. If you're gonna be mostly out and about, the prices can't be beat. The place I stayed in Shinjuku had a lounge with free food, communal bathhouse, free amenities etc. I must have paid close to 200$ for the week.
Everyone's different with budgets but for me, I typically budget around 3000$ total for two weeks. Transit, food, accommodations and whatever else was easily covered by that on my previous trips in the past. The biggest things to worry about are flights and accommodations. After that, I found it smooth sailing. Even more so now that the US dollar is really strong against the yen at this time. There's no better time to visit than now! 💰🗾🇯🇵
So I've been to Japan twice, both times for about 4 weeks and I spent about 2000-2500€ for each trip.
Flights: The rules behind flights are really complex. As someone who has to fly a good bit my advise is to just treat it as a random variable and don't look out for summer/spring or anything like that, as other factors such as events, random demand of this particular flight, duration of the trip, time of the trip and so on are more important and hard to predict. So your best friend is flexibility, keep the trip duration and date as variable as possible (for me +-2 days within +-2 weeks) and you can get flights for 500€-700€ round trip usually.
For transportation we went with the JR pass the first time, but the second time we rented a car. The latter is actsully very affordable with about 40€ cost per day for a keicar, close to nothing on gas and nothing on highways if you plan to go through the slow countryside (which has a lot of pretty places to stop at). Additional costs such as ferrys are also very manageable.
For the accomodations we usually went with small japanese style hotels or airbnb type of situations, which usually ran us about 10-20€ per night. Having a group makes this more affordable. But also finding for example a farmer in the countryside that rents out his old guest house or a friendly older lady in tokyo that rented out one floor of her house has always been a great experience. The search takes s little more time, but we found many gems.
For stuff to do Japan is jsut really cheap from a westeners perspective. Sure, if you do Disneyland or Teamlabs everyday that adds up, but if you just go to the regular attractions that are in japan it can be ridiculously cheap. The zoo in ueno park for example was only 650¥ when we went there. So rule of thumb, go to where the jaoanese themselves go for vacation, it's still easy to use for visitors, the people are confused and happy to see foreigners and you can practice your Japanese (or just use google translate).
Foodwise I feel like just typing Teishoku into google maps is a save bet pretty much always. Its cheap, delicious and usually what you expect japanese food to be.
Lastly for souvenirs I can recommend second hand shops. The second hand culture is crazy and the state of the items is like brand new. I bought a large high wuality Luffy figure in oerfect condition for 1400¥. Just give it a go.
As always, if you spent a little more time on the planning everything can be extremely cheap. Despite that, the vacations always felt extremely luxurious. Sure it wasn't the high class hotels, but waking up in the middle of rice fields and having the farmer give you local veggies for breakfast is even better in my opinion, especially for 12€ a day. And sure, high end omakase is great, but finding a random community center in Saga that sells donbori from the local fishermen and farmers for 200¥ as a charity event is one of the best memories I have ever made in Japan, because the food was fantastic, the people were awesome, and the experience of sitting in the harbor, talking to the people running the communicty center and eating fresh donbori is just what I personally want from a Japan trip.
TLDR: Prepare in advance, think of what you want and if you want somethign easy go for hotels and tourist stuff, if you are willing to invest time, you can het a fantastic trip for little money.
Great advice. I just booked flights and they were really random. There was clearly some rules to it such as it being cheaper on certain days of the week but over a 2 month period they greatly fluctuated. I did notice they were overall much much higher in April than in March though so time of year is a factor, the hotels seemed to follow suit as well. But yeah, if you shop around on the flights you can make big savings just by going a day earlier in some cases.
@@jaybee4288what do you mean by this exactly(I haven’t actually watched the video yet) I’m planning to buy the week before thanksgiving and I’m getting spring high 800’s. Are you saying I should wait to see what it says on certain dates around there?
Hey where did you get the farmer with local veggie with slepover? I would like to experience the 'rural' japan, any tips?
Great breakdown! Thank you!
Just adding my 2 cents here from my 2023 trip:
* Airfare: $3,000 (ish)
* Lodgings: $500 (ish, which included a stay at a very anime style home in Kyoto, plus 2 overnight layovers in Spain. Business hotel; very nice but smallest bathroom ever)
* Transportation/Food/Goodies/Internet: $1,300 (ish)
So, all in all rounded up to about $5k. And that's to say, I went nuts. Ate very delicious food (no high-end meals though), got lost plenty of times before I figured out the railway system, bought more souvernirs/otaku goodies than my luggage had any business storing, toured some of the most popular sites plus many off the beaten path. Going back in 2025 with 1.5 times the budget, ready for round 2.
Cheers!
In 2025 things will be cheaper than 2023!
For how many days/nights was this? The numbers don't really mean much if that information isn't added
@@noedlesoup 11 days 10 nights in Japan, 2 in Spain.
Really good info especially for a first time visitor to Japan. Also I highly recommend Saily and esims in general!
Hey girl hey! I feel like you made this video for me hehe my husband and I are going to Japan for our first ever trip there in April for 10 days. We expect to spend around 3k, not including flights, and are doing multiple cities. I have been watching you religiously to learn as much as I can.
Very informative! thank you
The Saily recommendation was so needed! Thanks for sharing that!
Happy New Year 🎊 Thanks for letting me know about Saily.
Thanks for making all these videos, I’ve been planning for an upcoming trip and it’s been super helpful.
I think your info is pretty spot on. We're in the process of planning a 17-day, multi-city trip to Japan (Hokkaido to Tokyo) next fall for a group of 4. Our trip cost is about $15,000. This includes hotels, a night at a fancy ryokan/onsen, regional JR pass, car rental, trip insurance, airfare (premium economy), some planned activities, etc., but doesn't include meals, shopping, and what we will spend on gachapon and claw games at arcades. (Your "What you spend at Donki is between you and God" comment made me laugh. It's so true!) This about the same as the cost of our first trip 16-day to Japan in 2023 which was again a multi-city (Tokyo to Osaka) for 4 of us. Can't wait to get back to Japan!! Happy New Year!!
My first trip to Japan was in 1984 and it was EXPENSIVE. Taking my husband for a month on what we spent 40 years ago for 10 days. First class airfare was 10 grand a piece.
Thank you and happy new year!
I can't wait to be in Japan next week and I planning to be there for a month meaning January to February.
Thank you, Allison! Right now with the $ strong, it's a good time to go to Japan. We'll see what's in store next year and the next 4 years. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year 😍
Wishing you a happy new year 🥳 Allison. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas 🎄
Going on my second Japan trip next month and I'm super excited to bring my girlfriend along for this trip! Flight wasn't too expensive.
$730 for everything including meal and checked bag with JAL
I went to Japan in 2023, for 20 days and the cost (flights and everything we spent for that trip included) was about 2300€ - 2500€. I would say you will spend most of the money on flights and the long distance train connections (tho we got the JR rail pass for 14 days). As for food and accomodation and daily activities (if they are cultural) are pretty affordable!
Our accomodations were about 20€/night. We stayed in a variety of places: hotel, hostels and a couplw of rokyans with private onsens! The later we stayed at kii katsuura (while visiting the 3 temples from Kumano Kodo) and it was pretty affordable. Tho were on the hostel side not luxorious.
For Japan you really have to book and prepare the trip it advance to get better prices!
I’m heading to Japan on Friday
From Florida
Video is definitely on point in terms of the cost. Just spent the first two weeks in December traveling around Japan. Was with three friends and it was our first time there, so lodging was split equally between us. We mostly went for Airbnb's but also did one hotel and one hostel. My total cost including EVERYTHING; flight, my part of the lodging costs, transportation, food, Don Quijote runs and other gifts to bring back home came out to about $4,500. A little over a 1/4 of that was the flight from the States to Narita Airport. I was expecting my total to be more over $5,000 range but I guess we didn't splurge as much as we thought we did. We had an amazing time and can't recommend it enough to other travelers, especially while the costs are low.
We're planning a family trip for March/April 2025 and hoping to catch the sakura blossoms, so I've been comparing accommodations a ton. I think what I've found is you can have two of the following three things: cheap, large space, close to a train stop. You can find cheap rooms that are in or around a station but they will be small. You can get a big space by the station but it will cost a lot more. Or you can get a big space that is cheap, but it will be a longer walk. I'm sure this is because I'm planning during peak season, but I think that's a good rule of thumb.
Been to Japan on my own November 23 - 17 days total. older person- Fare £1400_ premium economy. Needed leg room. 17 hour flight. Spend hotels, food, transportation, phone/portable internet, Shinkansen- Kyoto, Nagano,Minobu, Nara, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagoya Excluding Fare £4,500. APA hotels and similar, Capsule hotel one night, 2 nights in the mountains with monks - Long journey this one but beautiful. Worth every penny
Allison wishing you a happy new year 🎊🕛, hope you have a great 2025.
happy new year!
This was a great video and really helpful! I am planning out my trip to Japan which i am hoping to go on this year with my partner *fingers crossed*
me and wife are heading there in Feb 25 . Thank you so much for the tips.
I’m planning a trip with my hubby. We’ve never been out of the country before! 😮 Your videos are helping me feel more informed and less anxious. I am fairly a low budget girl but…. Like you said, what we spend shopping is between us and God 😂😂😂😂
A few months ago I had a midnight flight out of Haneda and I had a bunch of hours to kill after leaving my hotel. I checked into a capsule at Shinagawa Station for a day rate of maybe $10 US. I think I was there 5 hours. I had never been to a capsule before and I really liked it. Not sure if I would do it for more than the one night though.
Overall the rates seem reasonable. Even the capsule option looks clean. I would love to try a Ryokan with an Onsen if I ever go
🎆🎆🎆Happy New Year!🎆🎆🎉🎉Thank you for the video! Really appreciate it! I’m going to finally book some lthing there to Japan hopefully! I’ve always wanted to go! Just need to book it!🙌✨🙌👍🏻
Great vid! You should make the same one but for when moving to Japan 😅 (budget for few 3-4 months)
Thank you for all the information you provided. Do you recommend a travel agency that provides travel packages and tours? Can you do tours? Thanks
The price ranges are on par with average visitors I think. Next trip I'm trying something different, monthly mansion. Cheaper than hotel but more than sharehouse/hostel. Two things about food, most content creators don't talk about depachika, but I find the quality way better than conbini without a significant bump in price. If you want to be cheap there, wait for the discounts towards closing and fight the housewives. On the high end, 3man for a dinner for one is a pretty decent Michelin level meal. To have the same quality at a US restaurant is 2-3x with tax and tip.
Yeah! I love capsule hotels! I find them cozy. The only thing I look out for to avoid, is when the ones that kick you out for cleaning. lol I'm a night owl, so I'm always up late on my phone or whatever; and having to get up and leave by 9 or 10am, leaves me slightly perturbed. But it's not the end of the world. They're perfect for solo travel!
I'm a bit of an introvert, but when I want to socialize a bit more, and to have that human connection, I go to hostels. Lastly, I travel pretty much all year round, but when I get tired of the road, I hit up a fancy hotel for a couple weeks. They're good for recharging my social-batteries, unpacking my things, and spreading out. Hotels are a bit of a no-mans-land for socializing tho, so after a week or two of that, I'm usually recharged and ready to go back to hostels and capsules. :)
I'm planning a family vacay for the 4 of us. I looked at a hotel 10 min walk from Tokyo Station and it is about $3,000 for 5 nights in a 400 sq ft room but it is a 1 bedroom apartment with 2 twin beds and a bunk beds for the kiddos.
I came to Tokyo from the US (Boston) this past May with my husband for our postponed honeymoon.
We spent a LOT but we had been saving for literally years and we wanted to have a stress free time. We took a direct flight and we flew premium economy.
We also stayed in a pretty nice hotel right in the middle of everything in akihabara (and there was a donki across the street we went to daily, I chuckled at your comment about how much you can spend there 😅).
Food was pretty cheap, even we went to the nicer places. We filled 2 whole suitcases with our shopping too. I wanna go back eventually but we'll be doing it on the cheaper side this time.
The subway systems are amazing. We took them everywhere. We only took a taxi once because we were exhausted and had tons of shopping bags. It was probably the most expensive thing haha. I also will say most of those theme restaurants are a total tourist trap. My husband was disappointed about the final fantasy one, and that one was expensive.
Making this comment before I even see the video.
I live in Sapporo and just recently made a return trip back to the States. By far, BY FAR, the pain is in the plane ticket. Living here, as of today, is significantly cheaper than the US, but that's only from my experience in Sapporo.
Edit: Now watching video :) I guess I haven't done this in awhile, but I've had a lot of luck with AirBnbs here as far as stay. I was about to ask where you live, but lol Tokyo is in your name. Tokyo is way more expensive. These prices you're naming are insane to me. Ya I just looked up Tokyo on Airbnb and there's a lot of places at like $30-$50 a night USD that look very nice. They're definitely small though.
And mad respect for that egg salad sandwich fly by. I don't know what it is about them here that is just amazing. Actually you know what I think it is... the white cheap "wonder bread" equivalent here tastes significantly better imo.
Again, these prices are insane to me, but that's only because I live in Sapporo. I can go out to eat and grab food for like $2-3 that will feed both my baby and me in the morning. One thing I like about Japan is that they give a huge discount when food is a little old. I can buy a steak for like $4-$6
Legacy airline companies have their own low-cost carriers, Japan Airline's low-cost is called ZIPAIR Tokyo
Last year in November of 2023 when I was in Tokyo I met an American who had flown from San Fransisco to Tokyo for 450 US dollars round trip.
Right now I am planning my trip to Japan in 2025 alone, I will be there for 4 weeks and already booked every Hotel. My route will take me from Tokyo down to Nagasaki and back to Tokyo. I think I am in the midrange, hotel costs are about 2700€ and for meals I budgeted around 30€ a day. I will get the Japan Rail Pass to be more flexible and more easy for me for all the short trips I will do. So I am already at a Budget around 4200€ without flight and no tickets for anything so far...but its worth it to fullfill a longtime dream of mine 😊
Sorry for miss spellings, englisch is not my first language.
Thank you for this video!
This gave me a good idea of how much to save in 2025 because I had been thinking around $10K USD per person for 7-10 days. So, I was thinking $30K USD for myself and my two teens.
This is actually alot cheaper than I was anticipating.
Now, just gotta figure out the language barrier. I don't expect to know all the japanese words but I got some flash cards to help familiarize myself with language. Now, reading japanese and understanding is another story.
Happy 2025 Allison and appreciate more of these helpful tips for coming or living in Japan I’ll make a new note of and save video 🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂
I wonder if it's best to get the Japanese yen here or when I get there ?
Thanks... But what about Airbnb?!
flights are
I’m in UK flying direct and my flights are just over £1,000 just off season. 17 nights of hotel including a ryokan was another £1000. Travel insurance was £150 but I have a risk. All in all it was about £2,300 ($2,800) before getting to Japan, but cheaper flights and duration can really bring this down.
I booked mine for next year, 13 nights, hotel and flight already spent £5k.
Oh wow a bit more than me. I am going in late February which was a lot cheaper than going mid March-April. I also book mostly the business hotels she mentions here, although 2 nights in ryokan in Hakone. I found Tokyo was the most expensive, other places were cheaper to stay!
@@jaybee4288 I am going mid March, so more expensive for flights and hotels.
My next trip for a month in May is flights £580, hotels £1300 (APA/Toyoko types), travel from Fukuoka to Tokyo with side trips will be £200 ish then food spending etc on top. I find Japan to be really cheap for food. Craft beer similar to the UK (expensive!)
Yes my feeling is when you’re actually there it’s a lot cheaper than the UK! It’s mainly just the flights to be honest. Anything under 1000 seems to be long flights with layovers.
Konichi-Wa. I´am Andreas, 40 from Germany. Last week i came back from a 4 week trip to Japan. My hobby is helicopter/planespotting. So i was "based" one week in Tokyo, one week Nagoya and another 10 days in Tokyo, from where i did my trips to certain airports/heliports.
This was my visit number 7 to Japan since 2010. The first time i did a december visit and the weather was stunning. Only 1,5 days without sun.The rest was just blue sky, the first week 18 celsius and later down to plus 4, but still nice with blue sky. Japan is still wonderful.
The only thing i will change on my next trip (hopefully in 2 years), i will NOT buy the JR PASS again.
yeah, i watched plenty of videos before, where it was said to be very expensive (plus 70%) and not worth it anymore. Still i bought it and paid 650 Euro for 21 days, because i thought "hey,i still will buy it as ususal", because it is "just 30 Euro" per day...but in the end, it was not worth it (anymore). So i rather use my Suica and buy a Shinkansen Ticket on the Machine, next time.
I used a pocket wifi, which i ordered from germany, a week before my arrival. I received it at my first hotel. It worked well and was easy to handle and to send it back on the last day.
Japan = always worth a trip.
Arigato and happy new year!
Andreas
Tbh I found i spent like $6 for a grande latte and a food of some kind. In the US it's closer to $13-17, so it IS a steal lol.
謹賀新年
Some good info here! The only issue for me is eSIM on Android which is still very rare (most, even new, phones don't have it - just the flagship level devices). I end up buying a physical data SIM from eBay before my trips...
I think your calculations are pretty accurate. I did multiple trips to Japan in the last couple of years and I spend on average about 4000€ for a 3 week trip as a solo traveler including flights and shopping. But I mostly stay in business hotels, only once or twice at a ryokan, and I only eat Japanese food. I think western food is way more expensive than Japanese food. Overall I think Japan is pretty cheap especially since the Yen is so weak. For European people like me it’s crazy cheap sometimes especially the food and public transportation.
Can you tell me what the weather is like from the last few days in September to the first week of October.
Would you recommend airbnb? I am planning a trip for late may and saw that some airbnb are cheaper than hotels. It’s going to be my first time in Japan so I am really excited.
I'm leaving Missouri in May and going to Japan for right at or slightly under 3k for 9 nights and two ppl round Trip!! Super cheap I thought it would be 5k for the flights and 9 nights.
I bring $1500 Aud in yen for 2 weeks and I generally have 20000 yen left. I do not go to expensive restaurants. I agree with apa and sotetsu inn. I also like ibis styles and the keikyu inn. I like a comfortable bed.
Very insightful video. It’s been one of dreams to take my family of 4 to Japan 🇯🇵 but i live in Miami Fl and a roundtrip just in airlines tickets in low season cost between $1000 to $1200.00 per person i probably need to save $10k for a 7 day trip to japan 😩
I want to visit for lucky bag season. I know a lot have to be pre ordered. Are there still places that have them first serve style? I told my husband I need min $1000 per day not including air and lodging. I need kuji and arcades ❤
hi! can you add the sily link? thanks
Can you buy Saily in advance or is the purchase only good for the amount of days you bought going from the day you bought it?
About the food part don't search for places on google map cuz they will only show the tourist places don't be scared 2 visit izakay's with 1 or 2 stars the food is in general better then the touristy ones
Any coffee is better than Starbucks 😂 from Tokyo on the cheap you can bus it to Kawaguchiko local train to Nagano then night bus to Kyoto it takes time but you get to see more
That exchange rate is wild. The average American could live quite well in Japan. Possibly even "upper-class" level.
Visiting Japan is affordable. The expensive part for me is flying over there. When i went it last year it cost 1800 round trip. Hopefully next time I visit it will be cheaper. I think for two weeks saying about 4k without the flight is fair, think that's about what I spent.
4k without flights is crazy. I spent 10 days there and this was back in 2015 when it was more expensive and still only spent about 1000 eur total.
Do esims only allow for data? Or do they also allow for calling?
my partner and i are going to japan in october 15/10/2025 - 6/11/2025, to osaka/kyoto/tokyo. we have booked a hotel for 2 weeks in osaka for $850 and a hotel in tokyo for 1 week at around $659
$659/nught?
Im asking coz I will be in Tokyo in Oct25 too :)
@@yenlinhnguyen3898 $659 for 8nights :) i can send you the hotel we are staying at :)
@@yenlinhnguyen3898 this is the hotel we booked Quintessa Hotel Chiba Funabashi, $659 for 1 week :)
@yenlinhnguyen3829 the hotel we booked was Quintessa Hotel Chiba Funabashi $659 for 1 week.
@yenlinhnguyen3898 we booked the hotel Quintessa hotel chiba funabashi $659 for 1 week 🙂
Why? Did you not do any advent calendars or any Christmas videos.
I heard that Saily limits speed in Japan.isit true
Japan must get another glory day of economic prosperity
Happy new year! Disney tickets are CHEAP! At 4000 yen per ticket, TeamLabs is geared for tourists. No way a Japanese family of four could afford that. Make a video about staying in Hoshinoya or the Aman in Tokyo. You should do it so I don't have to. ;)
One day at Disney sea in February is about 9000 yen so nearly $60, plus anything extra you pay for food, ride passes etc. It’s definitely affordable for what it is. Gets expensive when you look at hotel stays and family vacations there but expect it’s much cheaper than Orlando or wherever would be.
Luxury hotels are so expensive ($800+ a night) I bought a house for my frequent vists😂😂😂
So I can text or voice call USA with this sim? Can USA people text or call me?
First
Japan needs to add a visitor sales tax.
Couple traveling should budget about ¥40,000 to ¥60,000 a day. This includes some shopping and decent restaurants experiences.
… do Americans not have coffee kiosks? You’re describing it as if people need to know what it is, here they’re in basically every petrol station in the country and most convenience stores.