Japan Budget Breakdown
May 7-22, 2024
We were a party of three: my mother-in-law, husband, and me. The plan was to explore Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, & Hiroshima, and spend a night on either end in LA (since we flew from LAX to Tokyo).
Here’s the budget breakdown per person:
Lodging: $770
International Flight (LAX-Tokyo, Singapore Airlines): $645
Domestic Flight (TPA-LAX, United): $306
Food and Drinks: $605
Ground Transportation: $458
Including… LA Ubers: $40, IC Cards: $75, Train Tokyo-Osaka and back: $180, Kansai-Hiroshima Rail Pass: $111.
Sightseeing & Tours: $245
Travel Insurance: $40
Miscellaneous (untracked cash purchases): $19
eSIM: $9
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$3,097/person
Flight Deets
Our arrangements were pretty perfect, if I do say so myself. We left out of our home airport, took showers and slept a night in LA, then flew with Singapore Airlines the next day (they’re a very highly rated airline, especially for service).
Splitting up the flights helped us not to feel as gross/exhausted on arrival to Japan. I would do this again for the comfort aspect, though I’m guessing we spent a little more $$ than if we would have flown straight through.
Lodging Deets
— 2 nights in TownePlace Suites LA, 1 big room to share
This hotel was clean and very spacious. Tata’s Cafe (across the parking lot) offered great breakfast/coffee options. However, next time I’m in LA, I’ll try to stay somewhere with an airport shuttle. Ubers are not cheap, even for a 10 min. ride!
— 5 nights in Hotel Gracery, Asakusa (Tokyo), 2 small rooms
We’d stay here again for sure. The neighborhood isn’t central (it’s pretty far north), but it’s so calm. Plus, we could walk to our favorite breakfast spot (Misojyu) — a big plus when not a lot was open in the mornings. Having Fuglan Coffee right around the corner was amazing as well. The hotel itself is a good value: super clean and comfy without a lot of frills.
— 7 nights Osaka Airbnb “Korin House” (traditional Japanese house)
This was a very cool style of accommodation! I wouldn’t trade the experience, but I do wish we would have stayed here 3 nights and in Kyoto for 4 nights, instead of traveling back and forth between the two.
In planning, it was hard to tell which city we’d enjoy more. (Answer: Kyoto.) The train ride is only like 15 min between the two cities, so it didn’t seem like it’d matter too much where we stayed. Plus, I liked the idea of not having to lug the suitcases around any more than we had to. But this particular Airbnb was in a residential area pretty far out from Shin-Osaka (train) station, so it ended up taking us at least an hour to get to Kyoto. Oh well. Now I know better. And you do too :)
— 1 night Homm Stay Nagi Arashiyama (Kyoto), one big room to share
This was a last minute addition. Originally, we were gonna take the train from Osaka to Kyoto two days in a row, but then we decided it’d be so much easier to just spend the night. So, we found this hotel near the bamboo forest, and wow. It was marvelous. So many thoughtful touches, a massive room by Japanese standards, super comfy beds, luxurious bathroom/shower, cute PJs provided, and complimentary umbrellas.
Loved it.
Food Deets
Food is one of the MAJOR reasons to plan a trip to Japan! A lot of people know that. What you might not know is how affordable food and drinks are here. Our most expensive (Wagyu steak) dinner cost under $50/person and some full meals were as low as $5/p. Considering both the quality and the quantity of foods we tried — including a 10-piece omakase sushi experience for $45/p (which would have easily cost $200 in the states) — we couldn’t believe how little we spent!
A lot of this is thanks to the current favorable conversion from Yen to USD. Plus, you don’t tip in Japan.
Obviously, like anything, you can spend a lot of $$$ if you want to, like if you eat at Michelin restaurants every night (though even the Michelin restaurants are wayyyy cheaper than back home).
We consider ourselves foodies, but honestly didn’t feel the need to spend any more on food, when we were already enjoying such a great mix of street foods (i.e. okonomiyaki, takoyaki, yakitori), comfort foods (i.e. ramen), Ekiben (train station bento boxes), sushi — both fancy and less so — and the famous Wagyu (Japanese beef). Not to mention lots of exceptional coffee and tea! All around A+++
(In a follow-up post, I’ll detail more of our favorite restaurants and cafes.)
Sightseeing Deets
A good amount of stuff we did was free, like the elevator to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building (#views), all the temples and shrines, the Bamboo Forest in Kyoto, general city exploration, etc., but here are some of the activities we paid for:
— TeamLab Planets ($27) has mixed reviews, but we’d definitely do it again (or another of their concepts) for its uniqueness! We had lots of fun!
— The Tokyo Ramen tasting tour through Get Your Guide ($120) was a cool way to connect with other travelers and ask questions about Tokyo culture! We walked to three different shops and each got to select six small bowls of some very unique ramen (i.e. miso, curry, squid ink, pesto, etc.), but the tour was pretty pricey. Not the best value IMO.
— The “Off the Beaten Path Osaka Local Bar Crawl” with Taka on Airbnb Experiences was incredible! Easily the most fun we’ve ever had on a food tour! ($43 for the tour + food/drinks along the way). If you book it, don’t plan anything too early the next morning. Taka offered to drop us all at a karaoke bar at the end, which would have been so fun, but most of us had early-morning trains to catch, so we declined.
P.S. Taka has over a thousand 5 star reviews on Airbnb Experiences! Here’s mine: “Wow, this tour was SO FUN! It included three local spots with amazing food and bevvys! Taka was so good at facilitating the group so that everyone was included and enjoyed the atmosphere, and he had amazing stories! This tour would be great for solo travelers or anyone looking to make new friends! Book book book! It’s worth every penny!”
— Osaka Castle. Tickets are only like $3, but I feel like this is one you could skip. Definitely go there and walk around the grounds, but maybe you don’t need to go inside? It’s very crowded and set up more like a museum than a castle.
— Kyoto’s Sagano Scenic Railway + 2 hr. Hozugawa River Cruise ($45). The idea was to do these two in succession, but the boat tour got cancelled due to weather. So, we ended up doing the train ride on its own, then went back for the boat tour another day. Both were great for getting away from Kyoto’s tourist center and into nature! Super relaxing and beautiful! Great value!
— Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Don’t miss. Only costs like $1 to enter. I booked our tickets on the Klook app. We spent 2+ hours in the museum, then took the ferry across to Miyajima Island for some grilled oysters, whiskey highballs, and the sunset over the water. It was one of our favorite days.
