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So, i'm going on a trip to Japan for about two weeks with my best friends.
Lionhart617
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
About how much money (american dollars) should I take for myself? (Excluding how much it takes to get there, and back. I already have that paid for.)
Any advice?
I'm pretty much as clueless as they come.
Any advice?
I'm pretty much as clueless as they come.
Lionhart617 on
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And well, the most we'll be spending our cash on is on souvenirs. Are those generally expensive?
I suppose my questions are hard to answer.
Well, pretend that this was your first time going and you've always wanted to go to japan, you're not old enough to drink alcohol, you smoke a decent amount of cigarettes, and you want a reasonable amount of souvenirs.
.... That probably doesnt help much at all.
Well, what would be a few things that you suggest that my friends and I should do over there? And are they expensive?
Thanks
Depends on what kind of souvenirs you want to get. Sightseeing is cheap and as long as you don't just wander around on the trains (i.e. going to six different places in one day), you probably won't spend more than $25 a day on trains.
Food can be cheap, and it's a good thing you don't drink alcohol. Four of us went to an Izakaya (drinks and small plates of food) and wound up spending almost $300.
You got anything more specific that staying in Tokyo? Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi, etc, or are you actually staying in Tokyo itself? To simplify, what's the nearest train station to where you are staying?
I could give you a better guess with more information on what you want to do.
We're completely clueless about everything.
We wont leave for another month.
I always figured that $400 for spending money would be sufficient.
Sure doesn't seem like it now. Damn.
I do drink, but I have people here who hook me up (since im only 18) so I doubt id be able to get any over there even if I wanted to.
Are they going to I.D. me for cigarettes? Will my texas I.D work?
$400 is definitely not enough, not for 2 weeks.
And I wouldn't plan on spending LESS than $100 a day. Especially with the crappy exchange rate.
Do I typically have to worry about getting mugged or anything?
The only instances I've heard of people getting mugged are the guys getting shitty and getting drugged in Roppongi and having their cards charged up to the max. But again, if you don't plan on drinking/clubbing, then there is nothing to worry about.
In general, everything is more expensive in Japan. Just about everything is going to be more expensive than you think. Food, drinks, souvenirs, bags, video games, models, toys, dvds, random anime stuff, clothes, etc etc.
Not including flight and hotel cost, I'd say bring at least $2000 with you. Japan is a cash country, so a lot of places you won't be able to use a credit card if you run out of cash. Better to bring too much cash than not enough. Japan is also generally safe and low amount of theft and mugging; it's safe to carry a lot of cash on you.
One place I really enjoyed was ...Asakusa?... big temple/shopping district. It's a great place to see architecture and buy souvenirs. The pigeons are really friendly and if they think you have food, you can get get them to perch on your arms (and/or head).
You can also take (self-guided) tours of the Imperial Palace. Is amazing.
Tokyo Tower is all sorts of fun. In addition to the spectacular views of the greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area (especially at night - you can get some fantastic pictures) there is a trompe l'oeil gallery and a wax museum on the lower levels.
Studio Ghibli is a pretty cool place to visit as well. I'm not sure it's the actual place-where-the-animation-happens, but it is a really whimsical museum and you can catch some short films there that you probably can't see anywhere else. And there are a whole bunch of statues of critters from Ghibli films that you can take pictures with. Visiting is kind of odd, as you have to call ahead and reserve an entry time (I forget the exact mechanism for doing so. It may also be something one could do online), but it's nothing too complicated. They'll let you in even if you are a few minutes late. ^_^
If you are at all into theatre, you can also go to... probably Kabuki-cho, but don't quote me on that... and see one or two acts of a kabuki play, in a very old theatre. They have guidebooks in English, and headsets that will play the aural equivalent of Cliffs Notes as you watch.
The Edo-Tokyo Museum is wonderful. The interior is a huge open room, one half of which details the daily life and architecture of the city of Edo, and the other half shows how it changed ofter it became Tokyo. They also have excruciatingly detailed dioramas of the city that you can examine through binoculars.
I think they keep the sumo arena somewhere in that district too... which might be entertaining (I never bothered).
If you want a theme park, try Disney Sea. It's a smaller park, and if you go mid-week the park will be virtually empty which means no lines. It's the only way to visit a park like that.
Odaiba is pretty nifty. You take a monorail out to this mall/theme park called Palette Town. That's where they keep the giant Ferris wheel (which you should ride. Spectacular views!) and a whole bunch of other oddities like the Fuji Television building (if you've watched the first season of Digimon, you have seen it destroyed), some really bizarre statuary, and a miniature Statue of Liberty. Also, there's a pretty good Korean BBQ (yakiniku) place there.
As for places outside of Tokyo proper... Kawagoe has on entire street dedicated to candy shops, and a really excellent historical district, of which you can get a guided tour by jin-rikusha. The guy who pulled ours was really friendly and had a lot of interesting tidbits to share about the buildings and history of the town.
The tour ended by a temple with spiffy fox statues and more friendly pigeons.
Nikko is a quaint little town in the mountains, and has an art museum, a bunch of temples, an outdoor theatre, a place where you can try your hand at making grass sandals, and a fantastic steakhouse.
Kyoto's a beautiful place too. They have a castle that you can tour. It goes by the picturesque and fanciful name of "Second Street Castle"
Wherever you stay, try to make sure there are lots of convenience stores nearby. Convenience store are probably the cheapest food you will find, and ....the food is actually healthy. One of my favorite things to get was a rice ball (onigiri) with salmon inside and sesame seeds on the outside. I usually didn't eat the seaweed wrap that comes in the package, but if you like seaweed, it would be pretty good.
You can buy cigarettes from vending machines, and liquor from the 7-11, but getting drunk is not the best way to see a foreign country. Honestly, you can do that at home, and it wont waste the money you've spent flying half-way across the world.
Like I said, get a guidebook, get a list of places that look interesting, and plan how to get there, and then just enjoy being in a foreign country. It would be polite to learn a few phrases in japanese: "Where is __?" and "Which train goes to [destination]?" are always useful, as well as "Please", "Thank you", "Do you speak English?", a working knowledge of numbers (ordinal and cardinal), and basic directions (left, right, straight).
As for souvenirs, they sell them EVERYWHERE. If it can be called a vacation spot, it will sell souvenirs, because people who go on vacation are societally obligated to bring back souvenirs for everybody in their office. (If you go to Disney or any other theme park, avoid the souvenir shops just before closing. You are highly likely to be trampled).
Resources for you: search "Japan National Tourism Organization" and "Japan Railways".
These should help you figure out travel arrangements.
That's Kabuki-za you are thinking of. Kabukicho is where you go if you want a "massaji".
Otherwise, pretty sound advice. Except for the vending machine/cigarettes thing. They have some weird ID thing now on most of them.
Also, since you are going next month, you should seriously make plans to climb Mt. Fuji.
*puts hand to face* Boy, do I feel sheepish...
Yeah, go to kabuki-za.
Here are a few websites:
http://www.japan-guide.com/
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/
Like I said, if you stick to cheap food, you can eat quite cheaply. A bowl of good ramen probably won't run more than $10 (and is usually less). Get that with some gyoza (dumplings) and you'll still be under $15. Gyudon is usually even cheaper. Eating at a Japanese chain restaurant shouldn't run more than $25 and can be quite a bit less. However, if you're drinking, the cost will go up significantly. Going into a nicer place will drive up the costs a lot.
Your location says Texas. Cost of living there is quite low, from my understanding. Japan is more like NYC. Everything costs a lot more. $400 is not nearly enough for 2 weeks.
And then there's Ginza.
"Wait, does that pen really cost 3 million yen?"
And if you go to a cafe for you internet access, it's a good idea to buy one drink for every hour you use their computers.
You CAN eat cheaply in Tokyo. Someone's already mentioned gyudon, and the great thing is that most gyudon places are 24 hour and will feed you for under Y500 including salad & green tea or water. There are also lots of little lunch joints that have a sort of vending machine deal set up outside where you buy tickets based on what you want to eat, and then hand the ticket to the cook after buying it. Again, cheap cheap cheap and filling. You can also eat cheaply at any convenience store, and they will cheerfully heat things up for you, but eating on the street is a little weird in Japan and you probably don't want to fly all the way there and then live out of the AM/PM.
If you want a one-stop place to buy trinkets for the entire family back home, stop into a Tokyu Hands department store and you will have all of your needs covered. I know for a fact that there are branches at both Ikebukuro and Shibuya that are a little ways away from the stations, and I think that one of the stations actually has a Tokyu Hands built-in. Maybe Shinjuku?
Completely off-topic:
Studio Ghibli is out in Koganei and is in a beautiful little ivy-covered building with a VERY tiny sign telling you that, yes, you're standing in front of Studio Ghibli. I went looking for it once when I decided that I was going to figure out the Japanese address system once and for all.
It's less than a mile from the station and took me three hours to find.
I don't even think the Japanese understand how their addresses work. It's a miracle they get mail. Whenever I ask someone where they live, they always say "In Yamato by the Sukiya" or "He lives in North Hollywood on Radford, near the In-and-Out Burger."