Hi all, well you might notice some changes to the website over the next few months, but more on that in a bit.
So, my budget for Japan was £4,500 which I actually stuck too (not including the extra flight home that I had to book) and here is a small breakdown of some of the stuff from Japan.
Flights – £1,013, this was a return flight stopping at Abu Dhabi on either way, included 23kg checked in baggage and 7kg carry on. This was originally booked in November through booking.com and then later the holiday was extended. This included the rebooking fee.
Hotels – £1,150~ Please do bear in mind that I did have to change some plans because of a typhoon so this cost will more than likely be more, but this was for 27 nights at hotels and in the end that equates to £47 per night and considering that some of the hotels included breakfast or was a 4 star hotel (looking at you Prince Towada Hotel), then that is not a bad deal at all.
Public Transport – £613 This only covers my 3 Tokyo metro passes, 1 Osaka amazing pass, car rental and 1 green class (First class) 21-day rail pass (price went up in October). One thing that really did surprise me when I was going on the Tokyo metro was how cheap it was and that for a 3-day metro pass which was about £8, then you needed to use it about 2-3 times a day to make it pay for itself. When I originally brought my Japan rail pass, I was debating whether or not I should go for the green class upgrade which was about £120 more and I am very glad that I did as some of the trains I was on were absolutely packed, but the green class section was usually fairly empty and the seats were really nice too.
Activities – Well this is where it becomes a bit more disjoined as I did quite a lot of different things while I was out there, but to name a few, I went go karting for 2 hours round Tokyo on a tour and that cost £73 and it was well worth it, even though it was very hot. I also went to 3 theme parks while I was out there, DisneySea (£49), Disneyland (£49) and Fuji-Q Highland (£34). Some of the other activities included a 3-hour cycling tour of Hiroshima (£62), Teamlab Planets Tokyo Museum (£21), Kyoto Railway Museum (£8) Shibuya Skyroof (£12) and Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan (£19) which I would highly recommend to anyone who is in Osaka.
Food – This varied quite a bit, but for the most part I spend about £5-6 on drinks and lunch each day (would sometime be more) and then about £10-£12 on food and drinks eating out each night. The most expensive meal I had was a Wagyu Beef set menu meal and drinks that came to about £85 and i would quite happily do that again as it was absolutely incredible food. I also did go twice to a Michelin Star Ramen restaurant in Tokyo which only cost about £13 each time too.
I did all my Planning including a rough idea of budgeting through a website called Wanderlog which was brilliant and easy to use, and this is the Japan travel plan that you can have a look at:
Wanderlog Matt’s Trip to Japan
What’s next – Well now that the Japan trip has finished, I have decided to go away again next year during my works summer shutdown and I am going to Krakow, Poland for 12 days!!!
I am really looking forward to this and I have already booked a 5 star hotel that is costing me about £600 for 11 nights including breakfast (thanks booking.com and your lovely discounts).
After this I am wanting to go back to Japan in 2025 to explore the north more and also to go back to Osaka for the World Expo being held there that year.
Also next year there is the European premiere of the Spirited Away stage show which should be awesome to go and watch.
Till next time!!!
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