[Scifience]

I'm thinking about taking a trip to Japan with three people (me, my mom, and my dad) next spring. My mom and I are currently taking Japanese language lessons and have been for the past two (going on three) years.

I know some people here have travelled to Japan (Xeo) and was wondering about - you guessed it - cost. I'm figuring I'll have about $10,000 saved up for the trip by then and am hoping to stay about a month. Will this cut it? I don't want to have to eat junk and stay at crappy places just because I don't have enough money.

I'm not to the point of planning where to go yet; this is more the "can I do it at all" stage.

Thanks for the input!

[spiky_dog]

i have no idea if $10k is a reasonable sum for a month's vacation in japan (as i've always stayed with family), but i can recommend wholeheartedly that you purchase a JR Pass. it's the only way to travel.

mmm green cars

[RiSE]

i hope you dont need 10k to go to japan, if thats the case i could never go

[Xeo]

I spent about $1500 for the month I went including air fare which was almost half of that. Each of my friends did about the same. We stayed 2 people in a tiny room for the month.

Just don't stay in hotels for the whole month and you shouldn't have a problem with that kind of money.

[RiSE]

Can you "do" japan in two weeks? How much would that cost you think?

[Bluebomber21XX]

I spent $2500 for one month there. This includes roundtrip airfare, a $180 penalty for missing my flight on the last day, food and staying at a ryokan. This was the entire month of March last year, btw. If you can, try to get there in time to watch the sakura trees bloom. This happens the last week of March to the second week of April. They are beautiful.

If you are going to be in Tokyo, there is a ryokan in the Takadanobaba district, right off the JR line. I highl recommend it. Also, a few doors down on the same side of the street is a cool bar, the Glass Onion. I must advise checking it out, it's great!

http://www.idiom.com/~turner/tamaryokan.html

Here is a link. If you stay longer than a week, they will let you stay there for 3500 yen a night. It's quite a deal. Very nice people, and the ryokan is excellent. I loved it.

[wataru]

Originally posted by spiky_dog:
i can recommend wholeheartedly that you purchase a JR Pass. it's the only way to travel.

Seconded. It pays for itself if you ride the trains enough. And if you plan to take the bullet train, it will pay for itself very quickly.

Note that you have to buy the JR Pass voucher before you go to Japan. While in Japan you exchange it for the pass itself.