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@gigatron: my husband and i have gone to japan twice (3 weeks each time) and spent about $5,000 total for both of us. we got REALLY lucky on plane tickets the first time (somehow only $571 EACH), and the 2nd time we won a free round-trip flight, so that severely helped out with costs. but what i’m saying is that…we kept a fairly tight budget everywhere else and the money went far.
for breakfast every morning we would get delicious pan from convenience stores. lunch we would keep cheap too by eating at a random ramen joint, or whatever, and dinner we spent a *bit* more, but not much. you can get amazing food in japan for cheap, so no worries there. and we always stayed in cheap hotels too because we didn’t care. we’d be walking around all day anyway. i HIGHLY suggest the sunroute plaza shinjuku if you plan on staying in the tokyo area:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1066456-d320581-Reviews-Hotel_Sunroute_Plaza_Shinjuku-Shibuya_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.htmlcheap, clean, very friendly staff, and you CANNOT beat the location. it’s AMAZING. it’s so cheap for everything you get! so i highly recommend this hotel. for our 2nd trip, it was actually cheaper to book directly through their website, so look for that too.
and i totally understand you wanting to experience “real japan”. for our first trip, we did ALL the touristy things. i wanted to see it all! and for our 2nd trip, we still saw some touristy things, but for the most part i just wanted to be back in japan, and experience real japan. luckily, my friends over there GREATLY helped with this!!! having friends is key.
for one day, we went around looking a local art galleries and chatting with people there. AMAZING DAY:
http://japanniversaryinjuly.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-7-today-wasamazing.htmland on another day, my friends took us to a matsuri! it was so cool to just be there and experience the same thing they do.
http://japanniversaryinjuly.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-9-ramen-matsuri-and-yukata-oh-my.htmlAND THIS GOES FOR EVERYONE: GO TO A BASEBALL GAME. I DON’T CARE IF YOU LIKE BASEBALL OR HATE IT. GO. IT’S 10000000000x DIFFERENT FROM OUR GAMES IN THE U.S.
it was SUCH an amazing experience!!!!! my friend told me to go for our first trip, but we’re both not into sports, so i left it out. for our second trip, i put it in, and WOW. it was AMAZING!!! another way to experience “real japan”
http://japanniversaryinjuly.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-5-if-american-baseball-was-like.htmlTRUST ME!
i am just going to list random helpful pieces of advice lol…
- when you pack, pack a suitcase inside another suitcase for your trip there so you can bring f-tons of souvenirs home:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zMh2Nus1Y0c/Ti-kcxvCzsI/AAAAAAAAADc/o94WoNtOM4Y/s1600/IMG_1163+s.jpg- for exchanging money, my husband and i have found that getting INTERNATIONAL postal money orders first before you go, and then exchanging them at post offices once you are in japan is the best exchange. we just got a few of them in different amounts ($800, $500, etc). if you plan on flying into narita, there is a post office on like…the 4th floor that will do it for you. we’ve also exchanged them at the big shinjuku post office.
- ALSO! check the exchange rate on your specific credit card because sometimes that can be better than just changing out lots of cash. although, a lot of places in japan don’t accept credit cards, when we COULD use our credit card over cash, it was worth it to us to do it.- to go into tokyo from narita, holy crap get the suica/NEX deal:
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/nex/suica_nex.html
you can get this at the JR office at narita. you will be mainly using the suica card while in tokyo for train travel, and this is like…the best deal ever. especially for you since you will be there for 2 weeks, and you can probably get the round trip option (2 week max limit).if i think of more random helpful advice tips, i’ll come back and post them :)
nice!!! i love looking at photos! and gah! i’m jealous you climbed mt. fuji for sunrise! we almost did that on this past trip, but decided to leave it out to spend time in other areas. looks absolutely gorgeous, and i bet it was way better in person!
hi! yes! here i am! i know you’ve already read mine though from this past july, but i’ll post it for others!
http://japanniversaryinjuly.blogspot.com/2011/07/day-1-its-8pm-and-its-bedtime.htmli dont think i shared our first trip blog though? it’s from march/april 2010:
http://cherryblossomsareawesomes.blogspot.com/2010/03/after-26-hours-of-traveling.htmlso there’s another long one for you to read with LOADS of photos :) enjoy!
thanks! and october will be an excellent time to go! :) you should keep a blog when you go too. i’d love to see your trip!
thanks, kaona! :D
and hahaha missing! i will do my best! :) for our akihabara day on our itinerary, i actually already had the don quijote store on there as a specific place to visit for you since i found out it was AKB48′s “home” ;)
from january 10th – february 28th, All Nippon Airlines held a contest for 2 round-trip tickets to anywhere in japan. you submitted a photo, and people voted on your entry :)
thanks! and yep, they were disqualified for using photos that they did not take themselves ;) they were using other people’s photos as their entry, and the official rules CLEARLY stated that you needed to be the photographer of your entry. so, at the end of the contest, i sent ANA an e-mail showing them that the photos they were using were in a simple google search. the photo they used of mt. fuji is like…the most famous photo of mt. fuji ever lol…
so, not only did they cheat by getting to 1st place within a day, but they used other people’s photos too…
