Is this enough money (Yen) to have a 3-4 week holiday in Japan? Anybody been?

Question:

I'm in Japan at the moment and I'm wondering how much money I would need to travel around Japan for 3-4 weeks. I want to see all the main sights, such as Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima etc. I'm based in Osaka.

I will be travelling with a friend and we will stay at very cheap lodgings such as backpackers. We will buy very basic food. Our main expenses will be beer and entry fees to clubs and theme parks and other attractions.

Do you think 300,000 Yen will be enough? I just want a rough idea. If you've recently been on a trip to Japan, could you tell me how much it cost you and how long you were here, where you went and so on? Of course I won't have to buy plane tickets, but the train passes are incredibly expensive. I should be able to obtain a student pass.

Also, if you have any advice about the trains here, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you all! Have a good one and I look forward to your answers (:

Answer:

I think that will probably be enough, although it's hard to say. To travel between Osaka and Kyoto you won't need to take the Shinkansen, you can just take a JR line. To travel further north (Tokyo, Nagoya, etc) or further West (Hiroshima), you'll have to take the Shinkansen. Shinkansen passes are a bit pricey, but totally worth it because the trains are so nice and you can't even feel how fast they are traveling.

If you go to www.hyperdia.com you can get a good price estimate on how much your travel costs will amount to. It is an English site that will give you travel itineraries for trains and how much they cost. It's very reliable, I used it all the time when I lived in Japan.

If you find that your travel expenses are high I would think about skipping Nagasaki. It's much further south than anywhere else you are going, and I think you will find there is plenty to do and see otherwise.

For cheap food, combini have lots of cheap premade meals and they are all over the place, and there are plenty of ticket restaurants that are also delicious. As for clubs, I was only ever clubbing in Tokyo, and that can be a little pricey. But there are a lot of places that have specials (especially if you are a lady) if you go before a certain hour. Theme parks are comparable to ones in the US. I suggest Fuji-Q. Some of the roller coasters are awesome and you'll want to check out Mt. Fuji anyways.

I went to university in Japan for a while, but I didn't open a bank account there (a hassle). Tourists / foreigners can only withdraw 20,000 yen from an ATM a day, and Japan is a cash based society. So you can't really rely on cards all the time. Typically I withdrew 20,000yen every other week and it lasted for two weeks. I was getting breakfast and most dinners from a family though, so that 20,000yen was mostly being spent on one meal a day, rail passes, and fun stuff. I wasn't traveling that far on a day to day basis (just within Tokyo, mostly), so you'll need more obviously, but since I was surviving on that much per 2 weeks I think you can probably survive off of 300,000 for 4 weeks if your lodging and food expenses are kept on a tight budget. Just make sure you have traveler's checks or something reliable because you'll want to pay in cash a lot and cash won't always be readily available. Post offices and 7/11 are two places you should be able to definitely use an ATM.

Good luck, sorry for the wall of text :D