After spending two months backpacking in Japan (or rather raking in Japan), we have learned some tricks to save ... in today's post we are going to give you a few reference prices from Japan To know exactly how much it costs to travel through this amazing country, we will also give you some tips to make your trip as economical as possible 🙂
Eating in Japanese fast foods is priceless! We also have good news: unless you don't want to drink sodas or beers in restaurants you won't have to pay anything to drink since water and tea are free! While we are going to present some reference food / food prices in Japan:
- Water bottle: 100 ¥.
- Sliced bread: 100-150 ¥.
- Dozen eggs: ¥ 200.
- 1 liter of milk: 170-200 ¥.
- 1 kg of rice: ¥ 200-400.
- Tempura piece: ¥ 50-120.
- Lettuce: 150 ¥
- Dumplings: 80-130 ¥.
- Dango (rice cupcakes): ¥ 100.
- Soda can in vending machine: 50-200 ¥.
- Can of beer in supermarket: ¥ 150.
- Cookie / candy packages: ¥ 108.
- Kit kat packages (13 mini pieces): ¥ 198-300.
- Sushi tray in supermarket: ¥ 200-600.
- Sushi cylinder in supermarket: ¥ 90-130.
- Big Mac: 680 ¥.
- Coffee in bar / restaurants: ¥ 300.
Tips to save:
- Fruit and vegetables are usually very expensive (tomatoes for example are around 700 ¥ kg, apples about 500 ¥ kg ... although there may be cases of gourmet fruits such as watermelons or melons that cost more than € 100: -ooo ). If you don't want to pay a lot ... choose the bananas which are usually cheap hehe.
- It is better to buy in the supermarkets than in the convenience stores (7 eleven, Family mart, ...) since the prices are better. We found the cheapest supermarkets Hanamasa and Seiyu.
- The fastfood More convenient Japanese are Matsuya, Nakau, Yoshinoia and Sukiya.
Super tips to save:
- There are many places like Daiso where all products cost ¥ 100 (¥ 108 with taxa). They are good places to buy some snacks (especially sweets) or where to buy stationery / cosmetic / souvenir products.
- From 22h in most supermarkets / convenience stores usually put discounted products. It's easy to find real bargains with offers of up to 50%.
Accommodation is usually expensive in Japan. If you want to stay in Ryokan (traditional accommodation) be prepared to pay about ¥ 7,000-10,000 and about ¥ 4,000-6,000 in case you want to stay at the famous love hotels (obviously if you want to be only a few hours ... you will pay less!).
If instead you want to go for the cheapest there are optionscheap hostels where you will find double rooms for about ¥ 4,000-5,000.
If you travel alone the best options are the hostels with bedrooms for about 2,000-3,000 ¥ u capsule hotels for about 3,000 ¥.
Super tips to save:
- Couchsurfing! Not only does it allow you to stay for free in private homes but you will get something very valuable and difficult to get in Japan: contact with the locals. We tried it at Kobe and it was a great experience.
- Workaway! We did it in Tokyo where for a month we worked from 11 to 14 in a hostel in exchange for free accommodation. It was a very enriching experience and we agreed with very nice people and we left there with new friends.
Getting around Japan is not properly cheap. The most typical way to travel between the different cities of Japan is to use the JR Pass (7 days = ¥ 29,110; 14 days = ¥ 46,390; 21 days = ¥ 59,350). We travel with the Willer Express Bus Pass (3 trips = ¥ 10,000, 5 trips = ¥ 15,000), much cheaper than the JR Pass, although perhaps less comfortable for those in a hurry ... Do not forget to take a look to the comparison between JR Pass and the Bus Pass to help you choose the pass that suits you best.
Advice:
- An indispensable page to see schedules / prices of travel routes is www.hyperdia.com
And what about urban transport?
Well it is not super cheap either :-p although the good thing is that you can always walk (besides that you will find places that you would not see in other ways ... come on, you always have to look for the positive side!). Here we leave you some standard prices to move in the cities:
- Subway ticket (Tokyo): 120-300 ¥
- Tokyo day pass (subway): ¥ 700.
- Kyoto Day Pass (buses): ¥ 500.
- Hiroshima day transport pass (tram + ferry to Miyajima): ¥ 840.
Tips:
- The taxis They are prohibitive, so do not even think of climbing one if you are a backpacker!
- Our experience doing hitch-hiking: We had read that fingering in Japan was not super easy, but not very complicated. We did it in Kobe to go to Himeji and the truth is that the first car stopped us a few minutes after getting on the road, although the good run stopped shortly after: we waited 2 hours for the next transport and ended up catching the train hehe . On the way back we made a kind of makeshift blablacar because we also didn't get anyone to take us to Kobe for free ... ohhh!
We leave you other reference prices that might interest you:
- Marlboro cigarettes: ¥ 400.
- Movie ticket: ¥ 1,700.
- 1 liter of gasoline: ¥ 140.
- Karaoke: 1,500-4,000 ¥ It is best to go from 11pm and request the rate 'flat fee'till 6am. You can sing or even sleep! If drinks are included in the price, calculate that you will spend about ¥ 3000-4000.
- Dresses: ¥ 1,000-4,000 (there are quite a few used / vintage clothing stores where you can find bargains from 500 ¥).
Hopefully our post with reference prices and tips to save you have clarified something more the cost of living in Japan 🙂
