10 Things You Need To Do When You Plan A Budget Trip To Japan — Part II
If you’re planning your first trip to Japan, my stories will have you covered and I will try my best to not let you down. In case you missed Part I, you can read it here.
6. Pick The Right Time Of The Year
If you’re vaguely familiar with Japanese customs, hanami or flower viewing is a huge deal. It’s the onset of sakura (cherry blossom)/spring season and countless tourists will flock to Japan during the end of April or the beginning of May to witness Japan’s national flower bloom in all its glory. It’s quite a sight but it’s also the most expensive time of the year to visit Japan. Ticket prices skyrocket and accommodation isn’t even close to cheap (unless you book months in advance, I suppose). Sakura season is indeed the best time to visit, unless…you’re on a budget. So, what’s the next best thing? Skip the monsoon and head there straight during autumn! We went around the second week of October (perfectly timed it for my birthday) and stayed until just before Halloween. Autumn had begun setting in and it was absolutely gorgeous. The best part? Ticket prices to Japan are very cheap during this time of the year and we took full advantage of it. A round trip should cost you around 33,000 INR.
My recommendation: Mid October/End of October — Mid November.
7. A Little Research About Japanese Food Will Go A Long Way
Japanese food, is hands down my favourite food to eat but it can be daunting if you aren’t too familiar with it. My boyfriend and I both speak, read and write the language so getting around and ordering at restaurants was fairly easy for us. Most Japanese restaurants do not have English menus. The places that will offer you a truly authentic experience, are izakayas (small pubs that serve food) — these cater mostly to the locals and they definitely won’t have an English menu. Reading up a bit about the different food before you go will really help. Most ramen and udon restaurants in Japan have vending machines to take your order! Pictures of the food are displayed along with the name, you feed in the money, pick the one you desire, get a ticket and give it to your server. One evening in Akihabara, we stumbled into a quaint ramen place that easily had over 50 choices on the vending machine. We tried to read the names of the dishes as quickly as possible but there were a couple of people standing in queue behind us. The pressure to be considerate started creeping in and we ended up picking two of the most interesting looking pictures and stepped out of the growing line of hungry, purse lipped Japanese people who were too nice to tell us off. Once we got a table, with rumbling tummies we prayed that we hadn’t ordered something ridiculous. It ended up being one of the best bowls of ramen we devoured during the entire trip! In spite of the language barrier, servers are always patient and polite and they’ll help you out with pretty much anything you need.
8. Keep Track Of How Much You’re Spending On Sushi At A Kaiten-Zushi
Kaiten-zushi are restaurants that serve sushi on conveyor belts. Each plate of sushi has a different colour. The colour denotes a price. Blue or yellow are usually the cheapest and black or golden, the most expensive. At some restaurants you pick them off the belt and keep stacking them up next to you, while the others have screens where you can pick your orders and it whizzes to your table on a long tray via the conveyor belt. The server counts your stack once you’re done eating and you pay the total accordingly. There are a number of kaiten-zushi chains in Japan — Genki Sushi, Ganso Sushi and Sushi-Ro being the most popular ones in terms of quality and price. You have to be careful though,since it’s cheap and has so much to offer, you might end up spending more! Getting a seat at these places can be pretty difficult too but it’s worth it. Just keep a check on those plates you’re stacking up and you’re good.
9. Pre-Game With Sake From The Super Market And Beer From A Vending Machine
Before you head out to experience the nightlife in Tokyo, stock up on some bottles of sake from the local supermarket. A 500ml bottle of decent sake will only cost you 250–300 INR. I don’t know about you, but that gets me pretty happy before I stumble into a karaoke bar. Here’s another one my favourite things about Japan — there are vending machines everywhere. That’s not all, there are vending machines for everything. Want some coffee? Hit the vending machine. Need some cigarettes? Yep, the vending machine has them. It starts to rain, there’s a vending machine for umbrellas too. When I say everything, I mean everything. So it’s no surprise that you can buy that perfectly chilled can of Asahi at a vending machine for 120 INR (YES!). If you buy a can of Suntory beer, it’s even cheaper — 92 INR (Suntory, Kirin and Asahi dominate a large part of the beverage market in Japan). You need age identification to buy alcohol and cigarettes from the vending machine, though so most people just end up going to a store. You can solve this by getting a Tapso card that requires you to fill a form available at most stores and cigarette shops in Japan to apply for the card.
10. Know When To Hit A Karaoke Bar
You can’t go to Japan and not have the whole karaoke experience. If you go to a karaoke bar in Shibuya on a Saturday night, don’t be surprised if you’re broke the next day. Most karaoke bars have rules — you have to purchase at least a couple of drinks while you sing. Half an hour of karaoke in a big district like Shibuya, with a drink, would cost you about 2,500 INR. It’s a little steep if you plan on drinking more and bar hopping that night. Here’s an economical alternative: On weekdays, most karaoke bars have happy hours between 5pm-8pm. The drinks are cheaper and 30 minutes of karaoke would cost you nearly half the amount! You’re in Japan, you have nowhere else to be and you can totally afford to be drunk at 6 pm on a weekday, passionately belting out a Radiohead song or aggressively rapping to Eminem.
There’s a bunch of other stuff to consider when it comes to maintaining a budget where you’re travelling here. More on that in my future posts!
Disclaimer: All images in this post belong to Michelle Varghese
