How much does a trip to Japan cost? Here’s an honest breakdown of my spending across 9 days in Japan, visiting Kyoto and Tokyo. A night in Osaka, travel to Kyoto and two days in Kyoto are not included as I hadn’t started tracking at that point*. As you’ll see, Japan definitely isn’t the cheapest of countries to visit, especially not in comparison to other Asian destinations, but if you’re wondering how much spending money to take to Japan, then hopefully this post will help!
I’ll be sharing more about my recommendations for each city in a separate post, such as where we stayed and where we found cheap food, but for now this is just a spending log!
*It was in Kyoto that I had a real ‘oh fuck’ moment. You can read more about how that went down here, but essentially I added up everything we’d spent so far (since leaving the UK in December) and panicked. I knew in that moment that I needed to start budgeting and keeping track of our travel finances.
I was recommended the app ‘Trail Wallet’ by someone on Instagram, so gave the free trial a whirl and really liked the simplicity and the customisable angle of it. It costs £4.99 to upgrade to premium, which might seem a bit counterproductive when you’re trying to save money, but I think the right tools are necessary to do so!
All of the below is based upon two adults sharing and includes everything except international flights.
This is definitely a budget edition. There was plenty of sharing of single portions of food and 7/11 microwave meals! In Tokyo we had self-catering and access to a supermarket, so saved on eating out and were able to still buy a few treats (like chocolate and cheap wine!)
*Obviously if you’re on holiday you’re unlikely to spend on toiletries or laundry, but I’ve included every penny for total transparency!*
Japan Total Break Down
Average spend per day: £99.58
Total spend on –
- Accommodation: £580
- Food: £147.17
- Entertainment: £12.63
- Transport: £131.92
- Toiletries: £20.82
- Laundry: £3.71
Total spend over 9 days for 2 people: £896.25
Kyoto: 3 days, 2 nights (+ 1 night bus)
- Accommodation: £80 (capsule hotel)
- Food: £45.12
- Entertainment:£5.93
- Transport: £107.00 + £2.97 (night bus to Tokyo and local bus ticket)
Total cost: £241.02
Tokyo: 6 days, 5 nights
- Accommodation: £500 (budget self-catering hotel room near Shinjuku)
- Food: £98.05 + £6.70 (airport spending)
- Alcohol: £3.98
- Entertainment: £0.00
- Transport: £21.59
- Misc: £3.71 + £20.82 (laundry + toiletries)
Total cost: £654.25
Wondering how much money to take to Japan? Pin this post for later!
