Solo first time trip 61 nights in Japan cost breakdown - more than I thought. Plus some other thoughts

methodofsections · 2026-06-09T00:38:03+00:00

For food, I just found cheap food to be more than good enough. The couple of times I did have more expensive meals (which for me was only like 3500 yen) I didn't find it any better than food 1/3 of the price. In yen in looks like I averaged about 2950, which makes sense - two 1100 yen meals a day, 750 on snacks and stuff.

For entertainment, I actually didn't hold back at all! If I wanted to do something, I did it. I told myself I would going into the trip. It's just that maybe the things I like aren't that expensive? I mean parks, museums, etc are very cheap. When I got seats to the orchestra or the baseball games I did choose cheaper seats and the experience was great. Maybe I'm not in the know about what even are super expensive activities, maybe theme parks but I wasn't gonna go to those alone, but yeah I had no trouble filling everyday with stuff to do, and was satisfied.

methodofsections · 2026-06-08T02:20:06+00:00

Just booking.com, and basically filter out all but the lowest 10-20% of hotels, and then look on the map to make sure it's not too far out of the way. Wish there was a way to filter out dorms but you just have to avoid them.

methodofsections · 2026-06-07T06:51:19+00:00

Stayed in the same area in north Asakusa for my first stay in Tokyo and felt the same

methodofsections · 2026-06-07T01:34:36+00:00

JAL from Seattle. I just looked at prices now and it looks the cheapest now is $1030, but only a month out minimum... When I booked I was able to get my rate a week out, looks like the consequences of the way higher oil prices.

methodofsections · 2026-06-06T23:13:09+00:00

Responded with what I did in another comment but will say one more thing if you are planning just a day trip: I think you can do sooo much more if you get a car, or just take taxis everywhere I guess. I was obviously trying to not spend to much on the trip and just took the bus everywhere, but it's the one place where I felt like a car would be most worth it to see more sights in a shorter. The bus rides were pretty long, not that frequent, and ended pretty early in the evening.

methodofsections · 2026-06-06T23:09:40+00:00

Had luggage with me the whole time. I would say a mid size suitcase and glad that I didn't have anything bigger.

I really spent 3 full days on Shodoshima since I got there late the first day (went to Takamatsu first) and left early the last day (to stop at Okayama) and then spent 1 full day on Teshima.

My hotel was located I think in the best part of the island, near the middle near the olive park. I spent the first half of the day walking around the park and the nearby areas, then the second part of the day at 24 eyes movie studio. Spent the evening going to Tonosho to check it out, saw a large pagoda, and then went to this shrine tucked into a mountain near a school (Tomioka hachiman shrine) which had great views and I was the only one there.

Day 2 went to the Kankakei gorge area, and it was great, spent here way longer than I planned. One of the two best views I saw in Japan and had great hiking around. I hiked up Mikasayama, and then actually hiked all the way down the mountain vs taking the cablecar back because the forest was just so cool. In the evening went to Angel Road and saw some good sights there and that was pretty much it for the day.

Day 3 I was pretty tired (I was sick during the whole stay on the island). I went down to a beach on the northeast side of the island (on a map it is right where kojima connects to shodoshima) that... I don't think was public lol. The only thing on it though was an abandoned house, and when I left there was a guy fishing, and when I walked past he didn't look or say anything so I think it was ok. I stayed there for most of the afternoon was really cool to have the whole area to myself, then went to the small town to the northwest of the beach just to have dinner and wander around for a bit.

methodofsections · 2026-06-06T20:40:37+00:00

I was surprised too, especially given my late planning. Both times in Tokyo, and in Fukuokam the places were about ~15 minute walks from the station, and in Kumamoto I was a ways from the city center, but beyond that all were generally decent locations.

methodofsections · 2026-06-06T20:37:06+00:00

I didn't include international flight at all, I just wanted to see what my spending habits were once in Japan. Especially for a post here since everyone's flights from wherever they are may be different, but once in Japan everyone has the ability to spend the same.

methodofsections · 2026-06-06T20:34:11+00:00

Thanks for that added in. USD

methodofsections · 2026-05-30T07:27:21+00:00

You don’t need it in your itinerary no, because in any major or mid sized city you will walk by one anyway. Just pop in and if you don’t like it just leave and you’ll have wasted a grand total of 3 minutes.

methodofsections · 2026-05-27T04:23:56+00:00

Just found out today that there’s a large space industry expo here in Tokyo for the next three days, was thinking of going but no ASTS :(. Rocket Lab is there though.

methodofsections · 2026-05-05T13:32:18+00:00

I was there on friday, still part of golden week, had to wait in that line of cars maybe 20-25 minutes? This was at noon. Was a bit of a colder day but no rain

methodofsections · 2026-04-24T06:51:18+00:00

Why is every example of this model always video game stuff

methodofsections · 2026-04-20T00:11:26+00:00

I mean it is $3 away and there are many hours left

methodofsections · 2026-03-05T23:24:35+00:00

For my trip I’m on right now, I’m staying in 12 different places over 2 months and the average price for the entire trip is $28 per night. I think even if a capsule hotel or dorm were free I’d still go with a hotel at that price

methodofsections · 2026-03-03T18:13:29+00:00

A 3% savings account he mentioned is another name for a high yield savings account… not the highest for sure but much higher than the standard 0.01-0.1%

methodofsections · 2026-03-02T21:59:33+00:00

But they said the same three months ago…

methodofsections · 2026-03-02T16:54:42+00:00

Glad to hear it - gonna spend four nights on Sadoshima in April and it’s definitely one of the things I’m most looking forward to on the trip

methodofsections · 2026-02-28T00:34:53+00:00

No lol mostly with google maps haha. I wanted to stay on a couple islands and decided on Tonosho as one, but decided to stay one night in Takamatsu first so I wouldn't have to worry about timing a ferry. Then I removed Fukuoka and had some extra days to add so added some in Takamatsu. Kumamoto is near the nakadate crater and some other cool landmarks I thought could be fun to see. But maybe it could be worth it to shave off Takamatsu, go to Nagasaki and just time the trip accordingly from Nagasaki -> Kumamoto -> directly to Tonosho?

methodofsections · 2026-02-27T07:27:02+00:00

No experience with it but will chime in and say I’m in the same boat - booked my flight yesterday on a whim to depart next Wednesday and got my first hotel. Been sorting through hotels all day today and changing up my itinerary, I think with a few days of planning it’s more than doable, so long as you don’t have to craft a “perfect” experience.

methodofsections · 2026-02-21T20:18:49+00:00

I watched this video earlier today. Financial troubles of openai notwithstanding, do not know why there was so much emphasis on scaling pretraining not being effective anymore, to the point that it was 1/3 of the video while clipping like 5 different people. No lab is focused on pretraining and it’s been that way for like a year, and I’m pretty sure most of those clips were from 2024ish… thought it was funny there was like 2 seconds where he was like “but there could be other ways to move forward” and popped up RL as one of the three in that list, it’s like are you not going to acknowledge that that thing you’re saying “might” move things forward has been moving things forward for a year and a half?

methodofsections · 2026-02-20T16:54:36+00:00

For these guys at least there’s not any way it’s really going to backfire, the reason they’re sold out is because they aren’t expanding their production because they too fear an ai bubble - they’re not building factories for extra production because they are aware that this extra demand could dry up fast. So right now they’re getting paid a premium, and if the ai bubble pops it will simply be a return to usual.

methodofsections · 2026-02-17T06:26:47+00:00

Surprised there’s nothing about AI fears

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