The goal for our RTW trip is to keep spending to under $100 USD/day.
Hitting our target amount will be easy in some countries, but others like Japan will prove to be more difficult. We spent 12 days and nights in Japan, so having a plan in place for lodging and transportation was important to stay on track. These two areas tend to be the biggest expense while traveling, so advanced planning was key. Some countries may afford us to be more relaxed in these areas, however, we still thoroughly enjoyed our time in both Tokyo and Kyoto.
Japan will be one of the more expensive countries we visit during our trip, but with a little research and some sacrifices (sleeping in an airport and on a bus, not utilizing bullet trains) we were able to keep spending to $85.17 USD/day for 2 people. Note: This does not include our initial flights from the U.S. Moving forward we will include all transportation used in getting to a country.
Spending Breakdown
Accommodations: $356.01 USD
Transportation: $201.01 USD
Food: $415.73 USD
Sight Seeing: $21.92 USD
Other: $27.37 USD (laundry, showers and supplies)
Total Cost: $1,022.04 USD
Other stats from our time in Japan
# of beds slept in: 2
# airports slept in: 1
# trains/buses slept in: 1
Favorite Activity/Location: (Alana) Hiking Mt. Daimonji (Matt) Hanging out with Kazu in Kyoto
Favorite Food: (Alana) Udon with fried bean curd (Matt) Ramen
Favorite Beer: (Alana) Asahi Super Dry (Matt) Asahi Super Dry
Worst Experience: This one is hard for both of us as Japan was great! (Alana) Our first attempt at the subway in Tokyo (Matt) No bad experiences to think of.
Is Alana still a vegetarian (pescatarian)?: Yes! If you follow us on Facebook you know she tried raw octopus though!
Could we live here?: YES – Kyoto for sure, but probably not Tokyo.
How do you think we did?! Did you think the daily average would be higher?