It’s here! The first article in what promises to be the most interesting, diverse and awesome series yet. My fantastic partner and I went backpacking around Japan for three whole, long, wonder-filled weeks. Just me, him and our backpacks (mine was decidedly funkier). As you may have guessed, these weeks were equally full of challenges and general survival feats. Did I mention, this was a backpacking trip?
An Introduction to Japan
Alright, a couple of words about our experience in Japan as a whole before getting into specifics. Japan was unlike anything we’d thought. Stereotypes and ‘what we’ve heard’ was just straight out of the window.
Tourist shops are extremely thin on the ground except in very specific locations (find out more in later articles). Kyoto is your best bet for souvenir shopping, as a general tip. If you do come across a souvenir shop, perhaps best to enter as you may not find another for a while…
English is not widely spoken or understood: in reality, we were heavily reliant on Google’s image translation. We had also armed ourselves with the words for please and thank you, among other things, for our backpacking trip.
Generally, I wouldn’t have said things ‘dirt cheap’. In short, some things in some places were cheap, and others were not. Basically, it wasn’t an ‘across the board’ rule. Drinks ranged from around £2-6 (soft and beers), and meals around £10-20. I’m sure somewhere there are cheaper places than where we went, but you’ve got to know about them, right? One of the cheapest places, surprisingly, was DisneySea Tokyo!
Shrines/Temples
One thing that did meet and exceed expectations, was the sheer quantity of shrines and temples around the cities. They can be found on skyscraper rooftops, in teensy alleyways and in the middle of a residential lot. They’re absolutely everywhere.
The sheer size of some, the red colour of some, the designs of some of the gates were really marvels to behold. I loved the red ones, but the really old and rickety ones tucked away in unlikely places whilst we were backpacking about oozed real character.
Mosquitos
I hadn’t pegged Japan for being brimming with mozzies. In the last two years, mosquitoes have adored my body and make me feel so wanted and special, by biting me absolutely everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Previously, they didn’t bother with me: they showed me no love.
Within a couple of days of our backpacking trip, I was bitten to shreds, especially on my legs. Top Travel Tip: Bring mosquito repellent or whatever you use. In desperation, I went to a pharmacy and the helpful lass served me this wee bottle here. It’s curative, not preventative and it stops the itching. It’s pretty darn good honestly. Needs frequently (hourly) applications and can drip a bit cos it’s liquid but it didn’t half save my sanity and scratching during our backpacking trip.
Technology
Supposed to be one of the most technologically-advanced countries in the world, and barely any hotels offer Netflix connections or movies for free (even when paying, very limited selection). Lifts and escalators were out of order and organisation wasn’t very optimal. We even went to a ‘Robot Hotel’ and I wouldn’t have said it was any more advanced than a non-robot hotel.
The most technologically-advanced element was the toilets. Yes, you read that right. The place you go to do your business in moderate peace.
Well, Japan have disturbed that peace. These technological beasts can play a sound when you enter, open/close automatically like slow snapping turtles and have more buttons than my mother’s telephone.
Heated seats, bidet functions and extra for the women and goodness knows what other functions (either in Japanese or no written instructions whatsoever) await your rear. In a country often with temperatures higher than 30 degrees, what on earth do we need heated seats for? Our sweaty backpacking carcasses cry out for coolness and ice, not lava seats of death. No thank you. Anyway, moving on…
Local Welcome
We had heard that the Japanese were extremely welcoming, polite and respectful as a people. We’d heard the trains run on time and even a one-minute delay would incur apologies and such. Our information came from the media, and other accounts of travels and general hear-say.
All in all, we did not find this to be the case. We did, of course, meet some lovely, kind people throughout our three-week backpacking tour, however, these stood out as exceptions. Unfortunately, we found most people to be rather neutral, somewhat uncaring and even on a couple of occasions, downright rude and unpleasant. We some individuals move away from us on the metro and some ignore us to our faces. We got the feeling, especially in Tokyo, they didn’t like nor want foreign tourists there.
All things considered, these observations are based on our personal experiences and may not reflect your own. It’s important to judge people on how they treat you and others around you and NOT on hear-say and stereotypes.
Plans Booked and Pennies Spent
Three weeks backpacking across a country on the other side of the world is not cheap. There is also quite a hefty bit of planning involved. Luckily, I had a spreadsheet, a cashback website and a hyperfocus like no tomorrow. It all started back on Black Friday Eve, November 2023…
We’d been talking about Japan for a wee while and decided Black Friday may be an optimum time to check prices and get some snazzy deals. As I recall, we didn’t get any specific Black Friday discount on the flights except being far in advance, and cashback through the site we use (more information below). I had requested the days off from work in advance (needing special permission for three consecutive weeks) and confirmed the dates when I saw which prices were best.
Over the next couple of days, we worked on getting some hotels, in April we booked some more and throughout May and June I booked attraction entry tickets as they opened sales. Finally, after weeks of trying, at the start of June we managed to book the final outstanding hotel for Mount Fuji.
Is It A Plane? Yeah!
Firstly, there were no direct flights to Tokyo from Edinburgh. The best connection for us in terms of duration and flight times was to connect in Heathrow.
As has been noted in previous articles, I’m a bit of an ‘eco-warrior’ and strive to do my best for the environment and society. Sustainability is very important to me. Therefore, I researched everything I could to try and avoid this short domestic flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow, in order to get the plane out to Tokyo.
Alternative Transport Research
Taking the bus to London would have cost us £30pp each way. In particular, we’d need to travel all night and then change buses in London. We wouldn’t know where we were going, and in my opinion, too many things could have gone wrong: delays, traffic, lost, breakdowns.
Comparatively, the train would have also meant an all-night journey, starting at around 8pm and arriving into Heathrow at 5am including two changed and a 4-hour layover in London at around 3am. In addition, the price of the train tickets was much higher than the bus. Again, lots of room for delays and issues.
Unfortunately, we simply could not trust the public transport to run on time, without issue, for multiple connections in order to get to the airport on time. It was £70pp cheaper to get the flight from London, but throw in the extra time and it starts to not add up.
Obviously, for such a large and far-away voyage, we wanted to maximise our time backpacking in Japan as much as possible. As well as budget being very important and our safety. Wandering around London at 3am, with huge backpacks and a trip’s amount of money on us didn’t seem very safe.
Offsetting Carbon Dioxide
A few of you may have read the article I published a day or so before leaving for Japan. No? Well, it’s pretty interesting, if I say so myself. It’s about Carbon Offsetting which is an alternative way to mitigate the harmful effects of the ‘necessary’ domestic flights.
You can find the article by clicking here, or, in a word or two, we donated money to a website equivalent to 1.5x the carbon our domestic flight would emit. This company are involved in many sustainable and green initiatives and programmes to benefit the environment and small communities.
This made our return flights from Edinburgh to Heathrow on the carbon negative side, for £9.25 each. Very worth it, if you ask me.
Looking at the departure boards in the airport, you can see 2 flights per hour at least going to London, then another couple going to Birmingham etc. Personally, I’d have them be once or twice a day for emergencies, and we should follow France’s example by banning domestic flights, where a decrease has been noted in 2023 in domestic flight emissions compared to 2022.
Flight Times and Prices
In the end, our flights for our backpacking adventure were as follows:
27th June 2024 :
05:55-07:30 Edinburgh (EDI) to London Heathrow (LHR)
09:10-07:00 London Heathrow (LHR) to Tokyo Haneda (HND)
Total Duration: 17h 10 mins
18th July 2024:
13:15-19:55 Tokyo Haneda (HND) to London Heathrow (LHR)
21:15-22:40 London Heathrow (LHR) to Edinburgh (EDI)
Total Duration: 17h 25 mins
We paid £1098.75 each for the return flights. Taking TopCashback into consideration, the total is £1087.77.
Money Saving Tip
First and foremost: This is Not a Paid Advertisement. This is a genuine tip, and I genuinely use this service.
We purchased these flights with Expedia, and went through TopCashback. It’s a cashback website which offers you back a percentage of what you spend online. It’s fairly simple but the cashback can take a long time to process. I find it fantastic for purchasing things you’re going to purchase anyway, such as flights, hotels, DIY and technology products.
They offered us 1% cashback. You’re right, it does sound small. However, that was £21.97 back for free. That’s lunch for my partner and I on our fourth day of backpacking. Once the cashback has processed and is payable (this can take a looooonnggg time), then they offer you either a fee-free bank transfer, or a gift voucher with a variable bonus too.
You can get up to 10% cashback when booking hotels on Expedia or Hotels.com (now the same company anyway with joint loyalty scheme), through TopCashback. Trust me, it all adds up. Since joining TopCashback in 2015 I’ve earned £1,042.97.
It costs you nothing (£5 member fee deducted from any earnings – no earnings, no fee), and it’s minimal effort. If you want to try it, you can get a £10 sign-up bonus by clicking my referral link:
https://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/toriajoyce
It is my understanding you need to earn £10 in cashback before you receive the sign-up bonus. Only use it for things you’re going to buy anyway, and you’re saving money!
British Airways Experience
It is one of the airlines I haven’t had much experience with, despite being British. Everything these days seems to be Easyjet and Ryanair so other planes and aircraft seem much more exotic. Even the traditionally-British one on British soil. They’re not reputed to be the best airline, although the prices charged seem to suggest otherwise. Correct me if I’m wrong, but when people hear “British Airways” they think short journeys, expensive prices, not great value.
Perhaps if you’re of higher means and don’t sit in economy, you may actively choose to fly with specific companies over others. If, like me, your decisions are based on price and flight times, then we don’t care too much about the company. Yet, they always thank you for choosing their airline. So yeah, not much choice in terms of flights across to the other side of the world, but I didn’t even know that British Airways did such a long flight!
London to Japan and Back Again
The aircrafts were large, clean and really rather comfortable. In particular, the seats had wee winged headrests and the legroom wasn’t noticeably poor (I am 5ft 2”). The built-in screens to each seat provided a pretty impressive selection of movies, TV shows, also for international and younger audiences too. Didn’t fancy watching something, why not play Angry Birds? They had games too.
The staff were very nice, and quite reactive. My partner tried to watch a movie but the system had frozen, thereupon the staff member went to reset and the issue was sorted in around 15 minutes. Worth it for the 14-hour flight.
The meals were very tasty, and they also supplied you with an extra complimentary drink just before dinner. As a matter of fact, Brewdog have brewed them their very own beer which I think adds to the experience. We had brought our own sandwiches for the flight. Although they went down well, we could have done without them and not starved, especially the third one.
For the return flight, the time in between meals was longer and many people were very hungry. The staff were understanding and provided snack boxes at the back of the cabin you could help yourselves. The air hostess even offered my partner an instant noodle pot and very soon she was making them here, there and everywhere.
Tokyo Airport
Arriving into a new country can be daunting. This time, I didn’t read any of the language; it all looked so strange. So starkly different from Roman letters and European languages, I felt a bit ‘deaf’ in the sense that all the signs, people’s utterances and posters washed over me as white noise as I couldn’t understand a word. We had the basics to say hello, thank you and please.
Customs and Security
It was essential to fill out immigration and customs forms once landed and out of the aircraft. Usually, they hand them out on the plane but ours didn’t have any. The forms asked names, addresses and hotel information. It took approximately 5 minutes to fill out appropriately.
Our first impression of the airport and customs area was that of a laboratory, dealing with unclean specimens. There was a doormat to disinfect your feet before entering customs. There was a desk worker on the entrance, but they didn’t even deign to look up and just waved a hand at us to move us past them. Very welcoming. A sign of the sentiments to come?
There are signs all over mentioning a QR code without any context or explanation. In reality, the QR codes were an alternative to the paper forms that we had already filled out. It was an alternative method, it seems. We had our photographs taken and our fingerprints scanned which was slightly daunting.
Japan SIM Card
In brief, through my research, I looked at options for both pocket wifi and SIM cards as solutions for obtaining mobile data connection whilst in Japan. Had we been a larger party, pocket wifi would have been great. For our situation, the SIM card was the cheapest option.
As an experiment, we decided that one person should purchase a SIM card, and the other go without in order to provide you readers with a conclusive answer on is it necessary. In short, yes. I would definitely go with the SIM card. Our requirements for Google Translate especially and internet browser was too high to get by on the WIFI. This stems from our complete lack of language and being first-timers in Japan.
However, if your Japanese is alright, or you haven’t planned a crazy whirlwind itinerary, there are a handful of free WIFI spots around the cities and most restaurants.
Where to buy SIM Card?
We had planned to purchase the SIM Card in the airport. I had read there were two places to purchase one. We could not find the first with the information we had, but we did manage to find the second place which you can see on the itinerary.
Come out of the customers exit and turn right. Walk straight down the corridor and you’ll see the shop JAL ABC at the far end. We purchased: 30-day Unlimited SIM Card and used the coupon code “3105” for a 10% discount. We paid 6300 yen, which equates to roughly £33. Pretty pricey.
Top Travel Tip: Check out the SIM Cards in the Air BicCamera shop on the left-hand side before you reach the JAL ABC shop. They look to be much cheaper although there are no unlimited options. But with 35GB and 50GB options, that should see you just right.
The photo shows the 50GB SIM to be 5400 yen, or £28.50.
We didn’t see these until after our JAL purchase, but we did want to test out the place and coupon code I’d researched beforehand so we could give you tried and tested information.
Hotel Prices
Our backpacking tour took us all over Japan, so accordingly, we needed several hotels. Not only across cities, but we also chose multiple hotels within the same city (Tokyo, Nagoya) to maximise the experience and minimise travel time. In total, we booked 16 hotels for 20 nights.
With the exception of the hut on Mount Fuji, which was a pain in the neck to confirm and only possible to book direct, we used Expedia, Booking.com and Hotels.com. As I have said above, we used TopCashback and earned a nice little return on our spend. Not only the TopCashback return, but also the hotel sites themselves offer loyalty bonuses and ‘point’ schemes, which also add up 😊
For all the juicy hotel details, photos and reviews, you’ll need to click here to read my Jam-Packed Japan Accommodation Evaluation article.
Quick Stats
Total Gross Hotel Spend: £1378.14
Total Hotel Spend after TopCashback: £1280.30
Average Nightly Cost: £64.02
Most Expensive Hotel per night: £201.23
Cheapest Hotel per night: £24.87
Is the Japanese Rail Pass worth it?
Yet another topic that gave me hours of research and comparison calculations. Japan offer a tourist Railcard option called the Japan Rail Pass or JR Pass. It’s pretty pricey, although at first glance, it seems like a good deal. Upon further inspection, however, I found it not to be useful for us.
For example, the 7-day rail pass costs 50,000, 80,000 and 100,000 yen for an ordinary 7-day, 14-day and 21-day pass respectively, per person. That’s roughly £260, £420 and £522. There are also so many restrictions and uncertainties where you can and can’t use the Rail Pass: certain companies, certain lines of certain networks etc.
Basically, there was no point in getting the pass for the first 7 days as we based solely in Tokyo. Then, over the course of the next two weeks backpacking, we had the following longer journeys (each colour represents a 7-day window):
Tokyo to Mount Fuji – Buses
Mount Fuji to Nagoya – Bus and Trains
Nagoya to Fukuoka – Shinkansen/Bullet Train
Fukuoka to Hiroshima – Shinkansen/Bullet Train
Hiroshima to Kobe – Shinkansen/Bullet Train
Kobe to Arima – 3 Trains
Arima to Osaka – Bus and Local Train
Osaka to Kyoto – Train and Metro
Kyoto to Tokyo – Shinkansen/Bullet Train
In essence, a journey from Nagoya to Fukuoka by Shinkansen costs 19,110 yen. I calculated that over the course of the two weeks, we’d spend 74,190 yen (£387). That also includes some of the local travel. Local travel was around 200-400 yen per journey. During our backpacking trip, we used the Shinkansen a number of times. Figuring out the different tickets caused us a fair bit of confusion and nothing is clear. A journey ticket, an ‘express’ ticket and a seat ticket… stay tuned for a more in-depth information.
All in all, even the 7-day ticket didn’t benefit us any which way I calculated it. The 14-day ticket was also more expensive. IMPORTANT: Don’t just blindly buy this pass because it claims to save you money – do the calculations and workings for yourself! You’d need to do a 3+ hour long journey every day for it to be worth it. Funny enough, we actually wanted to spend some time in the cities we had arrived to.
It’s important to mention that the Suica IC card was no longer being sold and unavailable before our departure. There are local metro and public transport passes and cards, although we wouldn’t have gotten the full use out of them either really.
Local Public Bus Pre-Booking
Researching the optimum journey via public transport both to and from Mount Fuji was just as difficult as everything else related to Mount Fuji. Although nothing beats the difficulty of the descent… sod that, if you excuse my French. Never again….
We only booked one bus in advance before leaving British soil, and that was £10 (2000 yen), booked directly on the company’s website. For full details on the journey to and from Mount Fuji, as well as up and down it, on it but thankfully not under it, click here for the article.
Find out our total pre-departure spend calculation by reading on!
Activities Pre-Booked
In order to minimise the amount of cash we’d carry around on our persons and need to spend whilst out there, we booked several activities and attractions in advance, between May and June.
We booked our activities either direct with the company, or on one of two third party sites: GetYourGuide and Klook. Previously, I had never heard of Klook, but when looking for reputable ticket-purchasing sites for Japanese attractions, I came across several recommendations for Klook. It’s pretty much just your average ticket booking website, but you can earn TopCashback with both that and GetYourGuide and it’s simple enough to use.
For prices and reviews of individual highlights and attractions, you can check out the relevant city-specific article. Just give me a wee chance to write them 😉 Below, you’ll find a handful of images of activities and visits that we pre-booked for our backpacking adventure.
Restaurant Reservations
Overall, we said we wouldn’t research many restaurants or prebook in advance and just go where the backpacking takes us. We made exceptions to ensure we tried Kobe Beef in Kobe, and tried the Zatou Fishing restaurant in Osaka. These were booked online in advance via online portals on their websites.
Total Pre-Departure Spend
Alright, we’ve reached the point in the article 40% of you are asleep, 50% probably didn’t make it this far, and 10% are my family and blackmail victims. I mean, dear friends who love my articles. BUT this is the interesting part.
Let’s talk money. I’m about to reveal to you how much we spent on the Japan trip prior to departure. I am specifically talking about all flights, the Carbon Offsetting, all hotels, and our pre-booked activities. And the grand total is….£4,159.81
That’s for two people. That’s what we spent before our feet boarded any aircraft. Is that good, do you reckon? Read the other upcoming articles to find out all the incredible things we saw and did.
Of this amount, £135.68 we received back from TopCashback as a bank transfer (completed yesterday 23/09/24). Therefore, the net total for two people would be:
£4024.13!
Our budget, or idea, for the entire trip was actually £6350.
Keep reading to find out the post-departure spend and therefore our total Japan Trip cost.
Cool, Calm and Collected Currency Exchange
Usually, for foreign currency, I usually use either Sainsbury’s or Tesco Travel Money Bureau. Nevertheless, I always price check the required currency and shop around for the best rate. On this occasion, the Post Office offered the best rate. You had to pick my jaw up off of the floor. It was the last thing I expected. Indeed, they offered the best rate and they sent the cash to your house with free expedited delivery. And you could buy it through TopCashback. Win, win!
We exchanged £1561.54 and received 300,000.00 Japanese Yen. Rate: 192.1182
Basically, an average ballpark figure was 200 yen = £1, 1000 yen was a fiver and 2000 a tenner.
Always shop around for your cash, so your cash can shop further!
Backpacking Budget Estimation
As I have said in the previous paragraph, our guesstimation for the entire trip was £2350. We’d already spent £4024.13, and so I’d calculated all the meals, entrances, souvenirs, transport and more would come to £1,165 per person. Making a rounded-down figure of £6350 for three weeks backpacking around Japan for me and my boyfriend.
The Backpacking Itinerary Before and After
Beady-eyed individuals may have caught a glimpse of my itinerary for Japan concealed (not well) in my Carbon Offsetting article. It’s too large to put directly into this article, but click this link to access the raw document (yes, you can have it).
We stuck to this itinerary for most of the trip. In fact, I can pat myself on the back because 90% of the tour went according to my meticulous planning and design. In spite of life and reality having a starkly contrast take on your best-laid plans, we found we modified only a couple of bits and skipped just a couple of things due to timing and tiredness. One or two was a plain, old “couldn’t be bothered” as well.
In view of these slight tweaks, I’ve re-jigged (technical term) the itinerary to more or less reflect our actual trip. Timings that weren’t quite kept are highlighted in orange, or a slight re-order, and things we skipped are in blue. I shan’t go through each line to replace the timings, but the differences were generally less than an hour earlier/later.
If you have any questions, please reach out! Feel free to download the itinerary and use for your own travels – you can tag me in any photos or let me know what worked or what didn’t.
Total Japan Backpacking Trip Spend
Finally, after adding together everything we spent in Japan both in cash, in card and the amount spent before arriving to Japan, I’ve arrived to our total amount spent. I did not include bank fees and charges for using a bank card abroad because, obviously, every bank is different. We’re talking less than £35, however.
The estimated total pre-departure was: £6350 rounded
The final, unadulterated, unedited total for our three-week backpacking Japan Tour is: £6408.11
I was less than £60 off when estimating. Indeed, I did give fairly generous estimations and added a little extra here or there to account for discrepancies. Although, I must admit I’m darn proud of how close that is!
The next article will be all about the hotels we stayed in. My Accommodation Evaluation: hotel features, packing tips, breakfast ratings and of course…. Pictures. Always pictures.
Then, you’ll be drowning in articles all about each Japanese city we went to, our highlights, our experiences, to help you form your own backpacking trip, or just simply amuse you whilst you stir your tea. Whichever it is, stay tuned!
4 responses to “Jam-Packed Japan: Our Mammoth 3-Week Backpacking Adventure”
So very informative & from the heart
Great trip and good information
Very detailed, and an entertaining read! The tips on how to prepare for the language barrier will be especially useful for those looking to go. Sounds like an amazing trip!
Loved how much detail was put into it, will stay tuned!