What it cost: First 30 days in Japan

By / August 16, 2024 / monthly spending tracker

Monthly spending reports are something we enjoy creating, reviewing – and sharing here on this blog – as early retired budget-minded slow travelers.

Those posts show what it can cost to live in various places around the globe. The key is the word LIVE. Staying and living ‘like a local’ for a month or two someplace can really cut costs on both lodging and food.

This time, our reality is different. We are behaving much more like tourists… vacationers. And we are in a more expensive developed country.

Currently we are in Japan. In our first 30 days here, we have stayed in Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Kyoto, & Osaka. In coming months we will visit a few more places in Japan, and then South Korea and Taiwan. In these places, we are traveling ‘faster’ than our usual. Truthfully, we want to experience different locales in each northern nation and then depart before the real winter weather comes to East Asia.

Bottom line, this second half of 2024 is going to require a higher budget than our monthly goal of $2,000, which we set as the budget for places like India, Turkey, and Philippines. Now we are hoping to stay close to $3,000 per month.

How’s it going so far? The figures for our first 30 nights in Japan are below.

Budget breakdown: 30 nights in Japan

$1,597  —  Housing (Airbnbs)

$532   —   Excursions (sightseeing)

$509  —   Restaurants

$223  —   Groceries

$136   —  Regional travel

$111   —   Local transport

$81     —   Supplies

$79    —    Beer

$26    —    Gifts/Charity

$12    —    Health

__________________________

$3,306 total for 2 persons

BUT there is one huge omission: our airfare to get to here! I came Boracay (Philippines) to Manila to Tokyo for $156. Ellen — after two months visiting the USA — flew Cincinnati to Chicago to Tokyo for $762 (used miles CIN to ORD).

Adding those costs, the travel category would total $1,054. And the grand total would jump to $4,224!

Normally our travel expenses do NOT include an airfare half-way across the globe. Thus the true ‘living expenses’ would be closer to the $3,306. 

But in this case we DID make the extra distance travel and incur those expenses. So the $4,224 is the accurate cost for these 30 days. 

The good news: now that we are together in East Asia, our ‘distance’ travel spending will moderate for the rest of 2024 in Japan, Korea, Taiwan. And to keep daily costs down, we always look for good values, sales and promos, and plenty of ‘street food’ and picnics.

Regardless, we are well over our $3,000 per month budget goal for the first month. Hopefully, some longer stays – and lower costs in general – in South Korea and Taiwan will balance out this starting overage.

Reminder: we always advise at least a 20 to 25 per cent cushion for any travel budget.

Stay tuned for further monthly spending breakdowns (without airfares) from East Asia in coming months.

As always, be thankful and generous, happy trails & more beer.

Life is NOW!

Thanks for reading, “What it cost: First 30 days in Japan.”

About Theo

Tedly (Theo) retired early from the news business to wander the planet with wife Ellen. He enjoys exploring all Earth has to offer: jungles and beaches, volcanoes and deserts – always drinking beer along the way.

Other posts on Japan:

Other budget breakdowns

1 thought on “What it cost: First 30 days in Japan”

  1. Jason Hull

    If you take away our ~$700 Shinkansen pass (which is now so expensive that it’s rarely worth it), we had almost exactly the same spending for our month in Kyoto.

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