To Whom It May Concern

Having recently completed a round of traveling around (a round around, hee, hee) Japan, let me say a few words to the wise about seeing this great country. I went to Kyoto, Osaka, and spent a few days in Tokyo right around New Year’s time.

First off, if I have mentioned it before, let me just RE-EMPHASIZE it now that this country is EXPENSIVE. I’ve been to a few expensive places myself in my day (read Switzerland, Sweden, etc.) but nothing comes quite as close. Even after having lived here for half a year, the money (yen) still seems like Monopoly cash and is spent just as easily. So what could one possibly spend money on here?

Well, how about transportation, as any trip to Japan is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience and requires a visit to more than one particular place or city. As an example, a train ride from my town to Kanazawa, the nearest big city is around $6.50 (bear with me as I simplify my math, the current exchange rate is around $1 = 114 Yen (fluctuates, but always around 110), so the actual train fare is 650 Yen, which comes out to $5.70, but for simplification’s sake I always use the 1 to 100 ration (trust me, it works out better that way, because you have the illusion of actually saving money sometimes))))(lost track of parentheses there)).) Ok, ok, for you nit pickers, I’ll just use the Yen prices and you do whatever conversion you feel comfortable with. So, yeah, that train is about 650. If I want to drive from here to Kanazawa, it costs around 340. The train from Kanazawa to Kyoto is around 6,500, to Osaka (a bit farther) is around 7,000. The bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo is around 14,000. Round trip prices are simply double the one way fare. Prices are calculated with a base fare (which is payment for distance covered, the same for all types of trains, only dependent on how far you go) plus a reservation fee, which differs according to the type of train (bullet equals way more than local). You can travel by bus, but it takes twice as long (but at times is half the cost) – your choice. To fly from Tokyo to Komatsu, the airport nearest me is around 15,000, but I recently got a deal for 13,100 (domestic airline prices in Japan are highly regulated, i.e. standard pricing, but sometimes there are discounts). If you take a cab, staring price for the first 2 km is 660, and each additional kilometric increment costs something like 220 or so, although I’m not sure on that one. Buses and subways will run anywhere from 160 upwards of 1500, depending on distance traveled. Yeah, you can walk to, but distances are usually much longer than one can bear to walk. Hope some of that helps.

Next, lodging. You can stay with me, and I won’t charge you a bit, but it’s a bit out of the way of ANYTHING (bit, bit hee, hee). (I do have a lovely bunch of trees, a cemetery, and a billion acres of rice field though). A three star hotel will run about 8,500 a night for a double, a four star hotel ranges anywhere from 9,000 to 28,000. I don’t know much about the five star hotels, but I doubt they’re of interest to anyone. A good alternative here is the good old love hotel (ranging from 6,000 for an out of the way place to upwards to 20,000 for grand lustful luxury) but the catch here is that officially only two people per room (although we’ve snuck in five before). Probably best to book hotels a bit in advance and try to get a travel agent to secure a discount.

Next, food and drink. Draft beer (Suntory, Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin – the four major ones) usually run from 550 to 650 a pint. Not much of a sake drinker, so don’t know. A meal at a cheap place will probably run around 4,000 to 5,000 for two with a small number of drinks. A kaiten sushi place (conveyor belt style) charges from 150 to 500 a plate (but in Kyoto there’s a place that charges 100 per plate, oh boy did I eat a lot of fish there…). A good meal will run you about 7,000 to 8,000, and if you go to a traditional style restaurant (izakaya), it can get about 10,000. Going out drinking can become financially painful, but lots of places have All-you-can Drink set up (usually for a two hour period and usually hovering around 3,000). Going out will also usually involve karaoke, which when combined with allyoucandrink can also be a bit grinding on the wallet. Its possible to eat on a budget, but you’ll probably miss out on some good Japanese cuisine.

Slight tangent. May I suggest to anyone coming to Japan to stay at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese guest house. You check in around 3:00 and a lovely lady in a kimono shows you to your room, which is a tatami room and is minimally furnished. She shows you how to put on your yukattas, which are Japanese style robes, and they become your outfit for the next twenty plus hours. Then she leaves you alone to relax in your room or with various amenities offered at the hotel. The main attraction, for me anyway, is the public bath (which at some ryokan comes from onsen, which are natural hot springs). I know, I know, most of us private types have an aversion to such things, but trust me, it is amazing. There’s an indoor bath and usually an outdoor bath and it’s one of the most relaxing things there is. These Japanese love baths and there’s a saying here that every hour spent in a bath adds four hours to your life (coming from the Japanese who have the longest life expectancy in the world, this is saying something.) Once you’ve had a bath, you get ready for dinner, which is served either at a restaurant or in your room and is a delicate example of Japanese cuisine that I doubt could be experienced anywhere else in the world (of course, some people may simply not like it, but as they say, na lyibitelya). After dinner, another bath. Then more relaxation, in whatever form you see fit. After a good night’s rest on futons, and another bath in the morning, a Japanese style breakfast before check out. It’s a fabulous experience and I highly, highly, highly recommend it. The catch is of course the price, which is per person and hovers right around the 10,000 mark for your average ryokan.

Shopping. Japan is famous for department stores, and the biggest ones in Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo are simply outrageous, both for size and price. The biggest are up to 10 or 11 floors. I wanted to buy a jacket in Tokyo, but couldn’t find anything my size for under 30,000. Granted I have a highly unusual size for Japan, but still anything fashionable will be quite steep. (it is amazing that, even with these prices, the Japanese are the best-dressed nation I have encountered – outfits are usually meticulous and appearance is highly important…mjk take note). Various other shopping also varies and sales can usually be found, but if you’re coming to Japan to shop, be prepared to drop a hefty trunk of cash on this island.

Let me end on one final note. If you have a week in Japan, be very, very selective as to how you go about spending it. Japan’s major cities are huge metropolises (homage to smazo, megalopolises). Each city has an array of major neighborhoods to explore, many of them intermixing the modern and the ancient. Depending on your tastes (whether you want to see something historical, typically a day thing, or whether you want to go out and party) any city offers a wide array of options. And for a person like me, it is the hardest thing to decide what to see and what to drop if I only have two days in a big city. Trust me, its better to drop a city like Osaka in favor of the more culturally relevant Kyoto if you only have three days between the two of them. And then, of course, there’s Tokyo, the biggest, baddest mother of them all. The city’s size is incomprehensible. You can get on a subway in the heart of the city, ride for forty minutes and end up in the heart of the city. It has a huge number of mini-cities within it, each with its own special flavor and taste. If it were possible, one could spend a month in Tokyo alone. It is my one recommendation to plan to spend as much time here as possible. (But do come and see lovely Kanazawa and Houdatsushimizu as well…)

Ok, ok, so concludes my amateur attempt at writing a travel book. I hope this at least helps those that are planning on coming to Japan at least a little bit. (Of course, reading a real travel book will probably be much more helpful, but some of us may not have that luxury). As an absolutely last thing, save as much as you can before and do not be afraid to spend it here. The experience will truly be one of a lifetime and you will be damn sure to enjoy it if you’re not worried about the money you’re spending. Japan. There’s so much to say about, but I must finish with the fact that this may indeed be the best trip of your life…

Questions, comments, you know what to do…