Travelling alone in Japan in August-September

Hey guys, I'm currently an exchange student at a university here in Tokyo. My school semester ends the start of August, and I have roughly a month to travel anywhere I want in Japan until I have to leave and return back to my home country. Have any of you travelled across Japan by yourselves for a long period of time and do you have any tips/ cities you would like to share with me? Here are a couple questions concerns I have and I would greatly appreciate it if some of you could offer me your insight :D!

1) No Japan rail pass. since I'm currently on a student visa here, there's no way for me to purchase the Rail pass, so unfortunately I'll be paying for all the train rides out of pocket. Would it be wiser for me to pick a couple spots and stay in those cities for a longer period of time (say 5-7 days) rather than going to a bunch of different cities to save on transport? Do we have to buy shinkansen tickets in advance or will they always be available for purchase at the station?

2)route of travel. I'll be travelling from Tokyo to osaka first to see some family, then I was thinking of travelling down to Kyoto and along Japan (Hiroshima, Fukuoka etc) then finally flying back to tokyo around September to fly home. Would this be a good idea?

2)accomodation. I'm stumped as to how I should be planning my accommodation. Should I purchase all my accommodation in advance or would it be a bad idea to wing it as I go? I was thinking about finding a host family for each city on b2b, either that or capsule hotels/ hostels. Would $30 a night be a good estimate?

3)things to do. believe it or not I'm afraid I'll run out of things to do while I'm travelling, especially because I'll be all alone! I've also never travelled alone before, so this will be a completely new experience for me, and to be honest it is a little scary.

4)money! As I am a student I don't really have a huge budget to travel on. Would the whole thing (roughly 30 days) be doable on around 4k USD? I know this has a lot to do with what I actually do on my trip, but any ideas on saving money while travelling would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for reading my super long question and I hope to hear back from some of you soon!

1) Look into rail passes aimed at the Japanese public (à la Seishun 18), they are less advantageous than the JR Pass, but do provide some savings if you use them wisely. At least that's true for those of JR East, I don't know about JR Central/West. JR Kyushu has a "student" pass available to foreign students.

2) The best route is the one you want to do. If you want my opinion, though, I would add a couple days in the San'in (Matsue, Tottori, Amanohashidate, maybe Hagi). You could go north from Kyoto to Amanohashidate, then west to Tottori, Matsue, Izumo, then south to Okayama and proceed to Hiroshima and Kyushu. Takamatsu may be worth a day or two as well.

3) $30 per night should be plenty. Even using hotels, it's generally possible to find some for 2000/3000 yen per night, I generally use Rakuten Travel (in Japanese, the English version is more limited).

4) That's up to you as well, but even with what's mentioned on this website, you should easily be able to fill a month.

5) 4k usd = 400k yen, for 30 days that's more than 10k per day, it's much more than enough.

If you have time to burn, then the 18 Free Kippu is probably the cheapest method of travel around Japan, closely followed by Bus Passes. Consider both of these methods if $$$ is of great importance.

I can confirm that I enjoyed Northern Chugoku a lot but it does take quite a bit of time to get around as there is limited public transport.

By the way, since you will be done with your studies, it may be worthwhile to ask your local immigration bureau about changing your status to temporary visitor so you can get a JR Pass.

3)things to do. believe it or not I'm afraid I'll run out of things to do while I'm travelling, especially because I'll be all alone! I've also never travelled alone before, so this will be a completely new experience for me, and to be honest it is a little scary.

Travelling alone is the best way to travel. You see what you want to see, you take as long as you want, and you don't have to worry if someone else is enjoying themselves or is bored.

If you think you are running out of things to do, move on to a new area and start exploring it. I guarantee you by the end of your 30 days you will have barely even scratched the surface of everything there is to experience in Japan.

Just wanted to point out that some people need company when they travel. They may have travelled half the world and they would love to see the other half. From jeeping through the tea fields of India to swimming with dolphins' cousins. But never alone.

I do agree that 30 days is quite a bit of time. But this also depends on what you want to see or do. Certainly after your academic experience you must have some idea of what you like about Japan. How about voicing it here?

Yup, the guest's opinion is just that...

Yup, the guest's opinion is just that...

Yup it is my opinion. I was trying to allay coolkid's fears about travelling alone. There are positives to travelling with other people but in my opinion the positives of travelling alone outweigh those of travelling with others.