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Spending money 2020/7/14 00:17
I'm hoping to be able to travel next year and I'm just starting to hammer out all the details in my head for cost and such.

But was wondering how much spending money would everyone here say is enough for a week in Tokyo?

Not including the ticket or the hotel. Mostly just traveling around the city and food. I'll obviously be doing some shopping but that's hard to gauge how much money I'll need for that, even though I don't plan on going crazy.

Thanks in advance!
by Jessie (guest)  

Re: Spending money 2020/7/14 09:07
If you're just going to spend money for traveling around and for food, it depends how long you will be staying out, what you plan to buy and how long you'll be staying in Japan. I've been able to spend less than 500$ for a couple of weeks, including my traveling, food, and some stuff to buy. It's not as expensive as you may think.

by Here (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/14 09:12
Hello! Depending on how long you will stay in Japan and where you are staying, you could estimate just for travel/food and a few other things along the way that you may spend around 500$ or less for a couple of weeks.

If you really were on a budget and not spending much on dining out or traveling all over Japan, you might even be able to cut that almost in half. It's pretty affordable in Japan.

Have a nice trip!
by TonyMontana1 rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/14 09:16
If you are on a tight budget, you could easily be able to spend less than 500$ for a couple of weeks if you're only talking about traveling and food. Depending on where you're going or what you're doing in Japan, it's pretty affordable unless you were spending your entire time in Tokyo and dining out all the time.

Do you know where you plan to travel and what you'd like to see and do? It might be easier to give you a definitive answer.
by Tom (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/14 09:17
If you're going to be staying for a couple of weeks, you could get away with spending less than 500$ for travel and food. It honestly depends on where you plan to travel or what you want to see or do.
by TonyMontana1 rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/14 10:06
Read this section:
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2028.html

It divides the topic into 4 categories: Transportation, Accommodation, Fees, and Food.

Obviously, it all depends on where you visit and what you eat. And where you come from determines relative expense. As a tourist from the US, I find Japan to be a pretty economical destination.
by O92 (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/14 10:53
On top of what others have already said, also factor in ticket prices - e.g. temples and shrines, theme parks, etc. Some can get pricey.
by / (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/15 09:37
I would suggest 5000 yen a day. Of course it depends what you want to do.
You could survive on 1500 yen. 300 yen would get you somewhere and back on the train, 700 yen would get you lunch. Unfortunately that leaves a 7-11 bento for dinner.
So if you just like wandering around and eating, 5000 yen a day I think is a reasonable budget. You are on holiday so don't want to be too tight with money.
If you want to go to pubs etc, a beer is say 800yen, so a few drinks and some food food will easily add up to about 4000yen so 10000 yen a day might be more reasonable.
You certainly can do things on the cheap but make sure you have a bit of a buffer just in case.
Regards, Ric
by Ric (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/15 13:47
For my staff we use a budget of 5,000 yen per day for food, drinks and entry fees for our travel and trips - works pretty well. In addition, an allowance of 1,000 yen/day for miscellaneous taxis and local trains. Across a week or two some days will be less, other days more. That allows me and my staff to be pretty unrestricted in terms of eating well and visiting the attractions that we typically go to in Tokyo and around the country.
If you do things like SkyTree or Disney, that will cost more, along with some art galleries (they can be expensive).
Currently here in Tokyo I'm spending a lot less than that, but I'm not doing many tourist things currently.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/15 15:40
As previous posters have said. 5000 yen a day should be enough. I normally allow 8000 yen and then go nuts shopping with the excess at the end of the trip. Disk Union must love me :)
by Stan Norrell rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/16 02:29
Thanks for all the answers everyone. I've been meaning to reply but just haven't had the chance.

I thought I said but apparently I didn't. I'll only be in Tokyo for a week, that's probably all I could get off from work.

And 5000 yen sounds really reasonable to me. I was worried it would be a lot more.
by Jessie (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/16 11:47
Another great way to save money if you're planning to visit temples or museums that have an admission fee, is to get the Grutt Pass.

The pass costs 2,000 yen but offers discounted/total free admission to many places in Tokyo. Here's the full list:

https://www.japanvisitor.com/japan-city-guides/grutt-pass-museums
by ExcitedWandererYT rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/25 16:30
There is also another way of thinking about it. Sure, you can survive on 5000 yen a day. But Tokyo has so much to offer in terms of entertainment and food that you will probably want to spend more because itLs so good value for money. For 15000 yen a day you will have a nice stay.
by sullon rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/26 05:02
If you are a regular middle class traveler, you can eat for less than 1000 yen for breakfast and lunch and 2000-5000 for pretty nice dinners. If you are a "foodie" Japan has more Michelin star restaurants than any other country so you could easily spend 10000 to 40000 for dinner if you are looking for luxury.

Subway transportation is very cheap. Within a city you would spend less than 1000 per day on this. If you start traveling between major cities, then you will likely want a rail pass, which can add 10000 to 30000 yen for the week.

Entertainment, museums and parks, I found to be considerably cheaper than traveling to the USA. Even Tokyo Disneyland is half the price of Disneyland California. I remember paying like 600 yen to get into a zoo and 200 yen to get into an amazing temple garden.

Shopping, well sky is the limit. Tokyo is the biggest metro area on the planet, so you can find anything from small family owned shops to luxury brands like Coach and Rolex. I found prices for shopping to be comparable to USA overall. Remember you can get sales tax refund if you spend enough, so save your receipts if you do serious shopping.

I would say plan on about 7000-10000 yen per person per day for food, transport and fun. Shopping is impossible to guess for others because it just depends. I didn't really do any shopping, but my daughter did at least 10000 per day on clothes.
by TW (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/26 06:52
5,000 yen/day is hardly "survival" level, and I would personally struggle to spend 15,000 yen/day as mentioned by one of the previous posters. Even some of the better/best restaurants I have been to over the years I think the most expensive one was an up and coming French restaurant with great wine - for our group of friends it still only averaged 10,000 yen. There are some specialty sushi places I have been where I might spend 7-8k, but again that's less common.
The simple point is that entry fees to most places are actually quite reasonable. Art galleries tend to be more expensive, as are theme parks and the like. but there is a limit to how many of those you can fit into a single day.
Maybe the other thing you might blow a decent amount of yen on would be something like karaoke at a name brand store in the centre of the city (as opposed to one of the cheaper places).
Of course, if you include shopping, you can spend as much or as little as you want.
As a footnote, I had a guest a few years ago whose husband regularly did business in Japan. he gave her 500,000 yen for a two week trip - she went home with 450,000 yen. There is a big difference between entertaining on a business expense account and what normal people spend.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

Re: Spending money 2020/7/26 16:34
Surprisingly very little, if you are on a budget. It really all depends on how much you want to live it up. If you are not factoring in hotels, then the other main costs are transport and food. You can eat quite fine on 1000 yen per meal for lunch or dinner per person. More of course if you want to splurge, or less if you are fine with something from a supermarket like a bento, convenience store, fast food, etc.
Suit yourself.
For getting around, you can get a 72-hour subway pass for 1500 yen. You just have to average 500 yen a day, which is very easy, and you can get to most of the places any tourist would like to go in Tokyo. No, not everywhere, it does not cover some places on the edges or some areas like Odiaba, but generally, you can get around just fine. Taking a JR train might be quicker for some routes, but the point is that is does not have to cost you your blood and soul at all.
As for shopping, souvenirs, etc. that is entirely up to you. For entrance fees, most are not exorbitant either. Many museum and traditional gardens are quite reasonable. If you want to go some other places like the Disney Parks or TeamLab Borderless, those things can add up quickly.
Japan has gotten a bad rap for being wildly expensive, and it can be. I still keep seeing one moron rant about "$200 cantaloupes" online elsewhere as if all Japanese pay that whenever they feel like eating one. The reality is nothing like that. For every wild price they scream about, there is almost always a much cheaper and satisfying substitute. Some might yell about the 2800 yen to go from Narita to Tokyo Stn on the limousine bus. They could instead take the Access Narita bus for just 1000 yen. If you do your research, you will find where the bargains are.
by Ken (guest) rate this post as useful

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