Cheap / budget travel Japan ideas request
Planning a trip to Japan fall 2027 or spring 2028. Japan seems to be a place I can spend my entire life savings in, fill three warehouses, and still come away with want. So here's a different question than the usual: if I don't care about Instagram sightseeing or the latest fashion trends or Michelin star restaurants, what are some crazy cheap things to do or places to stay?
Old fahsioned and dingy is fine, anything above "downright dangerous" is completely okay. We could do one fancy pants Ryokan and one cheap one if the cultural difference in expenses are worthwhile, otherwise cheap cheap cheap please.
I am most interested in hands on traditional crafts making workshops or experiences, like touring wagashi kitchens, basket weaving, leather workers, fibre and paper arts, wood crafting, kintsugi pottery repairs etc.
Kaga Traditional Craft Village Yunokuni no Mori, Komatsu -- Ishikawa Prefecture : this has been recommended to me, would love reviews and other recommendations. Kyoto has a lot of English workshops: are there cheaper ones outside?
BOOK OFF chains and Mega Donki for cheap, used consumer goods? Osaka for used kimono? Where do people get rid of their unwanted traditional arts and art supplies? Kyoto has a bunch of flea markets: still good spot or tourist junk I can get for much less elsewhere?
Any arcades that take an entry fee and then it's all you can play? (Asking because I super suck at games but I love them, and Japan has the whackiest arcade games)
I'd be perfectly happy to eat konbini & ramen & gyudon & cheap foods for the entire time. What other kinds of food are cheap? (I'd also do one or two seafood meals for sure but spending money = easy to find reviews)
I want to hear all the cheap things about Japan :) my goal will be to (1) avoid the over tourism spots and be less of a nuisance for locals (2) experience things (3) save all the money for the end of the trip to see Akihabara, spend it all on gunpla, anime and gaming goods.....
Maybe worth mentioning I am trying to learn as much Japanese as possible in a year, with background in Chinese language and college first year level Japanese. Language tips also welcome.
Edit: other Japan tourism threads by gpl, rosco ,AugustusFerdinand and shared -- also excellent
With the exchange rate as it is, pretty much everything is cheap.
For book off, there’s not much that’s actually cheap in Tokyo. You have to go to the rural book offs for good deals. Same for pretty much anything in akihabara. It’s all priced at least at market value if not higher for ignorant tourists. You can check online prices at surugaya or something to ground yourself.
For food, Conbini is a trap. It’s both bad for you and not really that cheap. Just go to restaurants. If you really want to cheap out, premade food at grocery stores is where it’s at, not conbinis. Conbinis is probably one of the most overhyped things in Japan.
Mostly in Kyoto, if a restaurant has the vibe of “we don’t want gaijin here”, just… don’t go. It’s for the best. Plenty of good restaurants that won’t cause conflict.
If price is a concern, do know that flights can often be significantly cheaper than the Shinkansen (bullet train), which is not cheap.
Outdoors stuff is going to be free (well, parks in Tokyo have entrance fees). You can go to Mt Takao on subways for like $5. You get a decent view of Fuji if it’s clear.
For onsens, for it to actually be an onsen it needs to have real volcanic water. So there are no onsens in Tokyo. You generally have to travel to the mountains. They’re expensive but people usually only stay one night. Weekdays obviously way less traffic.
Going to somewhere that’s not Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka will lower costs significantly. Go to Kyushu, for instance (in which case flying will be cheaper and faster). Although I understand that for first timers, the usual 3 cities is something people want.
Don’t stay in Kyoto and Osaka, stay in one or the other. Osaka and Kyoto are next to each other. A lot of people book nights in both but it’s not necessary. It’s like a 30 minute driver / 45 minute express subway to get from one to the other. Osaka will be cheaper and have more nightlife, Kyoto is better if you want to bum rush the shrines before the crowds (earlier than 7am).
In Kyoto, I recommend going to Otagi Nembutsu. You have to take a taxi so there’s like no one there. Gets away from the crowds.
Don’t go on any Japanese holiday. Golden week, silver week, new years, obon are the main ones. It will be expensive and miserable.
Don’t get the JR pass. It use to be worth it, now there’s almost no chance it’s better than paying for train tickets à la carte. You’d have to spend your whole trip on a train to get your money back.
It might be possible that I'll skip Tokyo this time..... While Kyushu sounds more and more appealing.
These are really good tips, thank you very much! I'm looking forward to buying marked down premade food from grocery stories at ... I assume, the end of the day?
Usually after around 7pm. Don't get too excited. It's just food and nothing particularly special.
I recommend going down to Shikoku. Maybe take a break in Okayama on the way. There are a bunch of craft things around Bizen there. Nobody ever goes to Shikoku and it's beautiful.
Hiroshima is nice, but Nagasaki always plays second fiddle and it's a nice city.
As much as I like TeamLab and it's in my area of interest (interactive computer visuals), I personally don't know if it's the kind of thing you need to go to a foreign country to experience. As in, it's not particularly "Japanesey", if that's your thing.
Alright, adding Okayama and Bizen to the list of potential :D I've not been to Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but being from rural Canada right now I'm sure either will be great for wandering around discovering small things, thank you
This is going to sound crazy, but I’m going to recommend the YouTube channel Japaneat (he also runs one with an ‘s’ at the end, but that’s more aesthetic and less talking and showing off the food of Japan; but not the japaneats URL. Edit: looked it up, his second channel is Japan Eating)
He advocates very heavily for going to places that are off the beaten path and away from the tourisy areas. He also very often gives you the name and exact location of the places that he’s visiting. His channel is food-focused, though so most of what he’s showing you is restaurants, kombini, and American chain restaurants because he is an American.
Big fan of Japan Eat's videos. Highly recommend just finding small restaurants on Google Maps while you're there. There are just so many small restaurants (physically and online presence-wise) that exist in Japan and that have really good, homely meals. The 2 times I've been to Japan, I do go to the places I see on social media but also balance it with just random restaurants I come across as I'm walking around and I've yet to be disappointed.
Thanks for the recommendation, JapanEat is just my kind of humor, I love it. But now, after spending 2 hours watching his shorts, I desperately want some good ramen.
I didn’t like JapanEating specifically because the scripts on his videos are so much fun.
I just watched a few of his shorts and they're fun :) esp the one about Squirtle, Hamilton and Bulbasaur collab with McDonald's.
I highly subscribe to this idea. The restaurants I went to on my last trip to Japan were heavily influenced by him and I had a wonderful experience in the majority of them, even the more tourist-y ones.
But be warned about choice paralysis. I added so many options to my list that some days we couldn't decide which one to go with. If I was to do this again I would plan out the meals in advance and have at least one restaurant set for the day (so for example, on whichever day I decide to go to Shibuya, I'll go to restaurant X that's also nearby). This would avoid scenarios where I didn't get to try some types of food.
Also pay close attention to travel distance and whatnot because while in big cities there are trains and buses everywhere, if you need to switch lines a lot it can eat up more time than you might assume at first. Ideally always plan to eat around where you're visiting and/or plan a visit around where you're eating for minimum friction.
Not necessarily fitting your exact requests, but here is a thread from where I asked for tips during my last trip to Japan that you might find helpful: https://tild.es/1r27
Otherwise I'll be watching this thread for ideas for my next trip.
Yes absolutely loved your thread. Although kinda expensive and touristy I will probably still go see Team Lab from what folks said on your thread...
Even if it is now the most visited museum in the world even more so than the Louvre.To add, I just went to Japan in May and yeah TeamLabs is 10000% worth it. It was a total blast and was even better than I thought it would be going in (and I had high expectations!). Plus once you're in you can stay as long as you like, so it basically killed a whole day for my family.
Touristy things are popular for a reason, and it's usually not because they suck! Shibuya Sky was also pretty cool (if you're a Shibuya fan like me), and I would probably have better impressions of the Skytree if the elevators hadn't malfunctioned and forced a few hundred of us to stay at the crowded top for a few hours lol.
If you also are looking for another unique experience, Nara is awesome. The deer are just...everywhere, and the bowing thing is completely natural to them. They'll just come up to you and start bowing, and then stare you down for a deer biscuit. It's super bizarre at first but you get used to it shockingly fast, and it's fun watching the tourists being chased around by hungry deer (after being chased around yourself). Protip: don't feed the first ones you see out of the train station, they are bullies and hooligans >:(
Just FYI some of my favorite ramen is right outside one of the TeamLab locations! I ate a lot of ramen last time I was there and it was definitely some of the best, AND it happens to be vegan! (I'm not even vegan)
Best ramen is vegan ramen!? This highly exceeds my expectations!
I've had various vegan ramen in Vancouver and while they're really quite excellent, in the back of my mind I still think a nice thick bone broth is the best. But definitely having vegan options available for some days will be superbly helpful. Do you mind sharing the name, maybe they'll even have a popup or secondary location
this one! https://vegan-uzu.com/pages/uzu-tokyo-en
That looks so good. Thanks:)
As someone that also avoids the most popular things, I do have to say it was quite a fun experience.
Was it packed shoulder to shoulder? I still have regrets from shuffling through the Sistine Chapel instead of grabbing a chair and parking my butt there for an hour with binoculars.
Not at all, there's plenty of room for all and they time entry so it's not too crowded. I had Sunday morning tickets.
I just want to point out that the Louvre gets ~9M visitors for year and teamLab got 4M last year between two locations[1]. Your link is that it is the most visited museum featuring a single art group. It just happened to come up because of a conversation I was having today about the most-reviewed location on Google Maps. For reference, Magic Kingdom at Disney World had 20M visitors in 2019.
Oooh !! Very much obliged for the correction, I should have read that better.
This might be a bit of a low-effort answer since plenty of people have already shared a lot of useful details, but the only thing I’d add is: try staying away from the major city centers. You can often find much cheaper stuff in the outskirts.
You don't even have to go that far outside central Tokyo. Places like HARD OFFs on Hachioji can already have much better deals than stores around Shibuya, Akihabara etc.
Hard offs Hachioji, noted! Appreciate any tips. I realised I should have asked for names of chains or sites locals use as well. If you think of more let me know
You can skip Tokyo, go to Osaka instead (everything is cheaper there and there's so much great food), Denden town is like Akihabara but in Osaka :D And yeah Kyoto is just like a 40-min train ride away.
Don't go in spring, it's usually more expensive during "sakura season" in Japan. Fall will probably be cheaper.
In Osaka you might enjoy Shinsekai Market, it's touristy but it's cool to see all the old-fashioned "street festival" type shops and attractions. It totally looks like a Jujutsu Kaisen setting.
Konbini food is nice and convenient, but you'll probably get better value for your money (and more variety) at supermarkets. A lot of department stores / malls have supermarkets in their basements, and they'll usually have lots of ready-to-eat meals, and sometimes they're discounted in the evenings. Supermarket sushi is legit! In Osaka I like to go to the Takashimaya department store supermarket, buy food, then eat it at the Namba Parks mall rooftop garden, one of the few public parks with seats and public trash cans. Though my fave "quick cheap protein" would be the konbini vacuum-packed cooked chicken breast in various seasonings... the konbini chicken skewers are great too :)) And if it's fiber you need (I often find my diet lacking in fiber when I'm in Japan), konbinis and Donkis usually sell roasted whole sweet potato, it's super cheap and yummy and fiber- rich.
Ok so I have a ton of food recommendations in Osaka. I would say most of them aren't dirt cheap, but all of them are such great value for how delicious they are. :> Here is a Google maps list with notes. My cheapest recos on this list are probably Hanamaruken Hozenji (ramen-- open 24 hrs so this is usually our first meal right when we land in Osaka) and Oretachino-curry ya (this converted me into a Japanese curry believer). Honestly, Tonkatsu Daiki isn't even that pricy (1600 - 3000 JPY for a set meal), and I'd say it's one of the best food experiences in Osaka, if you like pork cutlets (trust me and get the leanest cut, it's super tender and juicy!). It's just a bit hard to get into-- we usually line up 30-40 mins before it opens for lunch-- and note they only accept cash and do not allow children. The priciest ones on my list at around 8000+ JPY range are probably Yakiniku Matsumoto because we can eat a lot of grilled wagyu... and Maguroya Kurogin Kuromon for its kamatoro aburi which is to-die-for but it's one of the pricier cuts of tuna. (You can spend less at those two places, that's just the average of what we spend for the servings we order!)
My Google maps list also includes Umekita Onsen which is a new indoor onsen in Umeda area, it's like 6000-7000 JPY for a whole day pass when I went and the place is huge, they have a gym, underwater gym machines, indoor and outdoor heated pools, different types of saunas and onsen pools, rest areas, massage chairs, etc., complete amenities including towels, luxury hair dryers, skincare and haircare. I would joke that I could be homeless in Osaka and just buy their 1-year pass (it's like less than 1000 JPY a day) and I'd be fine as the place provides almost all the amenities I need :))
We usually splurge on a decent hotel in Namba because a lot of the food we like is in the area and it's so convenient, the train station connects directly to the airport, and Dendentown is nearby as well. We think of it as paying to have more time with the activities we enjoy (less time commuting). Our past few visits we'd stay at Centara Grand which is a 5-star hotel but still much less expensive compared to other 5-star hotels. I saw another hotel beside it called Hotel Keihan Namba Grande, it also looks decent and it's cheaper.
Oh and re. teamlab, yes it's touristy, but it's also really pretty. Osaka has a big teamlab night garden (Botanical Garden Osaka), and also a much smaller teamlab cafe+garden (Field of Wind, Rain and Sun) which is a bit out of the way. I enjoyed both but I am the kind of person who gets a lot of dopamine from looking at plants and pretty lights.
I super want to look at plants and pretty lights. I saw a video a while ago where they put lights under tree paths so they glow from the bottom up and I think several places do this for fall momiji season OvO !!
Thanks for the map and recommendations as wel
Welcome! I hope you enjoy, Japan has so much to offer and I feel you'll have fun pretty much anywhere you choose to go. I'm planning to be in Osaka again this November so I might update my Google maps list then hehehe.
Thank you!
I felt a little bit talked out of going to Osaka / the popular big three but If I end up going to Kyoto Osaka corridor I would love to visit some of the places you picked out like Kura chocolatier :D
I hope to hear all about it after your trip! I haven't been to a lot outside of the big three, but I hear it's amazing too from friends who've gone around. Last year springtime I was able to go to Hitachi Seaside Park and Ashikaga Flower Park, both are about 2.5 hrs by train from Tokyo. They are very touristy but honestly just so gorgeous, especially Hitachi, it was magical to be surrounded by hills covered in blue nemophila flowers. I'm sure though you can definitely find less touristy flower parks around Japan! :3
I very much want to see a giant wisteria tree in full bloom . I think there are a few places like that ....
:) I'll be sure to update in 1- 2 years (!!)
If you're in Osaka 大阪王将 なんば千日前店 is pretty cheap and tasty (my wife and I shared a meal for like $7 total)! For a more luxury (but still budget) option you could get some Kaiseki like 京料理 御旅町田ごと.
Lots of South Korea smaller cities (like Gyeongju and smaller) are also very lovely to travel to and often quite a bit cheaper than Japan but have a similar feeling and very good food! It's nice to get some contrast every once in a while. Palate cleanser?
It's often just a small marginal cost to add another city to a trip. Is this a bit like suggesting a European to add Mexico City to their USA trip? Maybe, but I suppose I would also encourage that because CDMX is pretty neat too if you know the right neighborhoods!
Probably not hitting Korea this time around, I feel like I don't know enough basic things about their language or culture to really take advantage just yet.
Alright I love cheap food recommendations :D thanks!
Well the main reason I suggest is that you want 'Japan but cheap' and you can have a very similar experience to Japan for about half the cost or even less (maybe less true for the extreme budget traveler while the Yen is so low but this is still definitely the case for mid-tier and luxury travel).
Many people just go to Japan and don't visit other cultures which is a real shame because they are missing out--especially when people pay so much for a ticket to Japan and then a round-trip ticket between Japan and Korea is often less than $75. It's often cheaper overall to fly into Japan or Korea and then fly out of the other country vs the cost of a round-trip to the same country (this really depends on specific airline pricing but I would say it is true >50% of the time: https://share.gemini.google/Hlb2BzWHQki8)
Korea is very accessible and easy to travel around with just Google Maps and Rome2Rio. It's not like China where everything is locked down. I don't know any Korean and people don't really expect you to if you're a foreigner.
Actual lived culture is also very different from what they externally portray in Korean TV dramas and other media so if you skim WikiVoyage honestly you'll know enough to get a lot out of it. Most signs and museum materials are also in multiple languages (they get a lot of Chinese tourists so most places with 3+ employees will usually have someone onsite who can speak Chinese and someone who can speak English)
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/South_Korea
Some excellent advice here. Few small things I'll add if you happen to end up in Kyoto. Definitely go check out Nijō castle. Basic ticket is less than €5, very impressive and you can easily spend a few hours walking around enjoying the grounds and history. Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist temple is a smaller but beautiful spot not too far from train station and worth stopping, free entry there. Speaking of trains, if you have any interest there, the train museum is a great one to check out. Also, not really cheap but 100% worth the cost is a stall outside the train museum selling wagyu beef skewers. They're fucking. Amazing.
Another recommendation I got from a friend but hadn't the time to check out was Take no Michi bamboo trail which is supposed to be a really nice and much quieter alternative to the popular Arashiyama bamboo forest. Hopefully someone more familiar with Kyoto can verify this.
https://tomarigi.me/
Take a look!
Gasp! It's a collective of Live Cams!!
Any other cool Japanese sites ?
I don’t have time right this minute to write a lot, and I’m not sure what I would write yet, but I noticed Ishikawa is something you are thinking about. My family is moving from the US to Ishikawa in November this year. Initially Nanao, and then to very central Kanazawa (a couple minute walk to the castle). My wife grew up in a very small town on the Noto peninsula; her childhood home was destroyed in the earthquake a few years ago.
Are you specifically wanting to go to Ishikawa or it was just one recommendation you got?
It's mostly the one specific recommendation. I'm not very interested in "sight seeing" the big name places, much more so being able to visit crafts people and especially being able to try making stuff in traditional Japanese ways. I wouldn't mind a trip where I just visited "out of the way" places in Japan and then maybe a day near the airport, whether Osaka or Tokyo before I leave.
Just a quick google map poking around I saw some places I'm highly curious about, please do let me know if you and your wife have any thoughts about them, esp with regards to the possibility of being hands on, or know better / related arts places like these, many thank yous :
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Traditional Arts and Crafts (石川県立伝統産業工芸館) - !!!
茶舎觀壽 Mikoto Tea House - Stone mill your own Macha powder!
Kanazawa kintsugi house
Kinpakuya Sakuda Gold Leaf Shop & Workshop (Gold Leaf Sakuda) 金箔屋さくだ
The Kutani Porcelain Art Museum (ＫＡＭ能美市九谷焼美術館 ｜浅蔵五十吉記念館)
And also several Tildes members have points out things are cheaper outside of the Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka corridor lol
I would very much like to see Kyushu / Shikoku if I can find a bunch to workshop / crafts things to do there too