Japan 2025 Vlog (Cost and Trip Breakdown)

Japan 2025 Vlog (Cost and Trip Breakdown)

[Music] Hey, what’s going on, guys? Minotan here. I recently got back from my 2 week long stay in Japan and I’m putting together kind of a vlog plus trip breakdown for anyone curious on what me and my friends did while we were there and most importantly how much we spent. All of those questions will be answered in this video. So, if you’re interested, please make sure to stick around and click like and subscribe while you’re at it. If you’re just looking for a cost breakdown and final piece of how much I spent during my two week long stint, click on the timestamp shown on the screen now. All right, let’s get started. I want to say it was around summer of 2024 when me and my friends decided that we wanted to go to Japan for a vacation. Japan was always a country I had been fascinated in and wanted to visit someday. And I think it has an incredible culture and atmosphere from all the videos I’ve watched and posts I’ve read. And from everything, nobody seems to regret visiting. And now, after going myself, I can add to that tally. Out of the six of us that went, I’m probably the most traveled guy. But even that isn’t saying much. I’ve been to Europe, particularly Spain, on four separate occasions throughout my life because I have family that lives there. I’ve been to Canada and Hawaii once, and I’ve traveled solo across the country for some CS tournaments a few times. But to me at least, Japan was a whole another ball game. I wasn’t too familiar with the language or the culture. And although I knew it would be fun, I was still pretty nervous about not knowing where to go or what to do if I got lost. And if anybody has these worries watching this video, I want to put them to rest immediately because traveling throughout Japan was one of the easiest and best experiences of my life. If you know zero Japanese, you will still be able to travel across the country with almost zero stress. And I’ll go into that a little bit more later during this video. So, to start off, we bought our tickets in October of 2024 for the dates of May 23rd to June 5th. Our travel plans included flying into Haneda airport, staying in Tokyo for three nights. We would then travel to Kyoto and stay there for three nights and Osaka as well for three nights. We then would take a train to Hiroshima and spend the night there before going back to Hakone. And finally, our trip would end with one last night in Tokyo. So, in total, we were in Japan for 14 days. The two biggest regrets I read online that people wrote post travel is that they packed too many clothes and they didn’t spend enough time in each city. I can now attest to both of these. It will depend on the weather and the time of year that you plan on traveling, but if you are going to Japan during the spring or summer, more than one pair of long pants, whether they’re sweats or jeans, is not really necessary. I think I brought three for some reason. Same with long sleeve t-shirts. I would bring one and maybe a sweatshirt or a pullover or quarter zip as well in case it gets a little chilly. I do want to note that almost every Japanese native that I saw was wearing long pants even in very hot weather. Uh that is just something that they do in Japan. They wear light long pants. So if you do wear shorts, you kind of will stick out as a tourist. But I never had an issue with it. We honestly had very favorable weather while we were in Japan and we were extremely surprised by this because prior to going it said it was going to rain constantly. The only times it did rain was our second night there and during our stay in Hakone. Otherwise, it was fantastic. It was cloudy and partly sunny, but a constant 70 to 75° F. Like I mentioned before, I do regret not spending more nights in each of the three big cities, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, respectively. I honestly could have spent a week in each one and still not been satisfied. However, for it being my first trip there, I think it was a good idea to visit other cities like Hiroshima and Hakone in order to get a wider view of the country. Our drive to our hotel in Hakone was exceptionally cool because we were driving through steep cliffs and tree covered mountains that looked awesome. But for my next trip, I would probably do 5 days in each city or maybe 5 days in two cities and then travel somewhere else like Nigata, Nagoya or Nagasaki. For our first day in Tokyo, once we got to our hotel, we went to a KFC for our first meal. Yes, you heard that right. Our first official meal inside Japan was Kentucky Fried Chicken. There’s just something you can’t take out of an American. From there, we toured a bit of the Akiabara district. It’s exactly how you would expect it to be. There was something from Japanese pop culture around every street corner. card shops, arcade places, figurine shops, malls, manga shops, and more. One of the biggest things I notice immediately is how vertical everything is within Japan. What I mean by this is that everything is built up by adding more floors to a building. So, you can have a mall with eight stories and 10,000 square ft on each story. The Doniote shops are a prime example of this compared to America where everything is maybe one, two, or three levels, but it’s all very flat and horizontal. After shopping around Akiabara, we then went to a restaurant and had some appetizers and drinks before calling it a night and heading back to our hotel. Our second day there had us heading for Shabuya straight away, which is where we spent most of our time. Shabuya was absolutely phenomenal. There’s a reason it’s held in such high regard by tourists because there’s just so much to do and see within the district. There is where we had our first little shopping spree. Me and my friend Ian went to a record store at the top of a building. I bought two Japanese exclusive CDs. One is Where the Light is by John Mayer. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time. This Japanese release has the exclusive No Such Thing track on it, which wasn’t added to the original album. The other was a Japanese exclusive release of Saviors by Greenday. This one comes with a Japanese bonus track. After that shopping stint, we made our way up to the Shabuya Sky Tower. The views from this place were immaculate. All you could see looking out it was the city of Tokyo for miles. I’m sure it would have been gorgeous to view at night as well. Afterwards, we did a bit more shopping around Shabuya, including hitting up the Nintendo store. [Music] [Music] [Music] For dinner, we went to a kiteen sushi place and we had a bunch of different types of sushi and sashimi. Later that night, we went to some clubs to party a bit. [Music] We were out till about 4:00 a.m. The trains were closed, so we needed a taxi to get back to our hotel. On our last day in Tokyo, we did a tour of the old Imperial Castle grounds. We got to see where the old castle once stood, plus some shogun and other types of old houses along with beautiful gardens and a bamboo forest. Wonderful. I said the other day said the One of the most famous and super cool spots we went to was a Team Labs location. We did a Team Labs borderless in Tokyo, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who visits. It was an incredible experience. [Music] [Music] [Music] That’s crazy. [Music] [Music] Give me [Music] speech. [Music] [Music] [Music] We also got to see the Tokyo Tower up close at night. And later that night, we went out for karaoke and it was an absolute blast. Joking on your eyes, but it’s just the price I pay. Destiny is calling me. Open up my evil eyes. the MR. The next day, we took the Shigansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. It was amazing going 200 m an hour and traveling to a completely new city within just a few hours. The first night there, we got to go to a little secluded ramen shop and had probably the best ramen ever in my life. It was fantastic. On our way back, we walked around and saw a band playing outside a train station as well. Oh my god. [Music] [Music] [Music] You look good here. [Music] On our second day there, we visited the Fushimi Inari Shrine. We also climbed up to the top of Mount Inari as well and saw a breathtaking view of the city below. And we even got some sherbet, too. very individual. Afterwards, we spent some time shopping around the Gillion District and Nishiki Market before getting dinner at a Japanese barbecue place. This honestly was my favorite meal of the entire time we were in Japan. It was 2 hours all you could eat. A burria Sanjjo store is the name of the location. If you’re ever in Kyoto, please make a visit. You won’t regret it. Later that night, me and a friend went out to a few bars and stayed out till 500 a.m. I walked to the train station and got on the first morning train to go back to my hotel, and I was back there by like 5:30. The next day, I ended up getting a beard lineup at a local barber shop. And we did some more shopping around the city, including another Nintendo store and a Studio Ghibli store as well. We ended up getting some pizza for dinner, but because of how tired I was, I decided to call it a night early, but some of my friends went out to another temple and did some more sightseeing at night and even went to see the Kyoto Tower. The next day, we took the Shigansen from Kyoto to Osaka. We stayed fairly close to Dantanbururi. It was about a 15-inute walk from our hotel. The first night there, me and a friend walked through several retro video game stores trying to find a copy of Fire Emblem 4, which we did end up finding. We again did some more shopping in the Danton Brewery area before heading into a round one location where we did a ton of different activities like ping pong, bowling, batting cages, basketball, darts, and arcade machines. This was super fun. For dinner, we split up, but four of us went to the small little appetizer restaurant where we each ordered five apps and ate them together. It was very, very good. On our second day in Osaka, we went to the World Expo. This was a super cool once-in-a-lifetime experience for us, so we didn’t want to miss it. The expo took place on a small island and had a giant halo ring that was like 100 ft tall in the air that wrapped around the entire venue. Seeing all the different countries and their exhibit buildings was very cool to see and there were obviously a lot of people there. [Music] [Music] [Music] The next day, we travel to N to the famous park to feed some deer. No, I saw you back there. You were sweeping. This guy followed me for like a mile. I wanted to do a bit more shopping and walking around Dantonburi. So, I did that afterwards while some people went to do more sightseeing at Osaka Castle. Said they’re by the bass player, wherever that is. We ended our stay in Osaka with a really nice Wagu five course steak dinner. This was the best meat I’ve ever had in my life. The next day, we took the Shigansen again from Osaka to Hiroshima. We were only here for one day, but made the most of it by traveling to the Hiroshima Memorial Park and visiting the monuments. It was a very humbling and incredibly powerful experience. We also toured the inside museum as well, which had artifacts from the aftermath of the bombing. We ended our night in Hiroshima by jumping in the pool at the hotel and having a drink at the bar. The next day we traveled on the Chagansen towards Hakone. We took a bus from the station all the way to our hotel next to Mount Fuji. Unfortunately, it was super rainy and cloudy the entire time we were there, so we didn’t get to see the mountain or do much outside. We did end up visiting an aquarium and doing some shopping. However, we also took a gondola ride up over an active volcano near sulfur mines. But again, you really couldn’t see much big fish. The next day, we took the Chigansen back to Tokyo and spent the last day and night walking around and shopping before leaving late the next day. The overall experience was nearly as perfect as you could have. The worst part was traveling to and from each city, but even then it was still incredibly easy with how to navigate and board the trains. As long as you have Google Maps on your phone, you can get just about anywhere. There was so much more I wish I could have done, and I wish I could have stayed even longer. But it’s absolutely a trip I will never forget. And I’m glad I have all of these photos and videos to remember it by. All right, this is probably the biggest factor for anyone wanting to go to Japan. Let’s break down the total cost. To preface, I will say that there are probably much cheaper ways to travel across the country, but for my first time, and especially with traveling with five other people, I decided on comfort over cost for a lot of the prices. There were cheaper options for airlines, lodging and food, etc. So, don’t take these prices as the cheapest way it can be done. There are certainly ways to pay less. It’s just a matter of how much you’re willing to sacrifice to save money. For the plane ticket, we bought a two-way flight from Minneapolis to Haneda using Delta Airlines and selected the Comfort Plus seats. The total came out to $1,464.91. Comfort Plus was an extra $150 that I thought was well worth it on a 12-hour flight. So, we did end up spending a little bit extra for that. In terms of lodging, we stayed in westernstyle hotels for each place we visited. For each hotel minus our stay in Hakone, we got three double bedrooms to accommodate six people. For the most part, I enjoyed every hotel that we stayed at. They were all very accommodating. When we first arrived in Tokyo, we stayed at Hotel Myay’s Got Station. It was right next to a train station, so it was very convenient to get to and from the different districts around Tokyo. In Kyoto, we stayed at Chisun Premium Kyoto Kujo. In Osaka, we stayed at Nest and Rise Osaka Namba Hotel. This was the only hotel I really didn’t like. The rooms were very cramped and they didn’t offer any cleaning services, so I probably wouldn’t go back there in a Osaka. I would choose somewhere else. In Hiroshima, we stayed at Hilton Hiroshima, which was probably my favorite hotel. It felt like a very premium experience in Hakone. We stayed at the Prince Hakone Lake Ashinino. This was kind of a touristy resort sort of hotel, but it rained basically the entire time we were in Hakone. So, our stay was a little hindered by that, but it was still a nice hotel and we had an onen that I tried for the first time. But when I did want to go to the spa, they were closed the day that I wanted to go, which I was disappointed by. And finally, back in Tokyo before our flight, we stayed at the Hotel Venaf Fontaine Grand Haneda Airport Hotel. I’d go back to each of these instantly, minus the one in Osaka. They weren’t too far from train stations and were accommodating. They had good places to eat nearby. And per person, the cost for lodging for our entire trip came out to $1,21.87. So even before we had one piece of sushi, we were in almost $2,500. For transportation, 95% of the time we used the trains, which included the light rail and chigansen. I did go through with the 20,000 yen max I could load onto my sua for the trains, but some of that was used for buying stuff at Family Mart, Lawson, 7-Eleven, etc. I’d say in total for the two weeks there, I spent about $150 on train fairs. For the Chigansen, in total, each person spent about $365. This was to get to each new city. So, it was an additional $515 for transportation costs, bringing our total to just over $3,000 at $3,1.78. The rest of the costs are a little bit more difficult to break down because most of the time all of our meals were on one check, which I use usually paid for and then was reimbursed by everyone. I tried to keep everything on one card as much as possible, but I would sometimes accidentally use my Apple card or my Sua instead of my American Express, but I will try to break down the costs for food and shopping and other activities. Next, keep in mind the following costs are rounded estimates to the total spent for the two weeks we were in Japan. For food, in total, I think I spent about $400. This includes all the restaurants we stopped at along with anytime we got snacks from a convenience store. We had one meal that was $80 that was at the Wagyu steakhouse we were at in Osaka and another that was $50 for the Japanese barbecue in Kyoto. Both of these places I would highly recommend though. For activities, we each spent about $250. This included the tickets to the Osaka World Expo, Team Labs, the Tokyo Castle and Gardens Tour, and any other small fees that we needed to pay to get into museums, clubs, or other places. For shopping, in total, I spent around $1,000. This included any and all clothes, gifts, and souvenirs that I bought during my time there. So, in total, if you’re looking for a rough estimate of how much I spent for my two weeks in Japan, it was about $4,650. Again, this is not what you’re required to spend in order to come to Japan. There are ways to spend less and still have fun, but I think it’s a respectable amount to spend for 2 weeks while staying in western style hotels, going out for every meal, going to fun attractions, buying stuff, and just having a lot of fun. I think you can travel around Japan for two weeks extremely comfortably for $5,000. That’s kind of the benchmark I would give someone. And that’s just about going to do it for my video on my trip to Japan. If you’re somebody who’s looking to travel there sometime in the future, I hope this video helped you and you learned a bit from it. Maybe you now know the costs associated with traveling and now you know some fun activities and places to visit as well. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments down below, and I will do my best to try and answer them. Make sure again you like and subscribe to see more videos from me. And that’s it for me, but until then, I will see you all next time. [Music] I know. [Music] I know you. I know you. [Music]

In this video I go over my recent trip to Japan including where I stayed, what I did and how much it all cost.

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Chapters:

00:00 Intro
01:05 Planning the Trip
02:27 Itinerary
03:57 Tokyo
12:38 Kyoto
17:14 Osaka
19:05 Nara
20:21 Hiroshima
21:14 Hakone
22:10 Tokyo Part 2
22:54 Cost Breakdown
28:20 Total Cost
29:30 Outro

Music Used:
LAKEY INSPIRED – Better Days
LAKEY INSPIRED – Chill Day
Pieces – After The Fall
Good Day – Chill Relaxing Lofi HipHop

#japan #japantravel #travel