Two weeks ago, I made a video on what I missed about Japan

and I mentioned that I stopped making Japan travel videos

for a while just because I thought it wasn't the right time

to do it with everything going on.

So a lot of you guys recently

have asked me to do some again.

And whilst I cannot travel to Japan right now,

I can still talk about my experiences.

I really miss doing chilled out videos like this

where I just sit down and talk to you guys.

And I think it got to the point

where I was constantly trying

to push out all these crazy big Japan videos

that would take me months to edit,

and I kinda stress myself out too much.

So I really want to maybe make this a weekly thing

where I just pick a topic that is perhaps Japan related

or anything really.

I made a post on my Instagram story

and asked you guys to send me questions

that are Japan travel related,

and I've got some really good ones.

There was one that I picked out,

which I thought would be really interesting to talk about.

Can you travel to Japan on a low budget?

The answer?

Absolutely.

And I'm going to tell you guys how I did that today.

So 10 years ago, I went to Japan for the very first time.

Man, I feel old.

I was 20 years old back then and I didn't have much money.

I was still a full-time student working part-time jobs

in fast food, retail,

the usual part time jobs to save money.

Going to Japan was a dream for me back then.

And I always wanted to go

ever since I was like 14 years old.

If you want to find out how I saved money

to travel to Japan,

you can watch my "How I Saved Money" video

I made like two years ago.

But in today's video,

I'm going to focus on budget trips.

Now keep in mind,

times have changed and are always changing,

so what I experienced back then, might not be the case now.

And also even though I make a lot of videos about Japan

and have been there many times,

I don't know everything about Japan.

So if you're planning a trip or are planning to move there,

sure you can listen to some of the tips I will give you,

but it's also very important

to do your own research as well.

So I'm going to give you guys like approximate numbers

on what I spent when I traveled on these trips

to give you guys a better idea

on how much you want to budget for your trip.

My very first trip was in 2010

and it was a six-week trip to Japan.

Overall for everything, I spent about $5,000.

Flights, food, accommodation, transport,

shopping, everything.

First off, flights.

You can find cheap flights to Japan.

And as years went on, flights actually got cheaper

because of all the competition with different airlines.

Of course right now,

it's not the right time to be looking at flights

but when we can, these are my tips.

So subscribe to emails from airlines,

they will notify you when there is a sale.

I usually like using Google Flights.

That way you can see a whole different range

of airlines, different routes,

how much more it will cost if I took a certain route

or if I wanted to visit multiple countries,

it's a really good way to get variety of different options.

From there, I will play around with dates.

It will tell you when the prices are most expensive.

There are always times that are more expensive than others,

such as Easter, Christmas or school holidays.

I've had times where I paid only maybe 600 to $800

for a flight to Japan on Singapore Airlines,

which is pretty good, that's return from Australia.

And there are even cheaper flights

if you choose to fly with Jetstar or Air Asia.

I haven't flown with them before to Japan

but I've seen deals where you pay for any one flight

and you get another flight for free.

So you can take someone with you

and you each can pay half the price of a ticket.

I've seen some where you only pay for a flight one-way

and get the return free.

Deals like that come up all the time,

so you just have to keep an eye on them

and also read terms and conditions.

Next is accommodation.

So for accommodation,

yeah, there are ways where you can save a lot.

My first trip to Japan, I was being so cheap.

I remember that I didn't want

to spend more than $25 a night on accommodation.

And of course, the only way to get a price that cheap

is to stay in youth hostels.

We were traveling in a group of five people at the time,

and usually if you book in a group,

you get better discounts

as you would share a room with bunk beds.

The hostels we stayed in, some were really good,

some were just terrible,

so you get what you pay for I guess.

One of the hostels I remember,

we had to share a bathroom with like 10 people.

We would be fighting for the showers every day

with another group.

And also I remember the hot water wouldn't work sometimes

and this was in the middle of winter

so we took like cold showers.

We all shared one room five of us

and we had two bunk beds and one single bed.

The place was a little bit dirty,

though I think we paid like $22 a person a night there,

which is really cheap.

And that was in Tokyo.

In Osaka, I remember that we stayed in a hostel

that unfortunately has closed down now,

but it was run by a family.

I remember paying around $22 a night for that place as well.

Same deal, we shared a bedroom

but they had a lot of bathrooms available.

Very clean and the family that owned the place was amazing.

You just have to do a lot of research,

read reviews on multiple websites if you're picky,

but back then, there wasn't much information

because this was like 10 years ago.

So these days there is a lot more out there.

Now back then, Airbnb wasn't really a thing

but that is something to consider,

especially if you are traveling in a group.

I used Airbnb in Tokyo like two years ago

when we were traveling in a group of four.

I can't remember exactly how much it costs

but I think it was like maybe 40 to $50 a night.

So more expensive,

but it was a lot more spacious, private and convenient.

You can also get cheaper budget hotels as well.

I've stayed in some

where you only pay like 50 to 75 a night.

And it depends on the area you want to stay in obviously.

If you want to stay in the middle of Shibuya or Shinjuku,

it's going to be harder to find something under $100 a night

but you just have to research.

I can maybe go on into more detail

on how to pick accommodation for Japan in another video.

Yeah, there's a lot of information,

but you can definitely cut costs with hotels as well.

You just have to think of what you value more,

convenience, luxury or price.

When I first traveled to Japan,

the only thing I cared about was price,

so obviously I sacrifice convenience and luxury.

I was just a student traveling

and I had all the time in the world.

Nowadays, I care much more about time,

so I would rather stay in a place that is convenient

and that is somewhat decent.

Like I don't need a five-star hotel,

but I do need it to be comfortable enough for me.

So since I'm sacrificing price,

I would probably be paying like 150 to $200 a night

for a room, which actually isn't that bad.

Next is food.

Now I know some people are gonna get so mad at me for this

because yeah, I understand,

when you go to a different country,

you want to experience

as much of the food and culture as possible.

Now I wanted to save money so bad.

And also because I was so scared of running out of money,

I would try and limit myself to only spend $10 per meal.

And of course because the budget is quite low,

I would stick to buying convenience store food,

which I mean at the time was great,

it was cheap, it filled me up.

I still managed to enjoy some authentic Japanese food

on my first trip

but I remember I didn't go to any fancy restaurants.

Well, let's be honest, I'm not really a foodie,

I have very simple tastes.

So yeah, when I was budgeting on food,

I think I probably only spent 20 to $30 a day on it.

I also ate a lot of Japanese fast food chains

like Matsuya, Sukiya, Yoshinoya.

I think I could get a full meal for just like $5 there.

Now when you go to Japan,

I don't recommend you living off convenience store food

because it's not the healthiest

and there is so much more better food options out there.

But if you got a budget, you got a budget.

The great thing about Japan is that a lot of restaurants,

outside of it, they usually have the plastic food samples

so you can see what you'll be getting

when you order your meal.

If you are conscious about how much you're spending on food,

just check the menus before you go into a restaurant

or even look it up online,

sometimes they upload the menu as well.

Next, transport.

There is a lot I can say about this,

but I'll try and keep it short.

So trains in Japan, yes are convenient, but it's not cheap.

There have been times where I was so cheap

that I didn't want to pay for the train so I just walked.

It's free and you get exercise.

Of course, if you're in Japan on like a one-week trip

and you have limited time, you want to use your time wisely.

So yeah, you probably should take the train

if you want to see lots of places.

Some ways you can save money on trains

is by buying a one-day pass.

I know the metro does this

where you pay like $5 for a ticket

and you can use it as many times as you want all day

as long as you're only using the metro.

So plan your trip around that

so you are only using the metro line.

Something I quickly wanna say

is that if you are changing train companies,

it actually cost quite a bit of money.

So for example,

if you are taking the JR train to one station

and then you have to transfer to a metro,

you have to pay the minimum amount for each company,

which is I think like maybe 200 yen, so around $2 each,

so it might cost you like $4.

But if you decide to stick to just JR for example,

and maybe it drops you off

at a train station a little bit more further out,

it might cost you like half the price.

So just use Google Maps seriously,

it tells you like how much it's going to cost.

It's going to tell you

how far you have to walk, it's amazing.

Something else I want to talk about quickly is,