Many still think that Japan is an expensive country to travel around. And they are partly right; in comparison to other Asian countries it is one of the most expensive countries. Accommodation is something that will set you back quite a bit and transportation can be costly. But those people also don't know that you can eat lunch or dinner for 400 yen ($3,86) if you want to, explore the gorgeous cities and even some temples for free and that you don't have to take an expensive shinkansen train to travel from city to city. My friend and I didn't really travel budget friendly during our first trip in Japan, so don't be scared when I show you my budget. It is just an indicator of what we spent and I will give you some tips to make your trip even cheaper.

Normally I am not very meticulous with my budget. Yes, I want to travel cheaply and I will stay in hostels and take the cheapest bus, but I usually don't write down everything I spend. But for this trip I wanted to have a clear image of where my hard earned money went (I saved money for a good four years to finance this trip, but as a fourteen year old kid you don't really have a royal salary). So this was the first and last time I wrote down almost everything I spent, not always in exact number but globally. I actually think it was a good habit because it gives me insight in how much I spent that day so that I can slow down when I've spent too much or treat myself the next day when there's money left. And it is great information for my future trips to the same place, or as information for other people, like readers of this blog. Maybe I should start writing down my travel expenses again from now on... :)

So here is a breakdown of my costs day by day, leaving out personal shopping expenses (those added up quickly!). Also, I will put some costs in the color blue, which means that I won't be counting them for the total daily sum and daily average. Those are the activities that were very special and specific things that we did but that most other people probably won't do when they are in Japan. The pink words are urls (links) by the way, you can click on them to get more information about that subject.  To give you a fair look on our normal daily costs of traveling in Japan I will count our expenses for accommodation, food, sightseeing and transportation.
The first day is only half a day because we arrived in Japan in the afternoon. 

Fushimi Inari Taisha and Gion and the cute streets in front of Kiyomizu are free to visit. Osaka Castle and the Golden Pavilion are also cheap sights to see.

Our Budget


  • Three metro rides ¥ 390
  • Airport Express Train ¥ 890
  • 7-11 dinner ¥ 360
  • Boat ride ¥ 1700
  • Hotel ¥ 4725 ------------- + ¥ 8065
  • Four metro/train rides ¥ 980
  • breakfast ¥ 450
  • Kaiyukan Aquarium ¥ 2000
  • Family restaurant curry dinner ¥ 500
  • HEP Five Ferris Wheel ¥ 500
  • Browsing the HEP Five shops - free
  • Hotel ¥ 4725 ------------------ + 9100
  • Four metro/train rides ¥ 790
  • Breakfast ¥ 450
  • Lunch ¥ 120
  • Okonomiyaki dinner ¥ 1850
  • Osaka Castle ¥ 600
  • Museum of history ¥ 600
  • Hotel ¥ 4725 ---------------- + ¥ 9135
  • Train/metro rides ¥ 1000
  • Breakfast ¥ 282
  • Lunch ¥ 600
  • Dinner theme cafe ¥ 1000
  • Takarazuka theatre ¥ 8000
  • Exploring Takarazuka streets - free
  • Hotel ¥ 4725 -------------- + ¥ 7610
Cute streets of Takarazuka - free






Kyoto Day 5
  • Osaka-Kyoto train ¥ 590
  • Kyoto-Fushimi return ticket ¥ 510
  • Breakfast ¥ 350
  • Fushimi Inari Taisha - free
  • Matsuya Dinner ¥ 400
  • Hotel ¥ 4000  ----------------- + ¥ 5850
  • Breakfast & Lunch ¥ 890
  • Nijo castle ¥ 350
  • Baskin Robbins (dinner) ¥ 446
  • Train ¥ 1080
  • Metro ¥ 520
  • Mika Nakashima Concert ¥ 6800
  • Hotel ¥ 4000 ------------------ + ¥ 6700
  • Geisha makeover ¥ 9975
  • Breakfast ¥ 300
  • Transportation ¥ 2000
  • McDonalds dinner ¥ 600
  • Hotel ¥ 4000 ------------------ + ¥ 6900
  • Breakfast ¥  400
  • Silver pavilion ¥ 500
  • Kiyomizu ¥ 300
  • Lunch and drinks ¥ 730
  • 7-11 Dinner ¥ 300
  • Kpop Concert ¥ 9500
  • Rented Bicycle¥  1000
  • Hotel ¥ 4000 ----------------- + ¥ 7230
  • Breakfast ¥ 290
  • Lunch ¥ 300
  • Dinner Lotteria ¥ 600
  • Golden Pavilion ¥ 400
  • Ryoanji ¥ 500 
  • Ninna-ji (Goten) ¥ 500
  • Rented bicycle ¥ 1000
  • Ryokan stay ¥ 12000 ---------------- + 15590
Day 10
  • Bullet train ¥ 9800
  • Breakfast ¥ 450
  • Harajuku crepe ¥ 470
  • Walking around Harajuku and Shibuya - free
  • Family restaurant dinner ¥ 860
  • Metro ¥ 800
  • Hotel ¥ 4416 --------------- + ¥ 16796
Busiest intersection in the World - Shibuya - free



Day 11
  • Breakfast ¥ 300
  • Metro ¥ 1240 
  • Hello Kitty Land ¥ 4000
  • Lunch ¥ 110
  • Dinner Yoshinoya ¥ 330
  • Hotel ¥ 4416 -------------- + 10396
Day 12
  • Breakfast ¥ 400
  • Transportation ¥ 1000
  • Exploring Yokohama - free
  • Hotel Party Entrance ¥ 1000
  • Dinner MOS burger ¥ 750
  • Hotel ¥ 4416 ----------------- + ¥ 7566
Day 13
  • Breakfast ¥ 340
  • Lunch mister donut ¥ 320
  • Dinner Princess Cafe ¥ 2500
  • Walking Through Akihabara and Ginza - free 
  • Metro/train ¥ 800
  • Hotel ¥ 4416 ------------------ + ¥ 8375
Day 14
  • Breakfast ¥ 360
  • Lunch ¥ 445
  • Hawaiian Tonkatsu Dinner ¥ 900
  • Transportation ¥ 1000
  • A day in Shibuya and Korea Town - free
  • Hotel ¥ 4416 ---------------- + ¥ 7121
Day 15
  • Breakfast ¥ 440
  • Disney entrance ticket ¥ 5300
  • Churro ¥ 300
  • Dinner ¥ 1100
  • Transportation ¥ 780
  • Hotel ¥ 4416 ----------------- + ¥ 12336

Asakusa - free
Day 16
  • Breakfast ¥ 380
  • Streetstall Manju ¥ 80
  • Visiting Asakusa - free
  • Harajuku crepe ¥ 460
  • Dinner MOS burger ¥ 750
  • Transportation ¥ 1100 ----------- + ¥ 2270
Which is a total of ¥ 141040 for 16 days.
That means an average of ¥ 8815 per day, or $84,71.

That is quite a lot of money, double or even triple the budget of the average backpacker in Asia.
Do take in consideration that no expenses were spared for this trip as I had saved for this for many years I wanted to make a dream trip out if it by doing everything I wanted to do, no matter how expensive. Trips to amusement parks are expensive. We stayed in private ensuite rooms (but some of the cheapest available) and even treated ourself to an expensive stay at a traditional ryokan. Together with bullet train, a lot of metro rides and renting bicycles the expenses packed on quickly. That also means that this budget has some potential of getting better!

ranging from 200 yen to 500 yen

Tips


Tips for lowering the budget:
  • Stay in hostels. You should be able to find something decent for around ¥2500. In Tokyo it will be a bit more. Another way to save on accommodation is by reserving a room on airbnb. This website lists rentals, like rooms or whole houses, put up by private people. These are aimed at the travel community and are rated by people who stayed there in their reviews. It is possible to find some gems for cheap on airbnb. You could also try couch surfing, which is free and a great experience. I did this in South Korea and made some awesome friends and had unique experiences this way, and all for free !
  • Buy breakfast at a convenience store. We did this everyday and this is why our costs for breakfast are quite low. Two nice sandwiches are about ¥220 and a drink ¥120. Even cheaper would be to go to a real supermarket and bulk buy your breakfast for a few days.
  • Lunch for us ranged from ice-cream to street food to convenience store food or even nothing. These things are all quite cheap and were good enough for us because we are not big eaters. Lunching at a restaurant will be more expensive.
  • Dinner can be costly at some restaurants. Family restaurants are your best bet for a proper but quite cheap meal around ¥800. A meal at a fast food restaurant like McDonalds or MOS Burger is ¥600-700. But for the real cheapskates there is Matsuya, Yoshinoya and Sukiya where you can eat simple rice with beef or curry meals for as low as ¥300. That means dinner for only $2.90! Avoid expensive theme restaurants, foreign cuisine or other fancy restaurants.
  • Transportation is very costly. Try to walk as much as you can within a city so you don't have to buy expensive metro- and train tickets or have to rent a bicycle. This will save you a lot of money. Moving from city to city will be the cheapest with buses or slow trains. The famous bullet train will set you back a few thousand yen, so avoid it if you can. If you want or have to take the bullet train, try to buy a special discount ticket, like the Puratto Kodama Economy Plan. You can find some more information here.
  • When in Japan you want to see some tempels and museums of course. These are not super expensive, but not free either (like in London). Tickets will range from ¥300 to ¥600. You can make it a cheap trip if you balance this well with free things like exploring different cities, neighborhoods or even some temple grounds like Fushimi Inari Taisha and Myoshin-ji. Amusement parks, concerts, a geisha makeover, tea ceremonies and other fun but unusual things are very expensive and are best avoided if you are on a small budget.
  • Shopping is rather expensive in Japan. You can find some great things and I really enjoyed shopping in Japan but after the trip I was broke because of it. If you have a weak spot for cute things, pretty clothes, cool gadgets or traditional Japanese stuff, you'd better avoid the shops unless you have got a big budget ;) And if you really want to shop after all, try a 100 yen shop.
dinner

Low Budget Calculation


Based on the above tips your low budget day can look like this:
  • Walking and two metro rides +- ¥ 400
  • Breakfast +- ¥ 320
  • Lunch +- ¥ 200
  • Dinner +- ¥ 400
  • Hostel +- ¥ 2500
  • Temple visit +- ¥ 400
  • Souvenir/Other ¥ 500  -------------- + ¥ 4720
That is only $34,50 a day! It is slightly more than the average day in South East Asia, but still very doable I think. It just takes a bit more effort in Japan to stay on budget, but it is worth all the effort because Japan is one of those countries you will never forget! And if you only just want to eat and visit temples, you can even scrap the Souvenir/Other part and go on a budget of $31 a day! And by couch surfing and not taking the metro, you can get an even lower budget. It's all about creativity and sacrifice ;) If you need some tips on (free) things to do in Japan, read my 101 Japan list. I will make a post about free activities in Japan in the future, see keep an eye out for that!

 Now go and plan your trip to Japan !
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Hello there! I've had a small hiatus of two weeks due to my broken hard disk as I told about before. I have been scanning every last byte of my computer and my families computer for photos. So I was searching and searching because without photos this would be a boring blog right? And I have found back a fair amount of them, but sadly I lost a lot of photos because my back up of them also got lost. Most of the lost photos are from my solo travels, which also means my Japan photos. Luckily there is social media where I had stored my most important photos so I can keep blogging and showing you about my travels, that's a positive thing in this whole affair. It is only a fragment of what I could show (and the quality of the photos is also downgraded a lot from the originals), but something is better than nothing I'd say!

So I'll continue writing about my trip to Japan for now. We checked out of our cosy budget hotel to spend one night a more luxurious yet homely ryokan. This ryokan was run by an old lady and her husband and they took great care of us. It was almost like doing a home stay but with the privacy of a hotel. The ryokan was located in a traditional house with a gorgeous garden (but I forgot to take a picture of that, oh my!) and a small spa bath. But it was still too early to check in so we left our luggage there and rented bicycles at the same place as the day before. The guy from the rental place recognized us and gave us a discount, nice! And today we visited probably the most famous place in Japan; the Golden Pavilion, Kikakuji. It was quite a long journey all the way to the north-east of Kyoto, but enjoyable nonetheless. As I said before, Dutchies on bicycles is like fish in the sea haha.
And lucky for us it wasn't very crowded at all, so we could take our time and enjoy the reflection of the golden building in the big lake in all rest. It was a time to let the beauty sink in and become at peace. I can tell all about it, but photos beat my words.





Next is a place that is famous with enthousiast of Zen gardens, the Ryoanji temple. The place is known for the dry landscape solely made of pebble stones with a few big stones. Those big stones can not be viewed all at once; no matter where you stand, there will always be at least once out of sight. I think the surroundings were more impressive though. Because the garden is part of a small temple which is part of an even bigger garden. There was a big lake where I spotted cute turtles. And around the temple was a little bit of vegetation and decorations including a gorgeous wishing well. It was interesting seeing the dry landscape and this time I consciously sat down to only look at the garden and clear my thoughts. When you're at a zen garden why not try becoming zen for a while, right? Until now the gorgeous gardens and temples had awed me and made me both amazed and calm. But this time I made a conscious effort to slow down and appreciate what I saw because a pile of stones doesn't really give that wow-feeling sat first sight.

Turtles!






We continued our journey a bit more southward to Ninna-ji. It is part of the UNESCO Historic Monuments of Kyoto, just like the Golden Pavilion and Ryoan-ji we saw earlier that day. Taking that into consideration and seeing some photos online, plus the fact that it is close to Ryoanji, I decided to put this on my list of locations to visit for Kyoto. This is once again a massive place with several buildings and gardens on its grounds. We didn't want to pay to enter every part of Ninna-ji, so we only entered the first part called goten, former residence of the head priest. You can walk around the hallways and look into the rooms. The interesting part is that the hallways are in the open air, so that outside and inside are connected to each other. This concept overflows in the garden which is also connected to the buildings and hallways. The garden is gorgeous and the harmony of outdoors and indoors is something really inspiring, especially for those interested in architecture (me!).




View when walking through the hallways




Not far away from there is Myoshin-ji. This is yet again a place with extended grounds, but what makes this place unique is that it is not located in the mountains but in a residential area so that temples and housed are kind of mixed together and that you will say locals walking around there. And visiting the grounds is free and you can ride around with your bicycle. So there we were, taking a ride with temples to our left and right. There was something really special about this place and just riding with our bicycle there that it's got a special place in my heart. By the way, we might have done something illegal by bicycling there, so if you go there by bike keep an eye out for any signs that say it's not allowed ! I didn't take many photos here, and those I did take got lost, sadly.

After nomming away a delicious ice-cream we headed back early because we we exhausted after the concert of the night before and bicycling and walking all day. The guy of the rental bikes was surprised that we came back so 'fast'. He couldn't believe we went all the way to Kinkakuji by bike and visited several places there and biked all the way back before it was evening. What can I say, we are just super fast bikers ! Or to be fair, we are just good planners, fairly good bikers and efficient sightseers I guess haha. When we arrived at our room there was some warm tea, cold refreshing water and wagashi waiting for us, awesome. And they already put our luggage there for us. That is the kind of service I would always like. We reserved the family bath for eight o'clock. We had our own bathroom but the communal bath room has an onsen-like ofuro, which is basically an at home hot spring. So after washing ourselves we soaked in the hot water of the ofuro and slowly felt our fatigue and pains leave our bodies. It is such an relaxing experience. And this was a great alternative for visiting an onsen because it meant having the relaxation without being naked in front of strangers.

Notes;

  • Kinkakuji is the most famous sight of Japan. Who doesn't want to see the mesmerizing Golden Pavilion?
  • June is a great time for visiting Japan if you like to avoid too many tourists and want to visit famous places in a relative quiet atmosphere. You should be aware that it is rainy season at that time, but you could be lucky like us and only have two days of rain and many dry days (with grey skies).
  • Zen garden equals Ryoan-ji ; go here for the epitome of dry landscape gardens
  • Like Japanese architecture and Japanese gardens? Visit Ninna-ji, more particularly the goten part of it.
  • Myoshin-ji is great if you like something different and a more residential atmosphere of temples. And it's free to explore !
  • Visiting a hot spring (onsen) is something you can't miss in Japan. Pamper yourself and relax!
  • If you don't like to be naked in front of strangers, there are some onsen where you can rent a private bath. Or you can go to a hotel where there is an onsen bath included in your room or where you can rent a bath in the hotel.
  • Japanese sweets are called wagashi. They aren't really sweet like Western sweets but very pretty. If you're staying at a nice ryokan there's a chance you will get some wagashi in your room.
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This is the second and last part of my story about the folkloristic market of Zoutelande. This one is less text orientated and more of a photo post.

The best part of the market was the 'klederdracht show'. Klederdracht is the Dutch word for traditional costumes. I've always found the regional costumes of Zeeland to be gorgeous but you can rarely see them anymore. Now and then I would see a very old lady wearing one but the last time was years ago. During the show they showed the popular costumes how they changed through the time and told about the differences between the different villages and ages. One thing I know about the hair dress of my hometown is that a big poofy cap is for a unmarried girl while a small simple one means that you are married. Other than that... let's just say there are a lot of differences! Originally this place was a very religious one so that meant full body coverage with lots of reasons. That is the main reason that we don't wear it anymore; it takes to much time, there are too many rules and it is hot, especially in summer. Besides that it is expensive and very hard to find. I literally don't know any place where I could get those clothes. I talked about this with one of the guys from the performing group and he told me that I should join there group so I could find a costume for not a lot of money. And you know what? That actually didn't sound bad. It has always been a secret dream of mine to own or at least wear those traditional clothes once and I could learn even more about my birth place. I should keep it in mind in case I ever return to my home town for longer than just a holiday or weekend.













When there is a traditional market in Zeeland, ringrijden can't miss. Ringrijden a kind of sports and competition where you ride a horse at full speed and try to catch a ring with a lance. As the match progresses the rings get smaller and harder to catch. Whomever gets the most rings wins of course. Usually the horses get dressed up nicely with braids and ribbons in their manes. This is actually kind of a popular sports and nice for tourists ti watch at the some time. I especially love the announcer, it's always the same guy. He speaks in the local dialect and uses weird local expression and uses a lot of passion when speaking. A few weeks ago I was working while there was a ringrijden match in the main street and the announcers' booth was close to our bakery, so I could hear everything he was saying. I always snicker at his comments but this time he said something especially amusing; 'Noe breekt mien klomp' which translates as 'My wooden shoe breaks now' and means 'What the f*ck is he doing?'. It's the first time I heard that one. Loved it.


Got it!

Putting up the ring for the next contestant

Win!



testing the lance



Notes;

  • One part of the caps the ladies wear is made of almost a thousand folds. It is a difficult technique and the last lady who still made them recently stopped.
  • Klederdracht is expensive, difficult to put on, heavy and hot. But it looks gorgeous.
  • Every piece of clothing has rules regarding wearing it. Each piece also holds a different meaning. Big cap? Unmarried. Small cap? Married.
  • I've always liked the golden curly things on women's caps
  • My favorite part is the necklace. My grandmother also used to have one and gave it to my niece on her wedding day. How I wish I got one too. Since they are made of corals a lot of Chinese and other Asian tradesmen have bought up a lot of the necklaces so they are difficult to find now and expensive. 
  • Ringrijden is a typical sport of Zeeland.
  • There is another sport just like ringrijden, called sjeesjesrijden. The horse pulls a car with a man and his wife, both in traditional clothing, while the man steers the woman tries to catch the ring.
  • I am not good at the local dialects. Every village has its own dialect, but I grew up in the capital of the province where 'BBC Dutch' (let's just call it that ;)) is the standard.
  • 'Noe breekt mien klomp!'
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I wanted to take a little break from writing about my Japan trip with this post about the folkloristic market of Zoutelande. Don't worry, I still have a few Japan post left and will continue writing about it of course! Anyway, I think that in any country a lot of old traditions fade away or disappear completely as modern times progresses. It's something I think is really sad, but at the same time it is difficult to prevent. One way to at least not let old crafts die out is by organizing something like a folkloristic market. At the same time it educates both foreign and local people about the local crafts and traditions. So when there was a folkloristic market (mostly for touristic purposes) in my hometown I decided to take a look around because I didn't have to go to work that day anyway.

I was hoping to see some traditional clothing, which I did, a lot! But I will save that for a later post. Other than the traditional clothing I didn't really know what to expect or what I wanted to see. So I just wandered around the market taking photos and trying to learn about some of the crafts that were shown there. The first stand which was closest so my home (and in front of the bakery where I work) was a booth with babbelaars. Babbelaars are traditional sweets from Zeeland, a province of the Netherlands and my 'home province'. They are simple sweets with only five ingredients and are basically pure sugar. But they are good! It's a traditional kind of Dutch butterscotch. Usually they are sold in cute tins with pictures of people in regional traditional costumes or Dutch sceneries. At the booth there were older women, a younger girl and a man all dressed folk costumes and they were making and selling the babbelaars on the spot. First they melt the sugar with the other ingredients and move it to a cold plate where they keep mixing it until it is cool enough to roll it out and make thin strips. They then make nicks in the strips and when it's completely cooled and hardened they break them and there you have the candies! At this particular booth they also sold special babbelaars with chocolate and cinnamon flavor. I bought them and cinnamon flavor is approved! I am not sure what to think about the chocolate ones though...

cooling the batter

stretching and rolling

making nicks



breaking into pieces
packing the yummies

Just to mention it, 'my' bakery also had a stall. My colleagues sold oliebollen there. An oliebol is something like a deep-fried donut. It is Dutch New Years food and I love it! But it is not something I would eat in summer, I think it's a Dutch mental thing; oliebol is winter food. So I didn't eat any of them. I did eat some soft serve ice-cream because the ones at our bakery are very good. Sorry, I didn't take photos of our bakery and the booth. Next were some gift shops booths. One of the was a booth with candles. One of the ladies there was making some candles on the spot by dipping the base in different colors (of wax I assume) and letting the layer dry and then dipping it in the next color. She told me that it took long today because it was too hot and the layers wouldn't dry very well. But they also shouldn't get too cold otherwise the next layer won't hold. Candles are not some old Dutch craft, but at least it was interesting to see. Next to the candle booth was a stand with metal jewelry. A guy was making some of the jewelry next to the booth. This is something I used to do with my grandfather too, but again not traditionally Dutch per se.







In front of the church were some interesting booths. One of them, my favorite, was the wooden shoos booth. Believe it or not, but some people still wear. Mostly farmers, like the shoes are intended for. Other than that, no, people in the Netherlands don't walk around in wooden shoes. I only wore them once in my life. They are heavy and not so comfortable. It was the first time I saw someone making them though. The guy who was making them was actually from Belgium, but he said that most wooden shoes makers and wearers are still Dutch. There are just not many left though. The shoe he was working on already had a rough shape and he was scraping out the wood where the food has to go in. He told me that there are also wooden shoes with leather which the farmers wear on fancy occasions. I can't imagine haha. His wife, I suppose, was working with a spinning wheel. That is also something I only saw in museums and the Sleeping Beauty.

The only time I ever wore wooden shoes, and a farmers suit. I even milked cows and ate cheese, it doesn't get more Dutch except for tulips and wind mills.











There was another booth that I found really mesmerizing, which was one where there were only two home made chairs and an old guy making a third chair. He was weaving the seating of the chair. We used to have those wicker chairs at home, not those hip modern ones or the one you put in the garden, but real classis ones. That's why it intrigued me so much. I used to always sit on them but it never occurred to me how they were made and how much time and effort that took. And the guy was so concentrated on the weaving, for some reason it touched me. Close to that booth was a booth with different kind of cheeses, not to be missed of course, and a booth where they were 'smoking' (preparing food with hot smoke) eels. My grandfather also does this sometimes. It is funny how most booths reminded me of my grandparents because they either did those things or told me about their (grand)parents doing it. I have a new found respect for what they did and what our old traditions are.





Cutting the cheesy goods





Notes;

  • Seeing traditional crafts of your hometown makes you appreciate and respect your local customs more
  • These kind of markets are really touristic though
  • Putting on traditional clothes makes everything a thousand times better
  • Babbelaars are typical Zeeuws. You won't find them in the rest of the Netherlands, let alone the rest of the world.
  • It takes a lot of work to make wooden shoes
  • Wooden shoes are heavy and uncomfy
  • Wicker chairs make me feel nostalgic
  • Yummy, cheese

I will tell you more about the market next time!
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