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Best way to get to Japan on small budget. :)

D

dark_secrester

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I'm a bit low on cash right now :eek:
sooooo. What is the best way (must be plausible) to get to Japan on a budget of 450 english pounds (how do you do the pound sign on this forum without it coming up with £ ?) - (about $900). Please give links to airline websites etc. I'm not bothered about seat type. Economy works for me, heck, I wouldn't mind sitting on the wings just to visit again.

My idea was to travel to london, cross the channel, then buy a bicycle (pay insurance etc as you have to tax/insure bikes in europe mainland) and travel through france, up through belgium, then head east, through Russia, then try to get a ferry or cheap flight across to Japan.
The flaws of this plan:
Time - It would take several months to do it.
return - I would have to do the same on the way back
money - I would have spent it before I got there, and would have no money on the way back

The good points - See a lot of Europe and Russia
Get to Japan

I don't think it would work.
Basically, what I need whilst there is accomodation and flight, (return) on a 2 week stay off peak (to keep away from overcrowding by lots of tourists) and to be somewhere near Nagano -ken. :D Oh, plus lots of Japanese food (although it can be cheap)
If anybody knows of a way I can go this cheap then please help.
Thanks for reading.
じゃまた
ジョー
 
You're 15. How seriously are we supposed to take this question?
 
Does it say 15? Sorry, muck up. I'm 19. I'll change it. I never bother to fill in profiles correctly when I join things. Anyway. I was having a joke about the whole 'get to france etc' bit. But anyone know about cheap flights?
 
FinnAir is pretty cheap I heard, so I did some checkin' for ya. I typed some random dates in June, and the cheapest then was 561 GBP. Probably excluding tax and all.

Good luck!
 
Unfortunately, even if you take cheap, economy, smoking, stop-over flights, you'd be spending all your money on the ticket. Luckily if you're going to Nagano you won't be spending as much as you would be in Tokyo but I've never been there so I can't really advise you on that one.
 
www.cheapflights.co.uk - lowest price seems to be about 380 quid (if it's to be believed.)

Also check in the newspapers, both for small ads and special offers. My first trip to Japan in 2002 cost me 100 quid return (honestly...) It was a Daily Mail promotion- buy that rag each day for a week and then choose from a list of crazily cheap offers from British Airways.

Or try becoming an air courier for a day. I did that on a Virgin flight to Tokyo... very cheap. I'll leave it for you do to the Googling...

When(if!) you get here, I recommend the Hotel New Koyo as a great cheap place to stay in Tokyo.
 
Thanks everyone for your help. cheapflights seems to be pretty good. I'm expecting to go this year, and I already have 450 quid. I think I will probably go in October (so I can save up more - although it is hard to live and save up at the same time :D)
Thanks again everyone for your help!
Joe

PS: I'm quitting smoking! I've not had a cig for about 2 weeks!
 
Goodluck!


PS: I'm quitting smoking! I've not had a cig for about 2 weeks!

P.S

Best of luck to you, in England you can get those free patches from the chemist if you sign up. My mum, sister and dad (who have all been average~heavy smokers since before they were legally allowed to be) have all quit with the scheme. The problem patches give you is a lack of something to do with your hands (which the brain thinks of as a habit for inducing nicotine), so find a way to occupy them. Most people who quit smoking say food tastes the same, things smell the same, they can't run a marathon or have sex for days but they save so much money it's ridiculous.


(OK so I went off topic, as long as it helps people, I hope mods don't delete it).
 
Having just returned from a holiday there, I can tell you that you'll need a reasonable amount of cash during your stay, but it won't kill you like some of the horror stories you hear.

Breakfast sets in cafes will set you back about 400 yen, and the various public transport systems we used were all cheaper than Manchester busses.

Food isn't that bad a price, either, but we tended to eat rather a lot, so that hiked up the overall cost.

Beer, though, costs a fair bit, even during happy hours.

Entry to various temples, castles, gardens, are all reasonable (around 500 yen, usually).

Accommodation isn't as horrendous as you'd think, either, and we found some really good hotels (even in Tokyo) for around £50 a night.

Buy a copy of "Rough Guide" and e-mail a few places listed to check prices. The book will pay for itself, believe me.

p.s Smoking is still REALLY rife over there, so you'll need some serious willpower!!!
 
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Thanks Manchester Mike!

About 5-6 weeks clean! :D
I've already started noticing how much extra cash there is in my wallet.

じゃまた!
 
hehe yeah thats some good advice m-mike, am planning to go to tokyo myself this september

if i can find the funds around my student loan that is

i think £50's a little high though for accomodation, i much prefer taiko's suggestion it works out at around £12.50 a night and im very happy going economy lol ^_^

how can you get courier work though? i've heard it makes things sooo much cheaper and all for the sake of carrying a parcel but i dont know how to do it, if i could it'd reduce my cash needed by a lot!

also, is a railcard worth it if im jsut going to be staying in tokyo, maybe a return trip to kyoto? oh and is it better to book way in advance for plane tickets or is it better to do it last minute and get some sorta crayz deal??
any help would be great!
 
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I know from travelling to America that if you book way in advance, it can be cheaper, if you book about a month in advance it is expensive, but if you book right last minute OR wait for no shows you can get it super cheap. Problem is that most last minute deals are untrustworthy (by last minute I mean like a week to 2 days in advance) and if you wait for no shows you can be waiting a LONG time.

Best book like 7 months in advance, just make sure you don't lose your boarding pass etc!
Remember to pack a toothbrush as well, you don't want to use some toothbrushes you find in hotels, and I bet it is the same for Japanese hotels as it is for american ones, the fact that there are loads of hotels that do.

:D
Hope I've helped a bit. Thats something to look into though, courier work...
 
For travelling around by train, the JR rail pass seems expensive, but is actually a bargain if you intend to move around a lot. The 14 day ticket costs about 」230 depending on the exchange rate, but as a Shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto can set you back near 」100 it doesn't take a mathematical genius to see that it pays for itself after a few days of travelling around.
Don't be suckered into the "green car" extra cost, though, as the normal car is more than comfy (after Virgin Rail, though, even a cattle truck is....)
As for flights, look around on the net. No-one seemed to fly direct from Manchester so a change of some sort was necessary for us. We worked out, though, rather than fly BA or Virgin and change in London, we could fly Lufthansa and change in Frankfurt, Air France (change in Paris), KLM (change in Amsterdam), etc, etc.
Expect in the 」400-500 range for a return, but watch your travel days, as one day either side can make a massive difference to the costs. Flying back on a Sunday, for example, is about 」100 cheaper than Monday.




Hmm, those little boxes were "pound signs" when I typed 'em....
 
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I did something terrible today.
I bought some cigs. I haven't smoked any, but I bought them.

I tried crushing them up, but my body locked and wouldn't let me do it. Now i've got a pack of cigs in my draw that I don't want to smoke but I don't want to get rid of. :( It is becoming really hard. about 7 weeks clean now.
I feel ashamed. 🙇‍♂️ すみませんみなさん。I feel ashamed.

Anyway. Laters. :(
 
I did something terrible today.
I bought some cigs. I haven't smoked any, but I bought them.
I tried crushing them up, but my body locked and wouldn't let me do it. Now i've got a pack of cigs in my draw that I don't want to smoke but I don't want to get rid of. :( It is becoming really hard. about 7 weeks clean now.
I feel ashamed. 🙇‍♂️ 窶堋キ窶堙昶?堙懌?堋ケ窶堙ア窶堙昶?堙遺?堋ウ窶堙アツ。I feel ashamed.
Anyway. Laters. :(

Don't be ashamed, it happens to a lot of us that we are craving something, in this case, cigarettes. My advice would be for you to get those cigs and throw them out, after all, how much do they cost? $2? Good thing you are trying to do something good for yourself.

Mauricio
 
Does this help?


teenquit.com/gallery/lung.asp

Obviously, it need the "www" bit, but I don't yet have enough posts to put third-party addresses in....
 
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Riding a bike through Russia is crazy unless you think you have 9 lives. The police, not to mention the terrorists are going to go after you in so time as soon as you leave Moscow.

You can think about flying into Hong Kong and then transfer from there. Lasttime I checked tickets are about 70pounds one way, 150pounds round trip by oasis airlines.
 
Thanks everyone! Those sites don't help really. They just seem to have a go at you.

nhk9 - :D It would be funny. Who goes faster, a smoker on a bicycle or a terrorist in a beat up old car?
Thanks for the ticket prices! They are a little more expensive than that, but they look good!

ありがとうみなさん!
 
To do things cheap in Japan, you have to research how and what.
Here are some links for you about Nagano.
Nagano Travel Guide
http://www.nagano-tabi.net/English/
Nagano - Wikitravel

If you go to the main tourist information center,
Nagano: 692-2 Habashita, Minami -Nagano, Nagano-City
TEL:+81-(0)26-234-7165 E-mail:[email protected]

You can probably pick up a discount book for all the main attractions in the area. Almost all major cities have a booklet with discount cards.

(don't go off topic too much in here, I don't care a few off topic post, but if there are getting more pleas make a thread about stop smoking in the Chit chat section, where you can probably get a lot of advice from other members.)
 
Thanks a lot dave!

I had a good look at those links, they are very helpful!
 
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