Planning A Trip From Boston To Japan

Criteria

The most important thing when it comes to traveling, first and foremost, is where I'd like to go and what I want to accomplish: Criteria. A real vacation should cover these six fields: Sightseeing/Tourism, History, Food, Shopping, Weather, Leisure.

1. Sightseeing/Tourism: If it's ancient or brand new, if it's a cool building, a fun event, a "must-do" whether for locals or travelers, I want to do all of it, or as much as possible. I'm a tour guide in Boston, so I love to see what other cities have to offer.
2. History: Square and a rectangle with sightseeing, not all sights you see are necessarily historic, so if I'm going to a new country/city, I need there to be a draw in terms of its history.
3. Food: When it comes to being at home, I honestly order almost the same thing every week from the same places, and maybe have 7-10 recipes I rotate through. When I'm in a new country, I love to just go wild trying every new dish I possibly can, and hope that when I return home, I can add it into my repertoire.
4. Shopping: Even if I'm not buying souvenirs, clothing, gifts, etc. I love the idea and act of shopping. Window shopping is just as addicting as actually spending money. 
5. Weather: This might seem like a bit of a stretch, mostly because at this point in my life with my work, I can really only go on vacation in the winter. Most of the places that I go to on vacation, are also in winter, but their weather is just a bit more mild than home, so I consider it a win.
6. Leisure: As much as I love to see Island getaways, I don't want to spend an entire week watching waves and looking at sand. I like just a day or two of a trip to have a place for relaxation and resetting in between moving non-stop.

Previously for big vacations, my spouse and I have been to Seattle, Montreal, Greece (Athens, Delphi, Rhodos), London, Paris, Barcelona, and St. Petersburg, Florida. The better half was a classics major in college and her dream trip was to go to Greece, so we went there for 11 days as our engagement vacation. That trip easily covered all six of my criteria. Same goes for our trip to London-Paris-Barcelona, that was an awesome 13 day adventure for our honeymoon. Seattle, Montreal, and St. Pete were all shorter trips that mostly involved us just wanting to get out of town, or visiting friends and family, but they're worth the shout out!

That brings us to one of my dream locations: Japan. Japan is covered top to bottom in history, sightseeing, tourism, amazing cuisine, shopping galore, mild weather in the winter, and plenty of places to relax, onsens (hot springs!) everywhere! I love Japanese culture, whether it's the historical side with emperors, art, and samurai, or modern culture with style, music, and animation. I've always wanted to go to Japan, but a few things hindered my want to travel there, the biggest being: Budget.

Budget Part 1

Budgeting a trip to Japan is terrifying! It's expensive! It's nothing like going across the pond to Europe. Some flights to Barcelona in January and February, their off-season, can be as little as $300 roundtrip! So even if your destination was London, Paris, Berlin, etc., we can cheat the system by booking a flight elsewhere and connecting through. 

We don't have that option for Japan, as I've found there are two options for cheap flights to Japan: None, and Time Wasters. 

• No Cheap Flights: If you casually just go on any travel sight and look at flights from Boston to Tokyo, you'll find Japan Airlines has a direct flight, and has the benefit of being the flagship airline. Little extra legroom, little better service and quality, and a little more money at $1,000-$1,200 roundtrip average. That's $2,000-$2,400 for a couple to just get to Japan, much less everything else. Expensive, right? 
• Time Wasters: There are a ton of flight combinations from all sorts of airlines that will offer you flights in the $800 range, but include layovers in Hong Kong, Korea, Toronto, New York, Washington, LA. You can fly to London/Paris/Barcelona first and then connect to Japan, but regardless, no matter how high and low you search for flights to/from these cities, you'll notice when you get it all together, you'll maybe save $100-$200, but you'll add an extra day in travel on both ends of the vacation. What's better two extra days in Japan, or two days in planes and airports? 

Honestly, the flights alone are nearly the same as our entire Honeymoon Budget. Apparently, trips halfway around the world are going cost money.

Flying direct from Boston to Tokyo is our winner, sure it'll cost a bit extra, but it's going to be worth it in the end. Now we can plan the next part of the trip: Where exactly are we going?

Where Exactly Are We Going? Part 1

Japan is a very tall country, not so much on the width, but height. By comparison, Japan by area is roughly the same as California, Japan being a little bit smaller. However, the northern most point in Hokkaido to it's southernmost point in Okinawa is roughly the same distance as Portland, Oregon to Cabo San Lucas, or Bar Harbor, Maine to Key West. When you stretch the 11th most populous country that tall and narrow, there are a ton of cool places to visit. From mountainous to coastal, cold to warm, tiny to largest metropolitan in the world... Where exactly are we going?

My spouse loves to go places for a few days at a time, have a hotel in a good central spot so if we need a relaxing nap in the middle of the day, we have that availability. I prefer to keep going from the sun coming up until well into the night and never stopping, because if I do stop, I don't really want to start again. It's just how my mind and body work. This is the hardest part about planning a trip, because how do we fit my non-stop wild ride with her let's breathe a little. Fortunately for this trip, we don't have to worry about that, because this is a solo trip. Let's go EVERYWHERE.

This is where I get to have fun, because I have an entire country I want to see, and I can do it my way.   How do I do it my way? Ramen. This is where I mention I'm obsessed with ramen and there's a place here in Boston called Yume Wo Katare that has stolen my heart and I will eat their ramen on a weekly basis. I love them so much, I purchased a year pass to the shop so I can eat all the ramen I want for the year, three years in a row and counting. Yume Wo Katare originally started in Kyoto, Japan, and as of this post, has expanded to include restaurants in six cities in Japan, and our one in the US. The Six cities in Japan are: Tokyo, Onagawa, Sapporo, Kyoto, Beppu, and Okinawa. That's my start.

As you can see, this is covering everything from the northern most stretches of Japan, all the way down to Okinawa hiding out in the south. Should I add a few stops along the way? Maybe split the difference on travel between some of these cities? Wait, How long am I going to be in Japan?

How Long Am I Going To Be In Japan?

I'm still bummed out that the spouse can't make the Japan trip, this also removes the limit of time for travel. She works a solid 9-5 that has PTO, I work a job in tourism which means I don't work the months of December, January, February, and most of and March. Normally, we have to schedule our vacations around how much PTO she has during the time I'm not working, fairly simple and easy. Where she's not coming, that means I can go to Japan for however long I want. 

I don't really want to be away from the spouse that long, and I don't want to go too crazy with spending, so this loops us back in with Budget. The flight alone is going to cost over $1,000, and that's a huge cost. For a 7 or 10 day trip, that means I'll spend more on the flight than hotels alone. Doing some quick math has me realize the more days I spend in Japan, the more my Dollars/Day start dropping, this is all covered in a wonderful Spreadsheet (Click Me!). A 10 day budget had me looking at spending around $318/day in Japan, for a total cost of ~$3188. A 21 Day budget had me looking at a total cost of $5397, or about $257/day. Quick Math means I can double my time, plus one day, for a budget increase of 69%, Nice.

The more math I did, the more I realized that a 4 week trip would cost $238/day. Two months would be $224/day. 28 days would cost about $6,665, Two months, 60 days, would run around $13,497... And I'd have to spend all this time away from home and the spouse. I decide I need to buy my flights ASAP, mostly so I can plan my timing and spending once I know exactly how long I have to spend in Japan. 

The best flight prices I found were leaving on New Year's Eve, and come home 21* days later on January 21st. Technically, this is 22 calendar days, but I leave Boston December 31 at 12pm and arrive in Japan on January 1 at 4:30pm, 26 hours for a 14 hour flight. I leave Tokyo January 21 at 6:30pm and I'll arrive home in Boston January 21st at 4:30pm. -2 hours for a 12 hour flight. So technically I lose a day arriving in Japan, and gain it back in the air, so now it's official, 21 Days In Japan. The cost of the Flight to Japan: $1064.40.

Budget, Part 2

Now that I'm aware I'm going to Japan for 21 days, now things become more realistic in terms of where I can go, how much I can spend, and budget my up-front costs. I know for sure that I want to visit all the cities that Yume Wo Katare is in, but there's so much to see between here, there and everywhere in between. My best friend's Boss told me I should book hotels as cheap as possible and stay at one or two fancy Ryokans, that serve several course meals based on that area's food, and typically they come with a private onsen in the room, but they can be expensive, so budget hotels and a Ryokan or two should break even on per/day costs by the end of the trip. My plan for hotels is somewhere in the range of $70/night, for $1400, ($2464.40 total).

While in Japan, I'm going to need to be able to go from city to city. Tokyo to Sapporo is 691 miles, or for comparison, Boston to Cleveland. By train that's 8 hours and $277 one way. By air it's only an hour and 30 minutes, and about $75 one way. Driving is out of the question: 16 hours + a ferry. We don't have time for that. Now flying sounds pretty good in terms of saving a bit of time or money but there's a catch: Japan has the JR Rail Pass, or The Golden Ticket. 

It's not a literal ticket made of gold, but it's close enough! The JR Rail Pass is sold in 7, 14, or 21 days increments, and allows for unlimited travel on most JR trains throughout all of Japan, which includes the Bullet Train. The only exception is the Super Bullet Train that run express between major cities, making less stops saving about 30 minutes on the commute. The 21 Day JR Pass that I bought cost $550, or just the cost of the round trip tickets to Sapporo alone. Everything after that is a free ride! As a bonus, JR Rail sell a combo that includes a 21-Day Pocket WiFi Device ($147),  It connects to Data, but I connect via WiFi, so not to use data abroad (which according to my cell carrier, starts at $10/day). Train and WiFi comes to $697, ($3161.40 total).

I'm looking to spend $100/day on food, shopping, other random expenses, and being in Japan for 21 days, that's an easy calculation of $2,100 Spending, for a final projected budget of $5,261.40.

Where Exactly Are We Going? Part 2

I already know I'm heading north to Sapporo first, and making a stop in Onagawa along the way, so that requires me to split the difference north with a stop in Sendai. I'll add Hakodate as our difference splitter heading back south to Tokyo. These are the longest train rides of the whole trip, averaging 4 hours per leg of the journey. I'll make it easy afterwards by giving myself three days to run around Tokyo, and that covers the first full week of the trip.

Just outside Tokyo is Hakone, which is known for it's amazing onsens, and there's one that's super fancy I really want to visit. Hakone, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Osaka are an hour by train from one to the next. Meanwhile, my good friend and tattoo artist is going to be visiting his extended family in Nara, which is only an hour from Osaka, so I'll spend a couple days there as well. This covers the second week of the trip.

On the way to Beppu is Hiroshima and Fukuoka, about 2 hours by train from each other, so let's add those to the list. My idea is to fly from Fukuoka to Okinawa, because Okinawa is an island 640 miles to the south, and the train doesn't fly, but then fly from Okinawa back to Tokyo a day before my flight home for almost 2 whole days in Tokyo before the trip home. That's the third and final week, which adds  $211.67 for Flights to/from Okinawa, for a new projected budget of $5412.07.

We now officially have 14 cities in 21 days, and it looks like this in the spreadsheet:

1. Tokyo
2. Tokyo
3. Sendai/Onagawa
4. Sapporo
5. Hakodate
6. Tokyo
7. Tokyo
8. Tokyo
9. Hakone
10. Nagoya
11. Kyoto
12. Osaka
13. Nara
14. Nara
15. Hiroshima
16. Beppu
17. Fukuoka
18. Okinawa
19. Okinawa
20. Tokyo
21. Tokyo

And Looks like this on a Map:

I shouldn't exactly miss any part of the country on this trip... But a new city almost every day, hustling around on trains, bags, never stop moving... we're going to need to figure out How will all this work?

How Will All This Work?

We have the who, what, where, when and why all covered, but now we get to How. I know my body and my brain and how they work, and if I'm in motion I'll keep it going. If I'm at rest I'll stay at rest. A very basic breakdown of how I would normally stay in a city I was visiting would be: Wake up at the hotel in the morning, explore the city for X amount of days, and leave in the afternoon for arrival to the next destination in the evening. Just one huge problem: I know if I'm going to rush through city after city, day after day, I'll get tired and will rely on sleeping in late at least a few times. I really don't want that to happen, so instead my plan is: 

1. Catch the first train to the next city (5:30am-7am on average)
2. Drop my bags in the hotel lobby 
3. Explore everything I can in the city
4. Back to the hotel later in the evening.

If I force myself to have a ticket and a time schedule I'll have to stick with, I'll be able to maximize my time in each city. Sure it will be exhausting, but it'll be worth it!

I could bring normal suitcases with me and just deal with them being in the way for a couple hours at a time each day while I travel through the cities, train stations and airports. Or, I could do what I think is a better option, and just live out of a Backpack. I'll bring less to Japan with me, I'll only be able to bring a limited amount of items home (saving money), it'll make transit a few steps easier with no checked bags, but there are a few drawbacks. Okay, just one, I'll have to do laundry in Japan. That's fine though, because some hotels have laundry rooms included, which takes us to the end: Final Bookings.

Final Bookings

My total hotel budget in Japan is 20 nights at $70/night. I booked 19 nights at all the hotels I wanted to stay in that were close to the main train station in town for faster transition in the morning, and it came to a final cost of $1,140.19, or $60.01/night. I used that savings to book the best Ryokan in Hakone, a place called Yama No Chaya, for $470.46 for one night. I could have saved money by only using the public onsen, but I wanted a private bath in my room, because YOLO. This would make my final hotel costs run up to $1,610.65 or $80.53/night. 

A couple of venues require pre-purchased tickets for guaranteed entry, and where I'm visiting close enough to New Years and the celebrations that go in hand, I didn't want to miss out on a few places. The ones that needed advance bookings were: Tokyo Tower, Ghibli Museum, and The Osaka Amazing Pass, $87.49.

Hotels: $1,610.65

Flights: $1,276.07. 

Train and Data: $697.00

Tickets: $87.49

Total Pre-Trip Costs: $3,671.21. I haven't even left my couch.

Initial predicted budget: $5397, or $257.00/day.

Pre-Trip projected budget: $5771.21, or $274.82/day, or only $374.21 Over budget.

Me, a backpack, a day bag, and not much else. Let's go to Japan!

-Joe

Note: This is published on January 27, 2020, but covers the exact path of planning this trip from start to finish before leaving on the plane.