⛩️ Ultra EPIC Cheap Japan Trip ⛩️ / PART 1 - Planning, Budget & Tools ๐ก
✨ HELLOOO!!! :3 ✨
I’M AUTISTIC AND I’M TALKING ABOUT MY SPECIAL INTEREST PLS DON’T
BULLY
⛩️ Japan had been on our bucket list for ages, and after months of planning, we finally made it happen!
⭐ Three weeks exploring the country on a budget without feeling
rushed! :3
In this collection of posts, I’ll share how we organized everything, our money-saving hacks, and our full day-by-day itinerary with tips and personal stories.
(More details in the PART 2!)
◥ ๐ WHY THIS TIME OF THE YEAR
✨ Honestly, choosing the time first made all the other planning so much easier. You know exactly what’s in season, which cities will be crowded, and which experiences are must do.
Planning for late October to November meant we could enjoy the cooler weather, start seeing autumn leaves ๐, and still catch seasonal festivals and concerts. We are also fairly confident that we will avoid the storm season.
◥ ๐ธ HOW WE HANDLED THE BUDGET
We bounced between ๐บ️Skyscanner and ๐ซGoogle Flights, comparing multi-city options and setting alerts. We waited until prices dropped on both platforms consistently before booking. A little patience paid off, we saved a few hundred euros per person.
We booked our flights for the end of October and mid-November back in May.
◥ ๐จ ACCOMMODATION - WHERE WE STAYED
For big cities like Osaka and Tokyo, budget hotels or apartments on ๐จ Booking worked best. For smaller and more rural cities like Hakone/Gora we used ๐ Airbnb.
⭐ Tip: I usually prefer ๐จBooking to make reservations because you don't have to pay in advance and you can cancel for free. We booked and canceled many hotels even before we had our plane tickets so that we could pay as little as possible and have a place to stay right away. Not having to pay immediately also allows you to book in advance and collect the money before paying too.
◥ ๐ฒ TOOLS WE USED A LOT
Honestly, without ๐งณWanderlog I would have died, and the free version is amazing and full of features! ๐
◥ ๐ BOOKING IN ADVANCE - WHY IT’S CRUCIAL
Booking early reduces stress, ensures you get the experiences you truly want, and avoids last-minute price spikes.
๐ Bonus: I’m planning a dedicated guide on how to book these events/museums/concerts in Japan, so you can snag tickets efficiently without missing!๐ถ
◥ ๐ฏ DISCOVER WHAT TO DO / WHERE TO GO
We didn’t want to rely only on Google, so we used Instagram Reels and TikTok to find unique places, shops, museums and activities.
Once something looked worth it, we added it to ๐บ️Google Maps and๐งณWanderlog, so it became part of the real itinerary ✅
We thought about whether it would be better to buy the ๐ณ Japan Rail Pass or point-to-point tickets.๐ณ Japan Rail Pass is really expensive these days and it can save you money mostly if you travel by train to distant cities almost every day, otherwise, individual tickets + IC cards are cheaper (it's becoming more expensive than flights ๐...)
Our strategy:
For regional travel in Kyoto/Osaka, day passes for buses and trains let you save a lot of money.
◥ ๐ต HOW WE SPLIT EXPENSES
We mostly used๐งณWanderlog. You can enter each expense, specify who paid and who participated, and the app automatically ๐งฎcalculates how much each person owes. At the end, it shows a summary of balances, so you know who needs to pay whom to settle everything fairly.
◥ ⚡ MISTAKES WE AVOIDED AND OTHER TIPS
Honestly, these little precautions saved us headaches and cash.
After we finish the trip, I’ll make a PART 3 update covering how the travel went according to the planning. This way, you can see both the plan and the real experience. ✨
In this collection of posts, I’ll share how we organized everything, our money-saving hacks, and our full day-by-day itinerary with tips and personal stories.
โน️ - I will divide this "guide" into parts, the first 2 I'm
writing rn are:
PART 1: Planning, Budget and Tools ๐ก and PART 2: Our Day-by-Day Itinerary ๐
PART 1: Planning, Budget and Tools ๐ก and PART 2: Our Day-by-Day Itinerary ๐
๐ธ TOTAL COST / 29 OCT - 20 NOV ➡️✨(1340€)✨
(updated 09/10/2025)
- ๐️ Hotels: 552€ (5d Osaka, 5d Kyoto, 2d Gora, 10d Tokyo)
- ✈️ Flights: 551€ (Milan - Osaka / Tokyo - Rome)
- ๐️ Reservations: 202€ (Nintendo Museum, Fancy Sushi, Tea Cerimony, Concert, Shinkansen)
- ๐ SIM 31d: 35€ (purchased in advance and shipped to me)
(More details in the PART 2!)
~
PART 1 - Planning, Budget and Tools ๐ก
✨ Honestly, choosing the time first made all the other planning so much easier. You know exactly what’s in season, which cities will be crowded, and which experiences are must do.
Planning for late October to November meant we could enjoy the cooler weather, start seeing autumn leaves ๐, and still catch seasonal festivals and concerts. We are also fairly confident that we will avoid the storm season.
It also gave us the chance to schedule special events like ⭐ Design Festa in Tokyo and some concerts. Deciding the period to coincide with a
particular event I think it's an excellent choice to
enjoy a more complete experience.
(yes I planned this trip like a military general ๐...)
◥ ๐ธ HOW WE HANDLED THE BUDGET
- ๐ต We set first a total per-person target (flights + hotels + food + activities + local transport). For us it was 800€ for the flights, 700€ for the hotels, 600€ for the food, 200€ for the activities and 200€ for the transport. (rn we spent 560€ less than expected ๐)
- ๐ We tracked everything in a ๐Google doc, then migrated it to๐งณWanderlog, and split costs as we went (details later in this post)
- ๐ฑ We prioritized paying for experiences we’d regret skipping (a few concert tickets, museum must-sees) and economizing elsewhere (hotels/private apartment, convenience store breakfasts, long flights).
⭐ Tip: Starting the planning with deciding on a maximum total
spending target (by exaggerating your expenses too) helps
you realize how much you could spend in total on the trip. We spend
money but with INTELLIGENCE ☝️๐ค
◥ ✈️ FLIGHTS - HUNTING FOR THE BEST DEALS
◥ ✈️ FLIGHTS - HUNTING FOR THE BEST DEALS
We bounced between ๐บ️Skyscanner and ๐ซGoogle Flights, comparing multi-city options and setting alerts. We waited until prices dropped on both platforms consistently before booking. A little patience paid off, we saved a few hundred euros per person.
We booked our flights for the end of October and mid-November back in May.
Direct flights are definitely more ๐ต expensive but also much faster, with an average duration of about 13 hours from Italy and a minimum cost of around €500 each way. We chose to fly with Air China to save money by making one stopover. I wouldn’t recommend more than one stop, as flights can end up taking over 30 hours in total. ✈️
⭐ Tip: When you travel to another continent, the time difference can
mess with your schedule more than you expect!
If you’re leaving
from Italy (like we did) and flying to Japan, you’ll “lose” almost a full day because of the +8 hour time zone. On the way back, you basically travel back in time and land earlier than you left.
⌚
๐
So keep this in mind when planning your itinerary, especially the outbound flight!
We left from Milan instead of Rome so the flight would
depart earlier, and we could arrive in Japan at a decent time
instead of in the middle of the night ๐๐.
Totally worth it! :3
๐จ IMPORTANT ๐จ
Remember that to book an intercontinental flight,
you must already have your passport, as you will be required to enter your details and these cannot be
changed after booking!
◥ ๐จ ACCOMMODATION - WHERE WE STAYED
I mixed platforms depending on the city and vibe:
For big cities like Osaka and Tokyo, budget hotels or apartments on ๐จ Booking worked best. For smaller and more rural cities like Hakone/Gora we used ๐ Airbnb.
By splitting the accommodation costs between five people, we managed to
get good accommodation at a great price.
⭐ Tip: I usually prefer ๐จBooking to make reservations because you don't have to pay in advance and you can cancel for free. We booked and canceled many hotels even before we had our plane tickets so that we could pay as little as possible and have a place to stay right away. Not having to pay immediately also allows you to book in advance and collect the money before paying too.
◥ ๐ฒ TOOLS WE USED A LOT
- ๐ Google Drive: starting with google docs for research, collecting info and budget, confirmations and maps.
- ๐งณ Wanderlog: visual itinerary planner, dropped pins of places (restaurants, museums, shops), estimated travel times and checked daily feasibility.
- ๐ฌ Group chat (Telegram): “””instant””” coordination during travel ๐
Honestly, without ๐งณWanderlog I would have died, and the free version is amazing and full of features! ๐
◥ ๐ BOOKING IN ADVANCE - WHY IT’S CRUCIAL
Some experiences cannot be winged:
- ๐ฃ Popular restaurants / collab cafรจ: reserve to avoid disappointment.
- ๐ค Concert tickets: grab as soon as the dates are announced, often 1/2 months in advance for Japanese concerts.
- ๐ซ High demand places like Nintendo Museum, Kirby Cafรฉ and Ghibli Museum: these require advance reservation to secure time slots. Tickets are only available in advance, sold out months early and some even require you to participate in a lottery just to be able to buy tickets…
Booking early reduces stress, ensures you get the experiences you truly want, and avoids last-minute price spikes.
We said ‘let’s save money’ and then bought concert tickets ✨๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ๐ช๐ต
๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ฝ๐ฑ✨ (be ready to lose most them...)
๐ Bonus: I’m planning a dedicated guide on how to book these events/museums/concerts in Japan, so you can snag tickets efficiently without missing!๐ถ
◥ ๐ฏ DISCOVER WHAT TO DO / WHERE TO GO
We didn’t want to rely only on Google, so we used Instagram Reels and TikTok to find unique places, shops, museums and activities.
The problem? You see something amazing and then you
forget it exists ๐
Our solution: we saved everything into folders by category into our ๐ฌTelegram Group:
Our solution: we saved everything into folders by category into our ๐ฌTelegram Group:
- ๐ Restaurants & cafรฉs
- ๐ญ Activities / experiences
- ๐ Museums & places to visit
- ๐ Shops & markets
Once something looked worth it, we added it to ๐บ️Google Maps and๐งณWanderlog, so it became part of the real itinerary ✅
⭐ Tip: We added to our group a ๐คTelegram bot
that automatically downloads and send video to the chat so even if the video is removed it was
always stored in our ๐ฌchat group!
◥ ๐ TRANSPORT STRATEGIES
We thought about whether it would be better to buy the ๐ณ Japan Rail Pass or point-to-point tickets.๐ณ Japan Rail Pass is really expensive these days and it can save you money mostly if you travel by train to distant cities almost every day, otherwise, individual tickets + IC cards are cheaper (it's becoming more expensive than flights ๐...)
Our strategy:
- ๐ Reserve Shinkansen seats when possible, usually 1 month in advance for a small discount.
- ๐ณ Use IC cards (Suica/Pasmo) and daily metro cards (Osaka Amazing Pass, Tokyo 1/2/3 Days ticket) for local travel.
For regional travel in Kyoto/Osaka, day passes for buses and trains let you save a lot of money.
◥ ๐ต HOW WE SPLIT EXPENSES
We mostly used๐งณWanderlog. You can enter each expense, specify who paid and who participated, and the app automatically ๐งฎcalculates how much each person owes. At the end, it shows a summary of balances, so you know who needs to pay whom to settle everything fairly.
⭐ Tip: Be prepared to pay some money up front, as this
is often the fastest and safest way to book. It is important to set
group ๐
deadlines for collecting money so that you are up
to date with payments before the trip.
◥ ๐ฃ๐ FOOD, ATTRACTIONS AND SOUVENIR
◥ ๐ฃ๐ FOOD, ATTRACTIONS AND SOUVENIR
- ๐ช Convenience store meals: 7-Eleven, Lawson: cheap, tasty and surprisingly varied.
- ๐ Street food: budget friendly and authentic.
- ๐ Souvenirs: 100-yen shops or local markets for small gifts.
- ⛩️ Free cultural experiences: shrines, parks, temples: pick a few high-value paid attractions, and fill the rest with free ones.
◥ ⚡ MISTAKES WE AVOIDED AND OTHER TIPS
- ⚡ We left large travel days with buffer time, schedules run late, trains fill up, and jet-lag.
- ⚡ We checked museum/concert refund and entry rules before booking (some are non-refundable).
- ⚡ Buy an e-sim for internet access. If you don't have an iPhone, buying a SIM card in advance is the best option rather than wasting time looking for one at the airport, especially as it's cheaper. We used Japan Experience, it was the best option for us!
- ⚡ We printed nothing except a copy of important confirmations, everything else was stored in Google Drive.
Honestly, these little precautions saved us headaches and cash.
After we finish the trip, I’ll make a PART 3 update covering how the travel went according to the planning. This way, you can see both the plan and the real experience. ✨
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