The Beginning

I have been wanting to post for awhile about how my journey to Japan went in and how it differed from my planning. On my personal website(don't worry, no advertisements) I posted my planning stages and the different steps I went to with regards to planning my trip.

I would recommend reading my posts on the planning stages at http://internetotaku.com/travelingtojapan if you are interested in my actual thought process because in this steemit post I am going to compare what I planned on doing and what I actually did.

Estimated Budget for 12 Day Stay

  1.) $1200 Airplane Tickets
  2.) $1000 Hotel Rooms
  3.) $400 for Souvenirs
  4.) $300 for Food
  5.) $100 for Museums/Entertainment venues
  6.) $1000 cushion in case of cost overruns. 

Total Estimate: $4000

Actual Budget

March 29th to April 13th was my actual trip length, so I would spend roughly 14 days in Japan. I will be breaking this down into smaller chunks.

Japan Travel Budget Per a Person: $502 $458

 1.) Suica & Skyliner Express-$35 + $100 for loading up the card.
 2.) 7 Day JR Rail Pass - $268
 3.) 2 Day Hakone Free Pass - $50
 4.) Kyoto One Day Bus Pass - $5

5.) All Nikko Pass - $44 Rained really badly that day and we were supposed to spend it hiking.

Housing Budget Per a Person: $617

 1.) Airbnb Tokyo: $347
 2.) Kyoto Capsule: $83
 3.) Osaka Hostel: $28
 4.) Hakone Ryokan: $212

Airplane Tickets/Miscellaneous Per a Person: $1,580

1.) Airplane Tickets: $530
2.) Attraction Budget : $150
3.) Food Budget: $300
4.) Souvenier Budget: $600 

Total Planned Budget: $2,655

I did really well actually, there was a few unplanned for spending in the budget(Looking at you Verizon and AT&T!!) but by and large, I came very close to the budget, I actually spent around $3000 total give or take a few dollars.

How I got my airplane tickets and went with Airbnb

This blog post - http://internetotaku.com/trouble-airplane-tickets denotes my thought process used when buying my ticket. In the end, ​I set up several alerts with various apps like Kayak, Skiplagged, GoogleFlights and hit paydirt one day in January when just after midnight multiple notifications went off informing me that Air Canada had just dropped their prices over $500. 2 hour flight to Vancouver, 3 hour layover before a 12 hour flight to Tokyo and vice versa on the return.

Airbnb

Blog Post Thought Process - http://internetotaku.com/adventuring-japanese-hotels Initially I was just going alone to Japan but then a few other people wanted to go along to, so 1 became 4. I was going to use Japan-Experience but their prices almost doubled during the Sakura season this year so I decided to use Airbnb.

It turned out to be a great decision, not only did I save a lot of money but my host was an awesome person and I had a great time. I also didn't have to worry about breaking any laws because I stayed for more than 7 days at the Airbnb, which under a new Japanese law made it legal.

BTW: Never, ever get a new girlfriend a month before you go on a long international vacation, so 4 became 3 due to this and no refunds will be given... EVER

Part 2 of How I traveled to Japan and accomplished one of my dreams - https://steemit.com/japan/@internetotaku/how-i-traveled-to-japan-and-accomplished-one-of-my-dreams-part-2