All about our Japan trip
I decided to make a blog post about me and Keisi's recent trip to Japan because a lot of my friends have asked me about it. I hope this helps you guys to plan and prepare to make the most out of your trip. Safe travels!
Tickets
We got tickets during Cebu Pacific's sale around June. I was using an app called Skyscanner which alerts me whenever there is a price change on a flight route I selected. I got a notification saying that the price changed for the MNL to NRT flight. We booked it immediately and waited for the confirmation with jitters (I was thinking I might get scammed on this app) but we got an email saying that the booking was successful. I verified it on Cebu Pacific's site and it was legit. Soooo happy! The tickets only included the 7kg carry-on allowance for baggages, so we had to purchase more separately.
Date of flight: Nov 12 from Manila to Narita, Nov 19 from Narita to Manila
Price: ₱14,430.80 for both of us (₱7,215.40 each)
Itinerary
Right after we booked our flights, we wanted to plan where to go immediately. At first we wanted to go to a lot of places; Hiroshima, Universal Studios Japan (Hogwarts!!), and Osaka, among other places. But we realized we couldn't possibly go to all of these places within 8 days! (Time and money would not allow us to. lol) So we focused instead on places near/in Narita and Tokyo. We researched places we like and would want to go to. Here's a summary of our final daily itinerary:
We wanted to go to places where tourists don't normally go to or those that aren't that popular. We also wanted to have a free day where we can just explore randomly and discover nearby places.
Visa
We applied for a visa around September. Since it was our first time to travel to Japan and also internationally, we wanted to be safe and applied for a single entry visa. We gathered the requirements needed and submitted it to Philippine Airlines (by Travelpros Inc.) at SM Megamall (5th floor). At first they told us that there's a possibility we might get rejected because the amount in our bank certificate was only around ₱70,000. They told us that we could edit our itinerary and shorten it to 4 days instead, or have about ₱100,000 each in our bank certificate. We decided to do the latter and waited for our pay day. lol We then submitted the documents, paid ₱950 for the processing fee and waited. After about a week or less, we got a text saying we got approved and our passport is ready. Yey! :)
Payment: Cash
Payment: Credit/Debit card
Payment: Cash
Accommodation
As we were planning the itinerary, we also considered the hotels we were to stay in. We booked most of the hotels in Agoda, where it had an option to pay later and free cancellation.Narita
We wanted to allot a day or two to explore Narita as well. We figured since we will be coming there, we might as well look around and check the place instead of going straight to Tokyo.
Narita U-City Hotel
This was one of the hotels I booked for the first version of our itinerary and ended up staying until the final. I booked it around June so I got 20% discount. :) It was near Narita station so it was easy to go to, and there's a bakery and convenience stores nearby. The room was really great, it had a nice view.
Payment: Cash
Price per night (normal): ¥6,428.40 ~ ₱3,008 (Nov 12 exchange rate)
Price per night (discounted): ¥5,357 ~ ₱2,507 (Nov 12 exchange rate)
Daruma Guesthouse Narita
The first guest house we booked was actually Narita Sando Guesthouse, but we discovered that the only available room we booked had shared bathrooms. I searched further and found Daruma Guesthouse, which have the same owners. Daruma only allows credit card payment since they don't have someone at the reception area. You have to send them a picture of your passport and they will send you the pass codes for the main door and the room you booked. It was really easy and we had no problem checking in and out of the guesthouse.
Payment: Credit/Debit card
Price per night: ¥7,501 ~ ₱3,560.93 (charged to my card)
9h ninehours Capsule Hotel
We wanted to stay at a capsule hotel for the experience. Good thing Keisi found the 9h Capsule Hotel in Narita Airport. This one wasn't on Agoda, but they offer discounts for early bookings as well so it's better if you book early. I booked it around July so I had a big discount. It was the best decision we did because it made our departure really smooth. We didn't need to wake up early and rush to get to the train station on time because the airport was only a walkway away. lol The only thing I wasn't particularly fond of was the smell of their body wash and shampoo. haha But I highly recommend you guys to book here. :)
Payment: Cash
Price per night (normal): ¥9,800 ~ ₱4,568 (¥4,900 each)
Price per night (discounted): ¥7,800 ~ ₱3,635 (¥3,900 each)
Tokyo
We chose hotels that weren't within famous places like Shibuya, Harajuku, Tokyo, etc. because 1. they were expensive and 2. those that weren't expensive had shared bathrooms. We found a good and affordable hotel in Higashi-jujo.FLEXSTAY INN Higashi-Jujo
This hotel was the last one to get booked because we have had a hostel in Shinjuku booked prior to this. I discovered that it also had a shared bathroom and the room was a bit small. I tried finding more affordable places around Shinjuku area, but couldn't find any that had its own bathroom. So we tried to look somewhere a bit further from central Tokyo and I found this. It was a great hotel because it was only a few blocks from the station, it had amenities like a small kitchen and a balcony, and it was also bigger than the one we first booked. The neighborhood was also great since we have 711 and a ramen shop across the street, a bar next to the hotel, and a shopping center nearby. We spent 4 nights here. We definitely recommend this hotel if you don't mind riding the train to get to central Tokyo.
Payment: Cash
Price per night: ¥5,500 ~ ₱2,564 (Nov 13 exchange rate)
Traveling around Japan
Since our itinerary and accommodation were somewhat final, we mapped out our routes for traveling using Google Maps. We just typed the stations we will be going to and it gives us the train route and the fare. So convenient!
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| Thank God for technology and Japan's train system! lol |
In total, we estimated about ¥8,000 each. We kind of saved a lot of money from this since we didn't have to avail of the Rail Pass (which is ¥29,110 per adult). Instead, we each got a Pasmo card for ¥500 and loaded it with ¥9,500. The card can also be used in buying at convenience stores so it was a great idea that we had some extra credits. You can buy a Pasmo or Suica card from machines located in any train station. During our stay, we also used an app called Japan Official Travel App that really helped us a lot with traveling and riding trains.
Although we felt a bit lost at first, we eventually got the hang of it by the 3rd day. We really loved how reliable Japan's train are, and it made going to different places on time really easy.
Other Expenses
Besides the expenses mentioned above, we still had other things we needed to pay for. We added prepaid baggage to our flight tickets since we have (read: I have) quite a lot clothes for the cold weather. The first plan was to have 20 kg allowance for me going to Japan and 20 kg each going back. While we were packing, we realized that 20 kg wasn't enough (okay, I admit: I had a lot of jackets and shoes packed. lol) so we upgraded it to 32 kg. We decided to upgrade my allowance to 32 kg going back as well. We also paid for the PH travel tax beforehand so that we'd have less things to worry about. I think we could have saved a lot if we decided to get add-ons a little earlier and didn't get the upgrade for going back to Manila.
Total amount paid: ₱8,248.88 (charged to my card)
We also got a pocket WiFi to use during our stay. We've read that although train stations and some places in Tokyo that had free WiFi access, it wasn't as reliable or fast as you'd want it to be. We got the Hi-Speed (Unlimited/LTE) 501HW/SoftBank from Pupuru Wifi which was good for city areas. It included the adapter, cable, manual, pouch, and a return envelope for sending it back to them. It was really easy to pick-up from the airport and very easy to return. It's also very reliable and fast. You can rent an extra power bank for it as well, but we just used ours. They also had a discount code that time so I got a discount of ¥660. :)
Duration of rental: 8 days
Rental fee: ¥6,415 ~ ₱3,130.97 (charged to my card)
For the food, we set a fixed budget for it instead. Our budget was ¥30,000 for 8 days. We had a daily food budget of ¥3,750 which was enough for anything we wanted to try. :) We also had a budget of ¥5,300 set aside for admission fees in museums and gardens we went to. We also had some planned purchases such as gunpla kits and Switch which we included it in the computation our budget.
We got our Yen from BPI and requested it about 2 weeks prior to our trip. We were told that it would take around 3-4 business days and that they'd just text or call me when the Yen was ready, but it's better if you just go to the branch after 5 days to check (In our case, they didn't call or text).
In total, we had ¥204,000 (₱97,042.80 was deducted to my account) for our pocket money which was more than enough for all expenses we had. We even had leftover money after because we thought we need to pay for terminal fee in Narita, but we found out that it was already paid along with our tickets.
I hope this helps those who are planning to go to Japan! Feel free to comment if you have any questions or if I missed anything. :)
xx
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