Wanting to take a trip to Japan next summer

How fun!! Go! Especially since you'll have a personal tour guide!

Costs depends on what you do and where you go and what you eat. You can eat cheaply (department stores discount their food after I think 6PM), or you can eat very expensive meals ($100/person). It is not hard though to find good meals for less than $10/person. and definitely a lot in the $15-$20 range. Smaller cities will be cheaper than larger cities.

The cheapest no-frills hotels are the business hotels. They are usually less than $100/night. They are very small, the bed barely fits. Some don't have closets, just hooks on the wall. They cater to the business person who just needs a bed for the night. But, many of them do include a Japanese breakfast. And then there are the bigger chain hotels. If you can, try to spend a night or two in a Ryokan. That is the Japanese version of a B&B. You usually sleep on the floor, traditional meals are included, and some may have an onsen (japanese spa bath). It is a very unique experience. They are usually run by a family who go out of their way to make sure you have a comfortable stay.

The JR Pass, which is the train pass most tourist use, is unfortunately going up significantly in price in October of this year. It will be close to $500 for a 7-day pass, depending on the exchange rate, from around $275 right now. But, if you are going to traveling around a lot, it still might benefit you. With the JR Pass, you can ride any JR train, including the Shinkansen (bullet train).

Try not to go in the summer. Japan is miserable in the summer. Very hot and humid, with the occasional typhoon coming through. But, it is one of the cheaper times to go. There is one week at the beginning of May that is expensive, it is called Golden Week. Everyone in Japan is traveling during that time. Also, the week around New Year's can be a bad time to go because many places close for a few days to celebrate New Years. Lot of Japanese are traveling around at the time too.

I usually check out things on TripAdvisor.com. I don't know what area you are going to go to, but you can find all kinds of information there. I like to use it because I like to read the reviews. Oh, and the yen is pretty low right now. Don't know how long it will stay this low or if it will go lower.

I was lucky to do graduate work in Kobe. Japan is really interesting. Try to stay in a ryokan for a real authentic experience.

How exciting, Japan is one country I'd like to visit.

Years ago a woman who worked on my team came to me one day looking for time off, can't remember why exactly but the airlines were offering amazing prices in flights. What blew my mind when she came back is that they hired a car from the airport and headed out into the Tokyo traffic, this was before gps! Crackers! They had a great experience, I hope you do too.

Japan can be difficult for picky eaters because many restaurants specialize in one dish. Curry restaurants only serve curry, noodle houses only have noodles, fish restaurant only has fish, pork restaurant only serves pork, etc. So everyone in your group basically has to agree to eat the same thing. When we went with friends one year, a couple of times we split up for dinner. In more touristy areas, you can find a few restaurants that serve a variety of dishes (meat, fish, etc), but the norm is specialization.

Oh, and eating early may be difficult. Many places to get food in Japan don’t open until around 10. And the places that are open usually only have coffee and some type of bread (roll, danish, etc). Sounds strange, but if we find one, we like to eat at Denny’s for breakfast. They have both western and Japanese breakfasts. You can get eggs and meat, along with rice and miso soup. Best of both worlds. Lol! McDonalds too is another place we go for breakfast if we want something substantial besides coffee and a roll.

Japan will be colder that Taiwan, especially the further north you go. It does snow in Japan. There will definitely be snow in the mountains. If you go around New Year's, you may find things closed for the holidays, especially in smaller cities. They typically close for 2-5 days for New Year's.  But I think cities like Tokyo pretty much stay open around New Year's now. Smaller stores and restaurants may be closed though. Tourist-wise, Japan will be less crowded. If you don't mind the cold, it is a good time to visit.

I'm so excited for you! I adore Japan! I've been twice. I was lucky enough to be able to live there for 6 months when I was 24 years old way back in 1984. I was engaged to a guy who was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan with the Navy and we lived off base in an apartment. While I was there he was out to sea for 4 months, and I had such a blast exploring Japan with the other "navy wives" that I met on base. One wife and I really hit it off and we are still friends today. I got my driver's license and drove a car while I was there-it was a manual car so I shifted gears with my left hand while the steering wheel was on the right hand side of the car-the Japanese drive on the opposite side of the street like the British do. Took a while to get used to, but it gave me such freedom. My friend and I drove to Kamakura one day to see the Big Buddha statue there, got lost, couldn't find it but instead found a wonderful bamboo garden. 

Of course the rail system in Japan is phenomenal and you won't have to worry about driving while you are there. 

I took DS on a tour of Japan for his high school graduation. We went to Tokyo, Nara, Mt. Fugi, Kyoto (my favorite place), Osaka, and a few other places. 

For planning purposes I highly recommend the facebook group Japan Travel Planning. Sadly, Rick Steves only does travel guide books for Europe, but there are several other guidebooks for Japan. I like to go to a local bookstore, check them all out and then check out my favorites from my local library.  Guide books in my opinion are indispensable for travel planning. When I go on my trip I buy my favorites ones to take with me. 

DH and I hate credit cards and try to pay for everything in cash. We've been planning a trip to Germany for awhile now. We put a certain amount of money every paycheck into a savings account marked as our trip fund. It's been wonderful to see that money grow. 

small grain of salt

Vending machine food in Japan is nothing like vending machine food in the US. Not anywhere close. So one easily could survive off it and enjoy it

But that also means missing out on some fantastic restaurants. It is equally true that a teeny tiny restaurant in Japan can be completely awesome. There isn’t that bigger is better attitude that exists here. So a 10 seat ramen place where the seats are around the giant Ramen pot almost like a fair stand might be the best local ramen place. Also 7-11 food in Japan is no where near 7-11 food in the US. You can get a decent food there in Japan good onigiri. So if you have a day where you had breakfast in the hotel, had inexpensive great ramen for lunch and snacked on 7-11 onigiri for dinner that day would cost you maybe $10 in food. Leaves you money another day to go to a great tempura restaurant.

It’s been 6 years since I went but my trip ( not including airfare ) was $150-175/day including accommodations & in country transportation & gifts I brought home. I remember tallying my receipts and that what it came up to be. I did have a hotel deal, breakfast was included in my hotel. I was tempted to try a capsule hotel but I didn’t get the chance.

We've just come home from 2 weeks in Japan (we went from July 29-August 13). Yes it was hot, but only a few degrees hotter than it would have been at home during the same time, and despite the fact that we traveled during the rainy season - we only had one day that had 2 passing, 20-minute showers during our entire trip. Clear skies the rest of the time. We had a great time - spent one week based in Tokyo and the other based in Kyoto, with day trips out to see Hiroshima, Nara, Osaka and Hakone. We also spent 2 days at Tokyo Disney. Definitely recommend getting the Japan Rail pass if you plan to travel around - even though the price is increasing, its flexibility makes it a smart purchase. (As an example - we missed one of our trains and because we were passholders, we were able to hop on the next one that came 25 minutes later.) If you'll be traveling by train, you should know that Japan has a really efficient baggage forwarding service. Leave your bags at your hotel and for ~$20 per piece, you can have them forwarded to your next hotel by 3 p.m. the following day. This makes it much easier to navigate the train stations, especially if you are planning to do sightseeing at a stopover along your route. We came well under our food budget on our trip - we did wind up picking up a lot of food at the convenience stores, in addition to some dedicated meals at restaurants we had researched ahead of time (the world's largest conveyor belt sushi restaurant was a big hit with our teens!) This was also our solution when our picky eater was unable to find something on a menu that she wanted to eat since, as someone mentioned upthread, restaurants tend to cater to a specific type of dish. Happy to answer any specific questions you might have - you are going to love it!

My 24yo daughter is in Japan right now. She's loved her 2 weeks there. She went for a scientific meeting so her university paid the plane ticket. Everything else she has found to be surprisingly affordable, partly due to the strength of the USD against the yen.

She loves art museums and they've been to many. Admission is really affordable. They went to TeamLabs which is this huge interactive art exhibit. Think Van Gogh Experience on steroids. They paid less than $20 to get in. In the US something like that would have been $75-100. Historic sites had admission prices of around $10.

Food is equally inexpensive. Their most expensive meal was $45 for 2 people. They each had 2 cocktails and the meal included a chef who came and cooked bits of meat and vegetables at their table, just for them. In Nashville, where she lives, just the 4 cocktails would have been well over $45. Also, there is no tipping in Japan. They've eaten mostly in small restaurants, but they aren't looking for 4 star experiences, they just want to experience Japanese food. They've had all sorts of noodle dishes, some sushi, all kinds of puffy pancakes, bagels with salmon and egg salad, cute little bento boxes of food on the train and a "craffle" which was a croissant/waffle served with ice cream. She said there were all kinds of Italian restaurants in Tokyo.

She's in love with the country and does not want to come home. She knows she would not want to live there, but definitely wants to visit many more times. Now she's got to finish her PhD and find a job that will have plenty of time for travel!