FROM JAKARTA TO JAPAN, SPRING SUMMER / 13

 

 
Japan, being known and popular because of their gorgeous Sakura, this place definitely offering lot of interesting destinations. Let's count them all; starting from the citizen of Tokyo, the Kyoto heritage, the beautiful Fuji Mountain, Shibuya shopping center, then Osaka culinary trip which you can't avoid their authentic Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, and Ramen.




The Land of Rising Sun, this is the second country with the highest cost of living. Therefore, lot of Tour & Travel services offer their various kind of trip packages to Japan which is kind of interesting to fill your holiday time / vacation, but of course they offering in a quite expensive price as well, you might get shocked with the amount, it probably will drain your savings in a minute. Couple times ago I've got the email blast sent from one of the Travel services in Jakarta, they offered 8D/7N trip package to Japan with a budget cost IDR 29.841.662, including the air fare and all accommodations!

Wow, can you imagine?? For me, it's too expensive... Haha. Nah, before you make a decision to go to JAPAN, let me share my experience with you and some ways to minimize the budget. So you can enjoy your FABULOUS trip with lower budget on JAPAN SPRING SUMMER / 14.

Here are some tips for you if you want to go there with lower budget, if you confused with the details and how to start, just following this step:

TOUR SUMMARY DETAILS:

1. Booked your available date for the trip.
This was my schedule from 15 MAY - 23 MAY'13 for 9D/8N.
FYI, the flight from Jakarta to Tokyo takes more or less around 17 hours.

2. Find the cheapest ticket.
If you are a smart traveler or new, then you should know how to find the cheapest ticket. You should booked and buy at least 6 months before your flight and it really works. For me, I never planned for it. It just happened, me and my friends has already booked and bought the tickets without think too much...

Well, you might check AirAsia or Garuda Indonesia 6 months before you're leaving, they usually offer a good and lower price but you better not go on the peak season, because the price will be different and definitely higher than your budget.

3. Getting to know the weather and culture.
Before you go there, it would be better if you check the weather / season in Japan so you will know what kind of things to bring. My tips for you guys, just don't bring way too much unimportant stuffs, for example coat and anything. Lucky me, when I went there, Spring Summer just began. Know the culture can help you, their culinary habit for example, because you will find lot of unique traditional foods, and it will be fun to get to know the story behind their foods or else.

4. Bring the neck pillow during your trip. It really helps you, mostly when you're on the plane.
5. MAKE a BUDGET! This is what you need to do in budgeting and here's my budget trip:

A. Airplane ticket budget (for 1 person) around 4,3 million for AirAsia / Garuda.

B. Accommodation:
* SAKURA IKKEBUKURO 14,000 yen or IDR 1,400,000,- (Triple Sharing), 4,700 yen/person
* AOISO INN : 28.500 yen or IDR 2,850,000 (triple sharing) for 4D/3N, 9,500 yen/person.
* SAKURA HATAGAYA, SHINJUKU: 5D/4N 52,000 yen or IDR 5.200.000,- (Triple Sharing), 18.000 yen/person or IDR 1.800.000,- /person
C. Transportation in Town / Subway.
You must prepare at least 1,500 yen in a day just for subway and if you use my itinerary as well.

D. Shinkansen
Shinkansen pass / JR PASS around 28,000,- yen and you can buy it at Kyeoi Prince in Indonesia. Once you have arrived at the airport, you can activated your JR PASS at the information center, so you can start using it until the next 7 days. JR PAS can only be used for train or JR line, it can not be used for the subway. If you have arrived at midnight, the information center will be closed already, that was what happened to me, but you can activate the JR PASS in all stations.

In total, I've spent the budget for transportation and accommodation around 10 million.

6. Make an itinerary.
Last but not least. This one is really important, itinerary will help you during the journey, so you won't get lost, don't you? If you don't know where to start and where to go in JAPAN, here I give you my itinerary, hopefully it will help you for the first time.

This is my itinerary in general for 8 days trip in Japan:

15 May 2013: from JAKARTA to TOKYO.

I'm using AirAsia from Jakarta, transit at Kuala Lumpur for 3 hours and then heading to Tokyo for about 7 hours.

16 May 2013: from TOKYO to KYOTO.

We stayed at Tokyo just one night for the first day. We moved to Kyoto at 10.00 AM in the morning from Tokyo station and using Shinkansen, one of the fastest transportation in Japan.

16 May 2013 : KYOTO (HIGASINAWA & GION District).

Finally we arrived in KYOTO at 03.00 PM, and the weather was really cold. I stayed in AOISO INN Ryokan (Ryokan is a traditional house in Japan) it was really nice and easy to find near the KURAMAGUCHI station. You can try this Ryokan if you interested, the price was not too expensive and all the services from the owner was good. But sometimes the owner talked too much and had several rules to obeyed, for example; we should be quite and stay at the Ryokan after 10.00 PM, etc. So, we don't have enough time to explore more and do lot of things that day, because lot of stores were closed at 5.00 PM, it's too early for us, right? But, KYOTO is really different from Tokyo, it feels like home, so calm and not too busy. So, that day we visited HIGASINAWA district and GION district from 4.00 PM till 10.00 PM. In Higashinawa district, you can find good stores and some good street foods.

 

17 May 2013 : KYOTO (NIISHIKI MARKET, NIISHIKI TEMPLE, KIBUNE TEMPLE and FUSHIMI INARI TEMPLE)

Each temples were different, so you should try to get in one by one, starting from one of the famous Fushimi Inari, Kibune temple and also Niishiki Temple .

 

18 May 2013 : KYOTO (IMPERIAL KYOTO PLACE in the morning, then before lunch we went to OSAKA).

OSAKA: NATIONAL ART MUSEUM, OSAKA CASTLE, DOTONBURI & SHINSAIBASHI.
Osaka is Japan third largest and second most important city with a population over 2,5 million. I do loves Osaka as well because there are a lot of things to do, at least you need to stay here 3 days to feel this beautiful city.   

19 May 2013 : KYOTO to TOKYO - ASAKUSA AREA.

I spent 3 days in Kyoto and it was really fun. On this day, I went to TOKYO and leaving Kyoto by 10.00 AM. You know what, me and my friends arrived in Tokyo at 03.00 PM, what a long journey huh? So, we were so tired that day, we planned to go to the nearest place from my hotel. Oh, during my days in Tokyo, I stayed at SAKURA HATAGAYA in SHINJUKU area. I decided went to ASAKUSA area, because on that day, they had Asakusa Festival, which they do some activities like traditional ceremonials, it was really amazing and craziest. And lucky me, that day was the last day from the festival.

 

20 May 2013 : TOKYO - TSUKIJI FISH MARKET, GINZA DISCTRICT and KIDDYLAND in HARAJUKU.

 

If you love sushi and toys, then you should visit Tsukiji Fish Market, and remember if you wanna see the fish, you should come at 3.00 AM in the morning. Inform to the near post office to do your registration so you can join the tour and see the giant fish, it's FREE of charge. Because the capacity only available for 120 lucky person who can see this real fish market. I couldn't be there, because too early and it was really far from my hotel. I need a cab if I want to join that tour. After that, you can go to the FAMOUS and Fashion Disctrict, GINZA! You can find all of the branded stuffs, very cheap and the most important thing they all are SALE... Haha...

The last but not least, if you really love toys then you should spend your money here: KIDDYLAND! I really love this store, I wish I could buy all the toys here.. Hahaha.

 

21 May 2013 : YOKOHAMA - MARINE BAYSIDE, SEA PARADISE & CHINA TOWN.

Spent a day in YOKOHAMA was not enough, because there were lot of things to do here, mostly if you really love Fashion, then you're in the right place. Yokohama is one of the most crowded place to shop, especially for the branded stuffs with more affordable price. This area is the center of export import / exchanging. They call it MARINE BAYSIDE PARADISE. Yes, all the stores are branded here and really affordable.
If you miss the sea and beach, just go to SEA PARADISE!

 

22 May 2013 : TOKYO - TOKYO IMPERIAL PALACE, TOKYO MUSEUM of ART & OH DESIGN EXHIBITION in TOKYO MIDTOWN WEST, TOKYO SKY TREE.

Some people said that JAPAN is one of the super cool country with their high technology development in the world. That's TRUE! I found myself standing like a rock stone in front of the Tokyo Museum of Art & Oh Design Exhibition in the Midtown Tokyo West side, because the technology and design was too COOL!! And, this area looked like Upper East Side in New York, I felt that way and sometimes it could be looked like 90210 in Beverly Hills. Everyone walked around with their cute dogs and they were so friendly. Before you go home, don't forget to visit TOKYO SKY TREE, yess one of the famous attractions that we have to visit in JAPAN, and you should buy the famous Tokyo Banana Giraffe with all variants.

 

23 May 2013 : TOKYO - DISNEY LAND AREA, SHIBUYA, HARAJUKU and HANEDA AIRPORT.

This was my last day in Tokyo, since my first time here, I had a really great time, mostly because I love the weather, culture, public area, attractions and everything seems so good for me. Opps, i almost forget for my last day in Tokyo, i went to DISNEYLAND but a lot of people said, i need to go to DISNEY SEA, which was the new attraction and only in Japan. All the attractions was cute and different, you gonna miss it. And, one thing that I realized and you should know in JAPAN is the living cost much more more expensive rather than any other countries. So it could be the reason why the suicide case in Japan is higher than other countries. Scary huh?

ME & MY NEW FRIENDS in DISNEYLAND

So, are you ready for the trip? Hopefully what I share here will be helpful for you and i'll share more details about this awesome trip :) Feel free to drop your comment and if there's any question or need some information, just contact me or you can find me also on my twitter: @Eyoslatter