How Much Our 2-week Japan Trip Cost
Going to Japan, but not sure how much to budget? If you’re like me and like planning, knowing how much things actually cost can help finalize your ideas. Our 2-week Japan trip cost breakdown below can help give a great overview of mid-range travels.
| Table of Contents |
| 1. Trip Overview 2. Budget Categories 3. Airfare 4. Accommodations 5. Transportation 6. Activities 7. Food 8. Shopping |
In November 2024, my husband and I went on a 2-week Japan trip all by ourselves. It was probably our 5th Japan trip, but our first time without any other family members or friends so we treated it like a second honeymoon.
In this post, we will go over how much we spent on our 2-week trip to Japan in November 2024. We hope to give you a better idea of how much to budget and how far the yen can take you.
If you haven’t already, you can also check out our 3-week Japan trip budget breakdown here.
Trip Overview
First, a little background of us and our travel style. My husband and I are in our late-20s and are mid-range budget travelers who like to splurge here and there. We try to save as much as we can when possible. For example, we tend to optimize points and miles to stay in luxurious places for free. However, on group trips, we typically stay in budget friendly hotels or airbnbs.
Here is a quick look at our 2-week trip logistics.
Locations and Nights per place:
- 3 nights – Osaka
- 4 nights – Kyoto
- 4 night – Kanazawa
- 3 nights – Tokyo
| Season | Month | Total Nights | Total Days | Total Persons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autumn | November | 14 | 15 | 2 |
Our trip was during the autumn season from early November to mid-November for a total of 14 nights, 15 days. We were a total of two adults with interests in popular attractions, food, nature, and sometimes off-the-beaten path excursions. We stayed at four different places in the following cities: Osaka, Kyoto, Kanazawa, and Tokyo. This was our 5th trip to Japan, but our first time just us without any other people.
Budget Categories
Our budget breakdown of our trips typically include airfare, accommodations, transportation, activities, food, and shopping. All expenses shown in this post will be shown in USD currency. We used travel credit cards and yen throughout the trip to pay for expenses.
Airfare
So how much should you budget for airfare? Sadly, there is no direct answer to this. Airfare costs varies a lot due to many factors such as location, time, season, or even how far in advance you look. There may also be sales here and there, but those are hard to predict.
However, airfare is one of the budget categories where you could save a lot of money if you plan and research properly.
With travel credit cards such as Chase Sapphire Reserve or Capital One Venture X, you may be able to earn and transfer points to airline partners. By doing so, you can essentially book free flights using miles. You could also book flights directly through the credit card points system as well.
This is what we usually do for flights. Thus, for this 2024 November trip, our budget and total cost for our flights was $0.
Airfare Total Expense: $0.00
Accommodations
Accommodations is another budget category where price varies greatly depending on your travel style. But, if you are on a tight budget yet want to stay in luxury hotels, you can still do so! By optimizing travel credit cards and hotel honors programs, you could save a love of money and even book rooms for free.
For this trip, since it was finally just the two of us, we decided to book all hotels using our Hyatt and Hilton rewards and points.
Here are the hotels we stayed at during our 2024 November Japan trip.
Osaka: Caption by Hyatt Namba Osaka – Hyatt Reward Points – 3 nights
Caption by Hyatt Namba is one of the newest hotel additions to the Hyatt properties in Japan and is conveniently located in the heart of Osaka. It is also a category 1 Hyatt hotel so it was very affordable in terms of Hyatt points. Great location, friendly staff, and spacious rooms. Highly recommend especially if you book with points!
Kyoto: Hyatt Place Kyoto – Hyatt Reward Points – 4 nights
Hyatt Place Kyoto is one of my favorite hotels we’ve stayed at in Japan! Its location is a little farther out from the busiest streets of downtown Kyoto, but near enough where you could still walk to many attractions. Hyatt Place Kyoto is also conveniently located above a subway station. It is considered a category 2 Hyatt hotel so the points per night was still very reasonable. We used our Guest of Honor reward which gave us free breakfast buffets every morning and a late checkout. Definitely worth the points to stay here!
Kanazawa: Hyatt House Kanazawa – Hyatt Reward Points – 4 nights
Another hotel where we booked a room with our Hyatt points was Hyatt House Kanazawa. As another category 2 hotel, the points per night was fairly low. It is conveniently located next to Kanazawa Station, which means lots of shops and restaurants nearby. The hotel was very spacious and seemed to be a very family-friendly. We used another Guest of Honor reward here to receive complimentary breakfast buffets and late checkout. The hotel itself typically gives free breakfast to guests depending on the room booked, even without the Guest of Honor reward. They also had complimentary cocktail hour for hotel guests which included free drinks and snacks.
Tokyo: Hyatt Centric Ginza – Hyatt Reward Points – 2 nights
Hyatt Centric Ginza was also booked with Hyatt points. It is a category 6 hotel, so it cost more points to book the reward nights. However, its location in Ginza is hard to beat. We used our last Guest of Honor reward here and received free breakfast, late checkout, and a room upgrade. The breakfast at Hyatt Centric Ginza was by far the best selections out of the other Hyatt properties we stayed at on this trip. Guests also have access to complimentary snacks and drinks near the front desk.
Tokyo: Conrad Tokyo – Hilton Honors Free Night Award – 1 night
The five-star hotel, Conrad Tokyo, is a Hilton property. We used our free night award here and let me just say we felt like royalty. The excellent staff took great care of us and upgraded us to a suite. Located in Shiodome, Tokyo, we were offered exquisite views of Tokyo Bay and Hamarikyu Gardens. It is located about a 10-minute taxi ride from Hyatt Centric Ginza, but is in a lot more relaxing area. The complimentary night time cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and morning breakfast here was superb. It was a great place to end our 2-week trip.
Thus, if possible, we highly recommend booking with points for hotel stays for the most savings on your budget. We were able to save not only on the room itself, but also on breakfast costs. The money we saved on airfare and hotels was instead used for activities, shopping and food instead. Overall, we spent $0 on all accommodations during our 2-week Japan trip.
Accommodations Total Expense: $0.00
Transportation
A transportation budget for options such as trains, buses, car rentals, or taxis can be estimated ahead of time with research. Although it may be time consuming, researching ways of transportation and its costs for your itinerary is actually a great way to compare prices with the JR rail passes. Most times for us, it was not worth it to get a JR rail pass since it was significantly more expensive or it didn’t align with our trip itinerary.
On this 2-week trip, our transportation budget included JR trains, ICOCA charges, buses, a car rental, ropeways, taxis, and luggage delivery services. We did not get any JR rail passes for this trip.
JR Trains
For long distance JR train rides, it is recommended to book reserved seats ahead of time in order to secure a spot at the time and day wanted. This is especially true if you have a lot of luggage and travel during popular seasons and holidays. We like to keep and eye on JR train tickets a month out just in case, but usually buy tickets a few days from departure date.
Buses
Buses are fairly easy where you can pay with your prepaid IC transportation card or yen. Most buses allow IC cards to be used, however an exception we had on this trip was Kanazawa. The buses in Kanazawa did not accept our ICOCA cards so we usually paid in yen.
Car Rentals
Car rentals are usually great for going to more rural areas. Toyata-Rent-A-Car is where we usually rent our vehicles from because it is hassle free, English-friendly, and has locations all across Japan. My husband loves driving in Japan, so we decided to rent a car for a day trip out of Kanazawa.
Transportation Total Expense: $600.58
Transportation Average Daily Expense: $40.04
Activities
Activities are the best way to experience a country, learn about culture, and to simply have fun. As mentioned before, the money we saved from airfare and accommodations went to booking more activities, eating more food, and of course shopping.
Our activities budget for our 2-week Japan trip included temples, museums, theme parks, hands-on activities, bike rentals, spas, and games. We always make sure to book some hands-on activities and have some self-care days on our trips now because it makes for great memories and we simply enjoy it.
We also love looking for free things to do or see if there are any local events to attend when we’re there. For example, in Kanazawa we were lucky to pass by a bunch of tents getting ready for something in the early morning. Turns out it was a food festival that had lots of local food vendors and free shows such as taiko performances. Best part was we were there right before they opened so we had no lines 😀
Temples, Shrines, and Museums
Some of the temples, shrines, and museums we went to this trip are:
- Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
- Otagi Nenbustsu-ji
- Giōji Temple
- Higashiyama Jisho-ji (Ginkakuji Silver Pavilion)
- Nomura-ke Samurai Heritage Residence Museum
Hands-on Activities
The hands-on activities we participated in on this trip are:
- Uji Matcha Grinding and Tasting Experience
- Kanazawa Kintsugi Gold Experience
- Ring making at Aisorashi
Self-care Activities
Since this is not our first time to Japan, we love to have slower days and self-care days whether planned or unplanned. Some activities include:
- Hair cut in Osaka
- Japanese Head spa in Kyoto
- Kanazawa private onsen
Activities Total Expense: $991.77
Activities Average Daily Expense: $66.12
Food
Where all my foodies at? Hehe. No trip is complete – no life is complete – without food. So, naturally, we set a huge budget aside for food in Japan.
Our free rewards nights at Hyatt and Hilton hotels also provided us with free breakfast buffets. This probably saved us a lot of money or just made us eat a lot more.
For this trip and most of our Japan trips, we usually don’t make reservations and just visit wherever is open and near us and eat what we crave that day. The only reservation we made on this trip was for Momo Paradise in Shibuya for all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu with Japanese grade meat during lunch hours. We did not opt for the A5 Wagyu course since the Japanese grade (I think A4 level) is still just as good and not as heavy. This was our second time at this restaurant, which was formerly known as Nabezo, because it is my husband’s absolute favorite.
The food items that we make sure to eat every trip are the usual such as ramen, sushi, tonkatsu, unagi, gyudons, coffee, pastries, wagyu burgers, etc. Honestly, we eat everything. This trip, we tried more Italian restaurants and craft beers, and it was DELICIOUS.
Food Total Expense: $956.07
Food Average Daily Expense: $63.74
Shopping
Alright, who doesn’t love to shop? Of course, shopping budget varies and is completely up to you how much you want to set aside.
For us, we set a huge budget aside for shopping. We love shopping in Japan as we find a lot of unique items and great deals. We actually like to shop for future gifts and daily items we know we will use as well since it’s typically a lot cheaper than back home or amazon.
Even though it may seem like a lot or a sometimes overboard at times, shopping in Japan takes place of a lot of our shopping needs at home throughout the year as well. So in the end, we really save a lot 🙂
If you plan to do a lot of shopping, don’t forget to pack an extra international sized foldable duffle bag to bring your items back home.
Shopping Total Expense: $1100.63
Shopping Average Daily Expense: $73.38
Overall Breakdown of Expenses
Overall, we went over our budget just a bit even with free hotels and airfare probably because we did more spontaneous activities than we initially planned, possibly overate, and shopped a little too hard. It was one-hundred percent worth it though.
Our final total spent for 14 nights/15 days in Japan was $3,649.04 USD for two adults or $1824.52 USD per person. On average, we spent $243.27 per day on our 2-week Japan trip.
Of course, free airfare and lodging is not always available, but if you limit your shopping, you could still visit Japan on a budget. There are a lot of free events and even shrines you could go to if you’re able to research and find them. Even just wandering the streets is a great way to explore Japan. With a lot of cheap eats and conbini food, you could also save more (so as long as you don’t overindulge like us lol).
So for a two-week Japan trip budget, I’d say a $3,500 budget for two adults is a great starting point to have an experience full of food, many activities, new destinations, and lots of shopping. What do you think?
| Budget Category | Total Expense | Average Daily/Nightly Expense |
|---|---|---|
| Airfare | $0.00 | – |
| Accommodations | $0.00 | – |
| Transportation | $600.58 | $40.04 |
| Activities | $991.77 | $66.12 |
| Food | $956.07 | $63.74 |
| Shopping | $1100.63 | $73.38 |
| OVERALL | $3649.04 | $243.27 |
Thanks for reading! If you haven’t already, check out our Instagram page @leongvoyage 🙂
Happy Travels and Bon (Leong) Voyage!
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