Common misconceptions about traveling to Japan

The most common misconception about traveling to Japan in recent years is that Japan is very expensive. I’ve spoken with many of my friends, colleagues and others, who many of them wants to go to Japan for a visit but are hesitant since they thought that it would be very expensive.

While expensive or cheap are relative, we did some comparison to a few places including our own home base which is California and we can say that Japan is not as expensive as many would believe. Especially if the country where you live has a currency that is stronger than Japanese Yen.

To put things in perspective, here in California especially in places like San Francisco or Los Angeles $15 is pretty much just the cost of an entrée on most restaurants not counting tax and tips which easily will raise it to at least $18.

On our last trip in late 2023 where the conversion rate that we received were ¥146 for each US dollar in Tokyo we were able to get 3 separate meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) for just under $15 USD per person, keep in mind that this was not a snack but a proper meal dining out and if you really want to tighten the budget you can get it for less than $10 USD per person

Of course we highly recommend that you get what you like there so you can enjoy your time in Japan to fullest, we are just pointing out that if you want to save or in a tight budget on food there are many options available

Below are some of the food along with the price that we’ve ordered while we were in Japan calculated at the conversion rate when we were there $1 USD = ¥146

This udon bowl cost only ¥280 (full size) which is less than $2 USD

Zaru soba cost ¥580 (regular size) which is just under $4 USD

Grilled Chicken on scrambled Egg over rice (large size) cost ¥760 which is just around $5.20 USD

The other most common misconception is that you need to be able speak Japanese to go places, while being able to speak the language does help you can actually go to places with zero knowledge of Japanese language (we have done this and we had a great time).

If you’re going to remote areas then yes speaking some Japanese will help you a lot but if you’re going to places like the big cities or places that are visited by many tourists then language is not really an issue. In fact quite many of their transportation system have multiple languages such as English, Chinese and Korean.

Multiple language direction in Japan

We also seen quite some places many staff at a resort like Disney Land or Disney Sea have a handheld translator that they use, while it does not always translate 100% correctly you can kind of guess what they trying to say

For direction thanks to modern technology such as Google maps and translator, you can pretty much can go to places with minimal interaction.

More and more restaurants now have a menu in English, so you won’t be having much issues ordering food unless you have specific dietary requirement then it will be a challenge if you don’t speak Japanese

We have several tips that can help you and we will share here so don’t forget to visit us from time to time!