by Marji L. Loyola New Orleans, TBC Spring 2018
Do you want to go to Tokyo, Japan? Are you on a budget? Do you think it’s going to be too expensive? No worries, you can stay within your budget without losing an arm and a leg. I too am constantly on a budget. Luckily, that did not stop me from visiting Toyko, Japan during my spring break.
I planned a spring break trip with two of my friends in the US. It’s important to mention this was my first time planning a spring break trip. It was important to me to stay within my budget. I knew the trip would be costly, so I set my maximum spending budget. The trip was about $1500. All this includes the Airbnb, plane ticket, local traveling, souvenirs, and food. I chose to stay there 5 days and 4 nights because that was most affordable. My friend was in control of the itinerary.
For majority of the trip we did activities that need little to no money. Though, the first night we did splurge, which after that, I learned my lesson to stick to the budget. We needed to get from the airport to the Airbnb and settled. We weren’t too familiar with the area, but we managed to simply take the bullet train and subway to our Airbnb which was about $20.00. Make sure you take out just the amount you need out of the bank to avoid fees and other charges. Also, download a currency converter, so you don’t just carelessly spend money you don’t have. It made it much easier to know what I spent in $USD.
For traveling, we utilized the subway because it was the cheapest. Avoid taking taxis because they are expensive. If worried about small portions of food at an expensive price, split the bill with your pals. That helps a lot because you get more bang for your buck. We ate mostly ramen, sushi, and street food.
Our daily activities consisted of hopping from neighborhood to neighborhood which was not costly. We usually went sightseeing on cool strips and markets. We also experienced plenty of arcades and toy stores that were decent and within my budget. In addition, we experienced the cherry blossoms blooming free at Ueno park. Another day, we explored Harajuku and walked around the streets eating street food. We also visited the fish market which was free.
As for the nightlife, clubs are typically expensive to get into so don’t go clubbing every night if you don’t want to burn a hole into your pockets. Sometimes there are discounts on the entry fee and some discounts for women. A lot of the tourist attractions are free, so you don’t have to worry. It all depends on what you want to take away from your experience in Tokyo. It’s not hard to stay within your budget.
The past few weekends have been some of the most exciting of the entire semester, full of trips to the zoo, mountain hikes, ancient parks, and more! Our first trip out of many was a visit to the Beijing Zoo. I had mentioned earlier in the semester that I wanted to see some pandas, since I was in China after all, and our TBC friend Andy made it happen.
Spending a whole semester in Beijing, I knew I had to make the trip down south and check out Shanghai, and the city certainly lived up to the expectations. Everyone describes Shanghai as this super futuristic metropolis, and after spending a weekend there I understand why it has this reputation.