So I really want to visit Japan. I was planning to go with my mates, but they’re all on a tight budget so they bailed. Now I’m thinking of just going solo.
For anyone who’s been: what was your experience like? Roughly how much did you spend overall? Where did you go? Did you feel safe travelling on your own? Did you end up making any friends — if so, how? And did you bother learning any Japanese before you went?
Also, if you’re keen on Japan but don’t have anyone to go with, maybe we could try and plan something together 👀
Cheers!
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I’ve never been to Japan but I have travelled in Asia with budgets of varying degrees. The less money you have to do activities, the less sociable it will be – generally speaking.
Bars, excursions and other similar things (that cost money) are the easiest ways to meet people but that may well be negated with apps these days but I don’t know much about that.
That’s not to say you won’t have a good time but depending on your budget it will make a difference to the overall experience.
I flew over by myself as a tourist and ended up staying permanently.
When I first arrived I stayed at a really cheap “share house” in Tokyo. It was about £150 a month.
I knew a couple of people here who showed me around. We visited Ueno, Asakusa, Yokohama, and all the usual stuff. We also went to Kyoto and Osaka for a bit as well as a bunch of bars and restaurants.
It’s extremely safe to walk around, just be careful of the cyclists and drivers and always keep your passport on you.
I recommend avoiding convenience stores and using supermarkets instead. They might not be open 24 hours a day, but they are usually much cheaper, have a much wider selection, and there is usual one nearby if you are in a city.
When I went about 10-15 years ago it was fairly expensive but I’ve heard from friends who have been more recently that they’ve not had the same sort of inflation we’ve had so it’s now comparatively cheap.
I’m a frequent solo traveller to Japan. To answer your questions:
> Roughly how much did you spend overall?
It’s a surprisingly budget friendly place. Particularly with the yen being as weak as it’s been for the past few years, you can get a decent hotel for <£60/night in most places. Less is possible if you’re happy with hostel-tier accommodation. Eating out is incredibly cheap compared to the UK and almost anywhere else in Europe (you can often get an awesome lunch or dinner for £5-10). If you’ve got a larger budget then there are obviously fancier and more expensive options, but you can definitely get by on a modest budget. Transport is the one thing that isn’t cheap, although it is very good.
> Where did you go?
All over – it very much depends on what kind of holiday you’re looking for.
> Did you feel safe travelling on your own?
Very. Use your common sense as you would anywhere else (no country is immune to crime) but on the whole it’s an extremely safe country.
> And did you bother learning any Japanese before you went?
Yes but it’s not as important as it used to be. The country has become much more tourist-friendly since 2020 and it’s now very easy to do pretty much anything without speaking a word of Japanese (as long as you’re not going to the middle of nowhere). Obviously it’s still worth learning some basic phrases if you have the time, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to have a good time.
I’d recommend watching some of the Youtube videos about staying in Japan, and especially the ones about capsule hotels, which can be pretty cheap.
Awful, it’s expensive, and lonely.
Do it. Do it. Do it.
Japan is honestly one of the easiest countries to solo travel in. I used to live there, and a lot of daily life is already designed to work smoothly for one person.
When I was there I would walk home alone at like 3am without even thinking twice about it. It’s incredibly safe, and that alone removes a huge mental barrier for solo travel.
Public transportation is reliable and easy to navigate, there’s lots of English signage in major cities, and eating alone is totally normal (ramen shops, sushi counters, convenience stores). Hotels, hostels, and capsule hotels in particular cater really well to solo travelers.
The structure over there helps a lot too. clear rules, good signage, clean cities, and predictable systems mean way less stress compared to many other places. Even if you don’t know any Japanese, people are usually patient and willing to help.
Check out r/JapanTravel. They’ve got tons of itineraries and advice. I think they have a Discord too so you could probably find other solo travellers.
I did my first solo travel to Japan in 2015 when I was 19 and went there for 33 days. Stayed in a youth hostel which was £7 a night and brought food from home to eat during lunch/breakfast and had dinner in cheap places. Felt pretty safe by myself and it was an amazing experience for the first time. Learned Japanese beforehand so made friends before going and during the trip too.
I was supposed to go solo this year but I wound up with company. I’d have felt totally safe as a solo woman there. I was fortunate to split accommodation costs, but daily expenses were low bar bullet trains. However compared to the UK, they aren’t expensive.
I learnt very basic greetings and got by. Sometimes for luggage forwarding services the person used a phone to translate but it was all good.
I did the classic route. Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto with a day in Nara, Hiroshima and Miyajima. If I did it again I wouldn’t have been fussed missing Osaka. Hiroshima and Miyajima were brilliant. I did Tokyo for four days and didn’t touch the sides!
I went solo last year at Easter. I’d saved up for a while and was there for just under 2 months. It’s better for me if I don’t think about how much I spent.
I did it in 2019! 3 weeks and I was made redundant just before so basically had no money. Food and drink is very cheap if you eat and drink like a local. Barely anything is open for breakfast so I say sleep in and skip it, get a hot drink then start your day. This was even in Tokyo. Lots of temples are free to explore and each are different, plus you can collect goshuin, which are unique to each temple and shrine and it makes a lovely souvenir. It was definitely worth forking out for a Japan rail pass, it meant I got to Kyoto and hiroshima in my time there.
I do want to go back with a much better budget but don’t let it put you off on going! Hostels are incredible in Japan, even supplying shampoo! I say go for it!
Did Japan solo on a budget was super easy! Made friends at hostels and a tea ceremony but mostly solo and it was fine
Out of interest, how much are we talking?
The most expensive part are the flights, doubly so if you go during peak season. Cheapest I found was like china Airlines with a stop in china, and that was still £700
Currently planning a solo Japan trip for later this year. I’ve decided to book on a tour with Contiki. They’re designed for solo travellers aged under 35, so you go solo but the other people on the tour are in a similar position so it’s fairly social. I’m taking a extra few days at the start and end of the tour to solo travel to some places not covered in the tour. I’m trying to stick to a budget, because I’m starting to look to buy a house when I get back. Going over my holiday budget will mean having to push back house buying for a few months which I really don’t want to do. This is my last big trip I’ll be able to do for a while.
I’m hoping to do the extra non organized tour days for £1500 all in. This will include a splurge on a couple of days in an Onsen (hot spring) resort hotel. The other nights I’ll be in a hostel or similar.
I’ve just booked my flights. These were £1200 return via Hong Kong. I’ve seen much cheaper flights with mainland Chinese airlines from London which may work out for you if you can get to Heathrow/Gatwick. For me, the cheaper costs didn’t outweigh the inconvenience of getting to London.
Basically a couple of my friends floated the idea of going to Japan for a few years but we never actually got close to organizing it. I’ve decided to actually just go on my own, before life gets in the way. So do it!
I did it in 2023, I suggest breaking up the flights by going to mainland China. It made my flight super cheap as the leg to Japan was an internal flight.
Japan is quite expensive BUT using apps like Klook you can pay for things in advance to reduce your costs whilst out there. Food is pretty cheap and the cities are relatively well connected so between a JR pass and their version of an Oyster card you can get about pretty easily.
Accommodation go for an Airbnb if you can in a suburb as that’ll be cheaper than a hotel. Happy to answer any Q’s you might have
Going to Japan is a radicalising event
So 2 questions op. How long are you staying and what budget?
If it wasn’t for my spending on retro goods which I knew I was going to. My overall 15 day/night holiday was about £2000,.so flight, accomodations, food, bus/metro/shinkansen. The food and accommodation were the cheapest thing and only 4 nights was spent in a town house which has separate bedrooms and that was only £20 a night. Most expensive was a hotel in Nara at £40 a night. I don’t think you’d be worth going cheaper than 20/30 for a night.
I used the bullet train 3 times so you could easily cut down on that if you’re just doing Tokyo/Kyoto Osaka.
You’d find it difficult to spend more than ¥1500 yen for the big meal/dinner of the day or lunch. Conbini food is fairly priced especially just for a snack.
What time of year are you going? Flights and accomodation prices can fluctuate a bit especially around Golden week/cherry blossom season.
I am now starting to save for my 2nd holiday there and I’m aiming for November 2027 and I travelled solo last year.
Made 2 friends, my Japanese unfortunately was very limited but Google translate was excellent.
Japan is very affordable. Hotels, eating out and drinking are cheaper than UK. It’s very safe to travel, just avoid the red light districts where there can be scams. Easy enough to make friends if you stay at hostels and hang out in the communal areas.
Emirates will probably have the cheapest tickets, but it’ll be hell because of that 30+ hours flight. I would suggest just booking early for a JAL seat
Experience was great (9 days total)
Rough spend in total £2,500
Went to Tokyo, Kyoto, nikko, and kawaguchiko
Felt safe as fuck everywhere I went
Did I fuck make friends
Japanese was limited to konnichiwa, arigato gosaimasu, and sumimasen. Everything else was either google translate, limited English, or pointing
I already have 3 trips planned this year not sure if i can afford a 4th, but good luck finding someone
I went alone for a month when I was in my early to mid-20s. It was amazing and one of the best trips I have done! I am female and I felt completely safe! It was nice to do things at my own pace. I cannot remember what I spent overall but at the time the dollar (my main currency at the time as I was at the time only going to uni in the UK and my finances were based in the US) was stronger than the yen so everything was comparatively very cheap. I mostly stayed in AirBnBs, a hotel in a couple of places, and a Ryokan in one small village.
I studied Japanese in High School for 2 years and 1 year at uni so I used it a bit there. It was lovely because I got to practise my Japanese with some locals. I remember an instance of a 60 year old Japanese woman randomly talking to me–it was sweet!
I would recommend getting the Japanese Rail card. It made travelling so much easier and overall relatively cheaper with all the travelling I was doing. I went as far down as Hiroshima.
A few recommendations:
– Kinosaki onsen is a lovely little hot spring town and is perfect if you want to experience a traditional Japanese ryokan
– If you are like me and travel with a bulky suitcase, the shinkansen doesn’t have ample luggage storage. I would recommend when booking a ticket at a desk to ask for “ichiban ushiro no retsu” which essentially asks for the seat in the back row of the carriage, which has space behind to store your luggage
– I recommend checking out shirakawa-go. Such a unique little place! A suitable daytrip from Toyama
– If you are going to the Gifu region, I recommend taking the panoramic train. It was the only time I paid extra for 1st class as you can also see the front of the train very well. It was so lovely!
– The best souvenir you can get yourself in Japan is a Goshuin. It is a book that opens like an accordion and you can buy them at any shrine. When you visit a shrine you can pay a little to get a page stamped with calligraphy written over the stamp. It ends up being a very unique souvenir for yourself.
I went solo in 2023 (when I was 22) for a month. I was lucky that I was able to housesit for a friend of a family friend so didn’t have to spend much on accomodation. I was based in Kobe so getting the train most days out to Osaka and Kyoto, day trips to Himeji and Hiroshima and then got the bullet train to Tokyo and spent 3 nights there.
I loved it. In Tokyo you don’t really need Japanese but outside of Tokyo and especially in Kobe they don’t really speak very much English at all… But you do get by on hand signals and pointing (and Google translate on your phone). I’ve only really travelled in Europe beforehand so that language barrier was a bit of a surprise!
It is 90% safe, there’s crazy stuff like you don’t need to lock your bike up outside a shop (even a fancy electric bike) because theft is so so low. I did get stalked by random men 4/5 times and cornered by one guy in a train station (who I’m 95% sure was trying to grope me whilst on a busy train) and I only got him to go away when I said I had a boyfriend. That sucked but obviously as a solo female you always have to be slightly on high alert. But definitely didn’t ruin my trip by any means.
Lastly cost wise everything was surprisingly cheap there, clothes, food, hotels all very very well priced. I ate a wagyu steak rice bowl for like £7!! I think it might be more expensive now because of tourist tax stuff but I still think you’ll be alright.
It was the best experience of my life, was my first time solo travelling (I now have the solo travel bug) and I want to go back very badly! I would 100% take the opportunity to travel out there if you can and not wait for others to start living your best life!
Everything is much cheaper than in the UK, especially food. Accommodation will be the main portion of costs, however there’s a wide range to suit all budgets. Trains can also be a bit expensive but they’re fast and convenient.