haha..no worries,just used for sleep only..if not because we have women in our group,we probably just book capsule hotel..lol

My budget For a week trip is around 5k

me traveling alone and including flight ticket is around 5k i guess. i can actually save more with proper planning cause transportation cost me a bomb and i made some mistake which make me ride train more than usual.

Anyway, the best and most safest way is MAKE a reservation. It is safer to make sure there's a room empty and booked for you instead of changing from 1 hotel to another hotel with your luggage/backpack. It is very tiring and frustrating and worse if you dunno how to communicate in Japanese, you will have a lot of trouble.

Please do not be lazy just because your mastermind cannot make it. There are a lot of cheap hostel that can be booked on the internet. For me, I also do not know Japanese language, so I search for hostel with staffs that can speak with me in English.

yup,5k including flight..im also going to disneyland and disneysea that cost rm450 for both and 1.5k for shopping and eating..so if u dont plan to go to DL/DS..u can save more money..
and yes,as oblivionz said,u need to make a reservation in case of no vacancy..but its ok if u planning to sleep on capsule hotel..and bring along some translation dictionary just to be safe..

You have not heard about discounted hotel booking sites such as agoda, hotel.com, asiarooms & etc?   

Anyway, at RM700 return to Tokyo already cheap, you just need another RM1K for 4-5 days hotel and thereafter probably another RM2K living expenses for a week there can liao 

still consider cheap for ur return flight ticket of 700+, mine is around 650.
It depends on what u wanted to see and experience.
For my own trip (10days cover osaka, nara, kyoto, hakone & tokyo), it cost me about 4.5k excl. air tix, because i go for jr pass that cost about RM1,132. Exclude JR, it's about rm3,300 for hotel and other expenses including meals, transportations & admission fee. 

dun cancel leh. japan is really fun.

you flying there this saturday right? u really need to make a reservation as fast as possible.

making a room reservation is the utmost priority. For making plans on where to go or visit, you can do that after you reach there and ask the hostel staffs cause most of the hotel staffs can guide you or suggest some places for you to visit.

These websites can help you find hotel which staff can speak english. In their hotel advertisement, some will say that there are staffs who speak english. I booked from Malaysia, and if you have any question you can just email them in english and they will reply back in english as well.

http://www.agoda.com/

http://www.hostelworld.com/

and RM715 for 2 ways flight is very cheap. Mine is less than RM900 but because I reach Kansai Airport and went to Tokyo and fly back from there, that's why is a bit more expensive.

dont cancel la bro..2 days still can make a plan..here i help u a lil bit...
first,reserve the accommodation from the website such as agoda or u can refer to pg 1 in this forum
then plan ur trip by refer to this http://www.infomapjapan.com/sight_Tokyo.phtml
then plan ur train trip by refer here http://world.jorudan.co.jp/norikae/cgi-bin...in.cgi#L_Kekka3  just put the station u will depart,then the station where u will arrive..
if u arrive late at haneda airport,it is safer to booking the airport pickup car to prevent miss the train

Another way was pay me as your guide tour..but my air ticket.

My Visa always ready.....Japan Emberssy people see my face also auto let me go already.
Every where in Japan expect Hokkaido.  I am Master of it ....

suppose your trip is still atleast 1-2 mth from now right and not 2 days from now?? Otherwise..It will be messy for sure bcos at this point of time you need atleast 4 days to apply for the super ridicolous VISA and atleast 1mth ahead to get those disocunted hotel rooms.. Otherwise, you hv to settle to the remaining expensive last min booking

Wow, can't believe you give up so fast.

Planning is so easy, you just need that much of a time to plan, just read everything slowly.

You should just go and forget about your friend.

Japan's a really cool place.

dafuq,

you jsut take 1-2 hour read http://www.japan-guide.com/ is good enough to plan for the entire trip liao. makes no sense to burn a trip just because you are too scared/lazy/whatever to do your own planning

I'm wondering how come you cannot ask your mastermind to provide you information such as hotel details and such since he's the one who plan it? like which hotel he is going to book and what itinerary he had in mind?

Japan is a cool place to visit. I urge you not to cancel it. You can try to go there alone as well. I did that and just came back here less than 3 weeks ago.

  Oh come on, at least go jalan-jalan there for one day also better than burn.
Are you arriving at Haneda Airport? If you are, I know First Cabin speaks English.

If you're arriving at Kansai Airport, go Sunny Stone Hotel.
Kansai Airport > Namba,
Namba > Midosuji Line > Nishinakajimaminamikata
Walk towards Family Mart Direction.
Hotel is at corner after T-section
after the 2nd Family Mart.
Sunny Stone Hotel staff speaks English and is helpful.

Find all you need at - www.booking.com
Booked many times with it, no fraud!

Don't worry about the subway / railway. It's super easy.
Plenty of English signs available. Even trains have
station name announcements in English.

Tickets, just pay and press how much is it depending on destinations.
Train stations have big maps on top of the ticket machines.
If you can read English, that's all you need!

With a map, just ask:-
Koko ni, doko des ka? (Where is this?)
Summimasen, watashi wa Sunny Stone Hoteru no ikitai desu.
(I want to go to Sunny Stone Hotel.)

Just go and explore, don't waste it!
Japan is single-traveler friendly!

I suggest you focus on stay places only now.
The rest don't care first. Can plan slowly later.
You book with booking.com, show them the email
and they will understand.

With so many sifus on this thread. What you not sure, just ask,
everyone will try their best to answer your questions and eliminate your doubts.

So sayang if you don't go bro..my first back pack trip, alone, was in Japan a couple of weeks back..i survived and had a blasting time...still can plan stuff..still got time..just gamble go there..u wouldn't regret it..

Adooiiii... Just go on your own-lah. Dun waste the money you paid.

actually planning to go japan is not that hard... u must know ur main purpose (shopping, entertainment, sight seeing etc) den start searching for the location

use Japan Guide as ur reference is more than enough... most of the information u can get it thr...

Just go..
at the hostel receptionist, just ask the staff for ideas, or join other travelers go visiting stuffs

since u gonna arrive on weekend, for starters, check out Harajuku n Akihabara.. the weekend crowd there is different, esp akiba (they close road etc for crowd to roam around at bigger space/street). also Ikebukuro nights.. lotsa street performance.

Other places like shinjuku, shibuya, ginza can go at other weekdays.

cheap accomodation? hostels on hostelworld.com

how much time left n where r u located?
DONT bring RM to japan.  if u got debit/credit card, use that instead.
chg ur monies in KL. can try bukit bintang area or 1utama. other than that, last resort KLIA or klsentral

KLIA => to klsentral via commuter, ERL to KLIA
LCCT(Airasia) -> to klsentral via komuter, Bus (skybus/aerobus etc, rm10 n lower) to LCCT.
Good luck with the prep.
Cant help much as im in Korea now before heading Japan

------------
To do:
- change monies to yen
- call cc center n tell em u gonna go japan
- enable ur roaming mode for ur phone. so u can call back home in case of emergency (can consider rent a phone, but for now, just enable roaming if ur package plan doesnt roam)
- bring a pack of maggi. for survival kit just in case u cant figure out how to buy food on the 1st day

once landing:
- go tourist center n get a map. they usually provide free. get the train/subway map as well
- get SUICA. its a touchngo for tokyo/kanto region. load up 5kyen. u can load more next time
- . . .
- BRACE FOR ADVENTURE ON A LAND U CANT SPEAK N UNDERSTAND THEIR LANGUAGE

Autumn is coming to tokyo, the weather this time is nice.. not cold and not hot and not wet.. typhoon season is over.
many cheap hotels in Tokyo... just walk in and get a room.... Toyoko Inn.... many of them all over tokyo.. just google and go.

Tokyo is a wonderful city

Iterashai!

good luck. Have u make a reservation for a room? U need to write down where u staying on the white card, no?

Ganbatte ne!!