Quite a substantial savings you got on ur trip. Mine 8 days but not in big cities like Tokyo, Osaka, ady reach RM 4k when plus with some shopping, and I'm not even splurge on anything special (except a 1,500 yen sushi set in a swanky restaurant).

That could work. My party we eat individual meals about 700-900 yen each meal per pax which I think is reasonable, then we had a lot of snacks & sweets (dango, manju, taiyaki, mochi, takoyaki, purin, sandies, cakes, etc, etc). The most pricey snack I had was Castella+coffee set at 1000yen. That sushi set was also a snack actually. I like food as part of my travel experience so I probably spent more portions of my budget on that. Also many places I visited had admission charges, so that takes up too.

Good that you managed to enjoy urself even with such savings.

May?... plan urs far far away possible from Golden Week.

This post has been edited by babylon52281: Dec 9 2019, 11:36 PM

Read the terms & conditions at the last page of ur passport.

I find big cities generally don't feel too unique from each other ie Fukuoka, SG, Shanghai, KL. I enjoyed my time more in smaller cities with their own uniqueness like Sydney & Nagasaki. Perhaps ur the same thinking.

If so I would suggest you to try visiting other smaller cities. Yeah Hokkaido might be right up ur interest and if budget permits, you could chain it with some days to Aomori then take a shinkansen back to Tokyo. But I do have concern ur missing out on a lot of other sightseeing & experiences because ur tight budget and maximising day passes to see as much possible.

OTOH I'm the type of person who if I have to spend money being there, I want to maximise my time usage at each location. lol!

It doesn't have as much tall buildings as the other big cities I mentioned. Even in CBD I don't feel being crowded and many of the places I visited is easily reached by public transport or walking (I walked from Hyde Park to Opera House to the Rocks and back to Circular Quay and then boat to Manly and around the shores). I walked in Fukuoka as well but I feel like going past rows and rows of tall nondescript buildings after another and one street looks the same like another. This contrast to my walks in Nagasaki where if I popped around a quiet shotengai or past residential areas (which I do often) I am serious excited to find what I find because I don't know what I would expect just around the corner, it could be a jinja, or a small park, or a shop/stall, or something that catches my eye. Similarly during a walk in Sydney suburbs, I just stumbled into a Greek bakery that had a choco dipped butter cookie which I used to buy in Malaysia. That kinda connection & unknown discoveries what really astounds me and something that I look forward to in my trips, not just to Australia or to Japan.

BTW, travel sifu. Can ask is there an English guide to local trains in Nagano?

SUICA & ICOCA is compatible. You don't need to buy another card.

Thanks but I was looking for more info, timetables, distance cost, for JR East Oito line in the area around Omachi city.
In English if possible. Thanks.

Sorry my bad. Thanks for the link. I can assume for such interior parts, its all by Japanese only? No English yeah?

What the...? An ATM that can spit out whatever foreign currency that you want? I wanna see that one. Never knew Japan has advanced to such a stage.

I think its cheaper to just buy extra checkin luggage allotment on ur flight back.

This post has been edited by babylon52281: Jan 3 2020, 08:54 AM

I would prefer eat Kobe beef. Wagyu better eat in Australia.

Japan sales is like real sale promo. Not like our Megasale mark up 90% then sale discount 50%.

My bro was tempted to buy a bargain discounted pair of Nikes (not yet release in MY), but he got no size. Compared with similar, even GPO cannot get this price.

Hahaha but Kobe only can get in Japan. While wagyu I generally find it much cheaper in Aussie, even got to eat Wagyu burger in Sydney for RM40.

Err... no comment, as whatever "wagyu" that I ate is still much better than the expensive beefs I have eaten in Malaysia. I'm no foodie expert so I probably can't tell "real" wagyu that cost 2-3X more than "non-ori" wagyu. Next I probably will wanna try Angus beef.

I read the speedbumps were put up after the popularity of ID soared to prevent further Takumi copycats. Apparently, authorities figured out when finding too many damaged crash barriers. Obviously not everyone can dorifto and a very real concern on some untalented idiots will eventually end up at the bottom of the mountain.

I think it depends. AA might have more tolerance for latecomers so to fill the seats. You know Malaysians are very poor in keeping to the time. Also weather does play a big role in arrival times as bad weather will prolong the flight journey. A lot of factors.

For my trip to Japan (Kyushu) via AA it was early 10 mins vs scheduled but the custom clearance was hell. In this case, even full service national carriers also face the same problem. I was delayed 1 hr more than anticipated (was expecting superfast superefficient Japan customs, mana tau have to wait in a snaking line like queuing to buy concert tickets).

That would probably be ur last and safe option. Didn't someone pointed there is still bus services or something? Just plan for contingencies. Even I had to go for next option on the first day first time I landed in Japan.

That is not too bad considering an airport transfer in Europe is around RM600 on a day time.

This I get from going Western EU but not at the popular countries (England, France, Germany,etc) so I guess its about averages the cheap and expensive EU countries and distance is pretty standard from airport to city (flat rate somemore).