How much does two weeks in Japan really cost?

Everything below is land only, per person, based on two people sharing a room. It excludes international flights, because those depend entirely on where you fly from. It includes accommodation, food, ground transport, entries and the guiding we would normally build in.

The myth, and where it comes from

The idea that Japan is punishingly expensive is about thirty years old and has outlived the facts. It comes from the late 1980s, when the yen was strong, Tokyo land prices were a global joke and a melon really did cost a hundred dollars.

Three things have changed since. The yen has weakened substantially against the dollar, which makes Japan cheaper for a visitor than it was for the previous generation. Japanese domestic prices have risen far less than prices in Europe or North America. And the categories that most affect daily spend, food and transport, were never the expensive part.

There is a second myth running the other way: that Japan can be done for fifty dollars a day. It can, with capsule hotels and night buses, but that is not the trip we are describing.

The truth sits in a wide but predictable band. Accommodation is the expensive part and it is the part you control. Everything else is cheaper than most visitors expect.

Daily cost by traveller type

These are the four anchors our consultants price against. They are the same numbers used in our complete Japan guide, because the guide and the magazine should not contradict each other.

Two things to note. The gap between careful and comfortable is mostly hotels. The gap between boutique and luxury is mostly cars and guides, not rooms.

And the month matters more than the tier. The same room in Kyoto in the first week of April can cost double what it costs in the second week of May. If your dates are flexible, moving them is the single biggest saving available to you, larger than any decision about hotel category. Our article on cherry blossom timing by region covers where that flexibility pays best.

Accommodation, night by night

This is where the budget is won or lost. Rates below are per room per night for two sharing, as a planning range rather than a quote. Japanese hotel pricing moves with the season and the day of the week, so we confirm the live rate for your dates before anything is booked.

A business hotel room in Japan is genuinely good: small, but clean, quiet, warm and better plumbed than a four star hotel in most of Europe. Nobody complains that they are dirty. They complain about the size of the bathroom.

The ryokan line is the one that surprises people. A proper ryokan with a private onsen and a full kaiseki dinner is one of the great experiences in travel, and it costs three to four times a city hotel. Our standing advice is two nights across a two-week trip, not seven. The second night is where you relax into it. By the fourth, most people want a normal breakfast. We explain the reasoning in ryokan etiquette, without the anxiety.

Food, which is the good news

Japan is the only country we work in where we routinely tell people they are budgeting too much for food.

• Convenience store breakfast, and they are genuinely good: $4 to $6
• Bowl of ramen at a proper shop: $7 to $10
• Set lunch, teishoku, at a neighbourhood restaurant: $8 to $14
• Set lunch at a serious restaurant, often the same kitchen as dinner: $20 to $40
• Standing sushi counter: $18 to $30
• Depachika, a department store food hall, dinner assembled from counters: $12 to $20
• Izakaya dinner with drinks: $30 to $50
• Kaiseki dinner outside a ryokan: $90 to $200
• High-end sushi counter, chef’s choice: $150 to $400

A realistic daily food budget for someone eating well and eating widely is $55 to $75. You can eat extremely well at $45. Above $120 a day you are eating at counters that need to be booked months ahead, which is a different sort of trip and a good one, but it is a decision rather than a default.

The lunch trick saves real money. Many serious restaurants serve lunch from the same kitchen at roughly a third of the dinner price, so two or three of your best meals in Japan can be lunches.

Rail, and the thing most people get wrong

Rail is the second largest line in the budget and the one where the most money is left on the table. Individual Shinkansen fares as a planning guide:

Fares are set nationally and change infrequently, but they do change, so we price your actual legs at the time of booking rather than asking you to trust a table.

A typical two-week route with four long legs comes to roughly $350 to $450 per person in point-to-point tickets, plus $60 to $100 in local metro and bus travel. Since the nationwide rail pass rose sharply in price in 2023, buying it without doing the sum is frequently a mistake, and regional passes are often the better answer. We work three real routes through the arithmetic in is the Japan Rail Pass still worth it?

Budget separately for luggage forwarding, around $15 to $20 a bag per transfer. On a route with three or more moves it is the best money you will spend in Japan.

Three complete two-week budgets

Each of these is fourteen days, per person, two sharing, land only.

The careful trip, about $2,520

Business hotels throughout with one modest ryokan night, point-to-point rail tickets on a route chosen to keep long legs down, no guiding, and eating at ramen counters, set lunches and depachika.

The compromises here are all in room size rather than in what you see or eat.

The comfortable trip, about $3,990

Good three to four star hotels, one proper ryokan night, two guided days where a guide genuinely changes what you understand, reserved seats on every leg with oversized-luggage spaces, and a mix of set lunches and booked dinners.

This is the most common shape of trip we build, and it is the one we would choose ourselves for a first visit. It maps closely onto classic Japan in 14 days.

The boutique trip, about $6,020

Design hotels and small properties in the cities, two ryokan nights with full kaiseki, private guiding on three days, a private transfer or two, and dinners at counters our Tokyo office books by phone.

See boutique Japan in 12 days for what this looks like day by day.

What actually moves the number

1. The month. Peak blossom and peak autumn colour can add 30 to 60 percent to accommodation alone.
2. Ryokan nights. Each one adds roughly $200 to $400 per person over a city hotel night.
3. How the rail is priced. The difference between a nationwide pass and correctly chosen tickets is frequently $200 to $400 per person.
4. Number of cities. Every extra city adds a rail leg, a hotel change and a wasted half day.

Plan this trip

Tell us your dates, your rough budget and the shape of trip you have in mind, and a Japan specialist will build you a first outline with real hotels and real numbers. Free, and with no obligation.

Start planning

Keep reading

• Japan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Is the Japan Rail Pass still worth it? We ran the numbers
• Ryokan etiquette, without the anxiety
• Cherry blossom, region by region
• Classic Japan in 14 days
• All our Japan trips

Frequently asked questions