As this Japan Minion Monies is the first of 2023 I’m going to switch it up a bit. Instead of breaking down each portion first, I’m going to work backwards and summarize the costs before breaking them down. Let me know if you prefer it this way over the previous method.
The following will be an accounting of my 2023 trip to Japan and Indonesia. If you’ve not read the blog, you can do so here. Or if you want a small wrap up, you can check that out here. It can provide extra context to the costs below! All prices will be in Canadian (or converted into Canadian when it shows up on my CC bill).
The Costs
All in all this whole trip cost $3185.10 with a per day cost of $159.26 over 20 days.
And it breaks down as follows:
| Transportation | $951.70 (+ Points) |
| Accommodations | + $1365.73 (+ Points) |
| Food & Beverage | + $722.93 |
| Miscellaneous | + $144.77 |
| Total | = $3185.10 |
The Transportation
In total, the transportation costs for this trip cost $951.70 with a few frequent flyer redemptions. For me transportation and logistics can be broken down into two main sections: Airfare and Ground Transportation which costs $391.85 and $559.85 respectively.
The Flights
In total my airfare cost $391.85, 157,700 Aeroplan points, 100,000 Alaska Miles and 4 eUpgrade Credits.
For the Airfare the following are all my flights taken on this trip:
- (Alaska Airlines & Singapore Business Class) Vancouver-Seattle-New York-Singapore-Jakarta ($99.48 + 100,000 Alaska Miles)
- (ANA Business Class & First Class Suites) Jakarta-Haneda / Haneda-New York ($180.00 + 135,000 Aeroplan Points)
- (Air Canada Business Class) New York-Vancouver ($7.20 + 22700 Aeroplan Points + 4 eUpgrade Credits)
- (AirDo Economy Class) Haneda – Sapporo ($105.17)
While the value proposition of flying in so many premium cabins is certainly worth it. There is something to be said about “flying to fly”. I purposely went out of my way to take the longest flight in the world and purposely overflew my home for a few extra hours in first class. I could easily have gone directly to and from my home in Vancouver and likely would have saved a few extra dollars and a few thousand points. But don’t get me wrong, given the choice I would do it all again!
Getting around on the Ground
In total my ground transportation cost $559.85
This was a combination of train tickets, ride shares and airport shuttles. The following are all my ground transportation costs for the trip:
- Jakarta Airport Train Round Trip ($9.03)
- Jakarta Grab Car Rides ($24.06)
- JR East-South Pass ($283.49)
- Shinigawa – Odawara Shinkansen Round Trip ($65.23)
- Chitoise – Sapporo Hokkaido Train ($12.07)
- Hakone Freepass ($52.50)
- Suica Card top ups ($31.28)
- ETS JFK to Newark Airport Transfer ($82.19)
A few of my most expensive items were the bullet train tickets. Prior to my trip, one of the things I had kicked around was starting the Japan Rail Pass earlier. (It’s only a 6 day pass and I opted to use it for the latter half of my trip instead of the middle part.) In retrospect, I probably should have used it earlier to cover the Shinigawa-Odawara round trip ticket. I found once I returned to Tokyo, I didn’t have a huge use for my Japan Rail Pass and found it going to waste. If I had shifted the window a few days earlier, I likely could have saved myself a few extra dollars.
Beyond that little misstep, I may have developed a new found love for rail travel. I’m now finding myself looking into more “train trips”. Perhaps my “Av geekery” is turning into a train geekery!
The Accommodations:
Onto my total accommodation costs. This will always be the priciest part of the trip and for all my stays it works out to $1365.73, 95,000 Hilton Honors Points and 1 Hilton Free Night Award
Below are all the different places I stayed at throughout my trip:
- 2 Nights Stanley Wahid Hasyim Jakarta ($109.54)
- 4 Nights Shibuya Stream Excel Hotel Tokyu ($470.48)
- 1 Night Emblem Flow Hakone ($60.60)
- 4 Nights Hotel Vista Sapporo Odori ($501.31)
- 1 Night Hotel WBF Hakodate Watasumino Yu($54.14)
- 2 Nights The Square Hotel Ginza ($169.66)
- 2 Nights Conrad Tokyo (95000 Hilton Honors points + 1 Free Night Award Certificate)
In some ways I feel incredibly lucky to have stayed where I did for the prices I did. Because this is a trip I had to rebook multiple times on account of the pandemic. I had booked many places before Japan had reopened to tourists. This mean that the prices I paid were often half or even a third of what the going rate is now. So, in “normal” cases this set of accommodations would likely be two to three times the total it is now. Throw in the free redemption at a luxury hotel to end off my trip and I am very happy with how my sleeping situation worked out!
Food and Beverage ($722.93)
One of the best things about travelling in Asia is how affordable the food is. When I started tracking food expenses, I began to get a greater appreciation of how far my dollar can go simply for eating! In total my expenses for meals and snacks throughout my trip amounted to $722.93.
Miscellaneous Expenses ($144.74)
There were numerous activity and miscellaneous expenses I incurred on this trip. In total these expenses add up to $144.74. In general most of these expenses are either entrance fees (to an attraction or country in the case of the visa!) or internet connectivity fees.
The following are all the activity and miscellaneous expenses I tracked throughout my trip:
- Indonesia National Museum ($2.24)
- TeamLabs Planets ($26.88)
- Cup Noodles Museum ($9.56)
- Hakone Open Air Museum ($16.83)
- Hakodate Ropeway ($15.36)
- Airalo eSIM for Indonesia ($2.21)
- Ubigi eSim for Japan ($20.61)
- Airalo eSIM for USA ($6.06)
- Indonesian E-Visa ($44.99)
Totals
After adding everything up, we get a grand total of $3185.10.
Averaging this out over 20 days, we get an average cost of $159.26 per day.
Hopefully if you’re still reading to this point you’re finding this a little helpful or interesting! For me personally, I’m also comparing the averages across each trip I take to see what affects the cost of my trips and how I can streamline more in the future! If there is extra information you’d like to know, or have suggestions on how this can be done better, please feel free to drop a comment below and let me know!