Money Matters
noffgurl
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Japan Trip
So H says he wants to go to Japan for his 30th bday which gives me 3 years of planning and saving. What should I know or do? Has anyone been? We've never been out of the country but have done several trips together so we don't even have passports at the moment.
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Re: Japan Trip
I visited a friend that was living in Tokyo in 2007. I also made a side trip to Kyoto while I was there. It was a great trip. Japan is very unique. Many people do not speak english but people are very polite and respectful. I felt very safe and that pick pocketing was a low risk, however I still traveled smart securing my passport and so forth.
Most of the time when I travel I like to take organized guided trips. Then you have to do very little planning. You can book an organized budget travel trip through companies like SmarTours, Gate1 travel or Cosmos. Check these out to get pricing ideas and see what the popular attractions are on their itineraries. If the guided tour looks like something you are interested in then sign up for their email lists to be alerted to special discounts.
We were surprised to find very few people who spoke English, so be aware of that. Men in business suits are your best bet if you are lost! High schoolers and young people will only giggle at you.
Another vote for if you are not familiar with the language, especially reading, to consider booking yourself on a tour because the guides can help you nagivate things.Sometimes when traveling you will spend just as much on a tour as you would if you do things yourself. If you figure out how much time you will invest researching locations, hotels, getting around, etc, it can be expensive, even if just time wise. My parents are going to California this summer on a tour and the money they are spending, they are actually getting to stay in nice hotels then they would normally get to because they are getting a group rate from the tour and they are looking forward to the idea of letting someone else do all the driving so they can both enjoy the views and not have to deal with figuring out traffic or parking.
I would start off going to a travel agency to get information on if you need to get any VISA's or other paperwork you'll need to do and just to give you an idea of pricing some recommended tours. Even if you don't go on a tour, it will give you an idea of pricing to expect.
Although I personally have not been, in a previous job had a number of coworkers who each went to Yokosuka a few times. They all said it was more boring than they expected it to be because it was just like any other big city. But, they were all fairly young guys (mid 20s), so perhaps take that with a grain of salt.
They also complained the hotel rooms are really small. On that issue, I had to call a Japanese hotel once because one of the employees was trying to hoodwink me. He claimed there were no rooms anywhere available for the per diem rate. So I called the hotel and was SUPER worried no one would speak English.
The person who answered the phone spoke English fluently, in fact he hardly had an accent. So maybe hotel personnel are more likely to speak English? Or maybe there are more English speakers in Yokosuka as opposed to other Japanese cities because there is a big US Navy base there.
At any rate, when I asked about the per diem issue, the hotel clerk told me there were plenty of per diem rate rooms available, but my coworker had reserved a larger, upgraded room. Ah ha! Caught him!
So I call the employee back and the real truth comes out. "But the per diem rooms are too small, their cramped, their uncomfortable, blah, blah." Tough cookies. He wants the better room, he has to pay the difference...which wasn't even a $20/night difference. And apparently they weren't such uncomfortable rooms that he chose that option...and this was hardly a guy barely scraping by.
Long story short...to an extent, big cities are big cities all over the world. Perhaps hotel clerks are more fluent in English. Small hotel rooms.
Speaking of per diem... and just a good general travel tip for everyone. Check out U.S. government per diem rates for whatever area you are interested in going to...whether domestic or international. They list both hotel per diem amounts as well as food per diem amounts.
I have dealt with per diems and expense reports A LOT over my career. And, believe it or not, those government per diem rates are very accurate. You can almost always find a decent, mid-priced hotel in a safe area for the same or under the listed per diem amount for that city/county/country.
The food per diem amount listed is, if anything, generous. But it will still give you the absolute max you will need to budget for eating 3 meals out..as long as you aren't going to 4-star and $100s/plate sushi restaurants
. Just keep in mind the food per diem is calculated for just one person.