Japan is an expensive place, and travelling inside the country can be costly, although there are some good ways to keep travel costs affordable. I recently suggested that anyone traveling inside Japan consider minshuku, a kind of local version of a youth hostel or a bed-and-breakfast that might offer a more authentically Japanese experience than lodgings picked from a guidebook for foreigners. There are some other inexpensive ways to stay in Japanese cities, too. Like the 24-hour saunas found near the train stations of most major urban areas, where you can take a really excellent bath and get hot in the sauna, then pull up a corner of floor and sleep in the “relaxation room” with a hundred or so other yukata-clad men. (Hope you don’t mind snoring.) Or try Japan’s famous capsule hotels, which give you a cozy space with everything you need except room to stand up in. Each will set you back around $35 a night, unbelievably cheap considering you’re in the middle of a big city like Tokyo. One note, the sauna establishments will be for men only, and 90% of the capsule hotels I’ve seen have also been male only, although a few do have a floor for women to stay on.
If you come to Japan, try staying in a “capsule hotel,” they’re fun!
