Planning

The most important part of the planning is the budget. You need to know how much money you are going to spend, and plan your saving as early as possible. A year or more ahead is the most recommended time frame to start saving for the trip.

The budget largely depends on the length of the stay, so let’s discuss that first.

Length of stay

Japan is quite expensive to get to. Australians might fare better than the rest of us, but for those coming from Europe or America, the flight cost is considerable.

Training in Japan is different than your normal training. You’ll train much more, and be doing little else. You’ll need your rest time too. It’ll take your body time to get used to the pace (between 4 days to a week for most people).

Therefore, the bare minimum length of stay, in my opinion, is two weeks. Assuming you have other commitments, you probably won’t be able to afford more than 4 weeks.

I believe 3 or 4 weeks is the sweet spot for such a visit. It gives you enough time to get over the jet lag, relax into the schedule, understand the culture, spread the cost of the plane ticket, and get more benefit overall for your visit.

Budget

As a rule of thumb, you should plan for $120 CAD (around $100 USD or 10,000 JPY) per day of your stay. That includes everything, including flights. You might be able to settle for less, but not by much. You could spend much more, but you probably won’t have to.

Here’s the breakdown, strongly biased for my visit. Please send me yours, and I will factor it in to get an unbiased average.

Prices are given mostly in JPY, and loosely converted at the end. Get used to thinking in JPY (Japanese Yen) (see also Money)

  • Length of my stay: 28 days

  • Cost of flight: $1000 CAD

  • Housing: 4000 JPY per day

  • Groceries: 800 JPY per day

  • Restaurants: 500 per day on average

  • Alcohol: 500 JPY per day

  • Internet: Varies, about 100 JPY per day

  • Trains/Buses: 500 JPY per day

  • Classes: 500 JPY per day

Total: about 6900 JPY per day (around $85 CAD), average in the flight, and it’s about $120 CAD per day. The flight will cost more per day if you stay less.

In addition be ready to spend about $1000 more, for any additional event (flight or train to a remote seminar, grading fees, a visit to a remote dojo, sightseeing etc)

This is only a rule of thumb to help you prepare a saving plan ahead of your trip.

Below is a simple calculator that can help you find the right cost for your trip. It is based upon the above values. Enter the exchange rate (USD to JPY), the planned length of your stay, and the estimated cost of the flight.

You can also access the calculator here.

Personal Experience

Here are my own totals for a trip of me and my daughter in 2016. This includes everything - gifts, alcohol, grading etc. This specific trip included a weekend visit to Matsuyama (air fare + hotel ~ 80,000 JPY) and shodan grading fees (30,000 JPY).

Unless mentioned otherwise, all prices are in CAD.

  • Persons: 2

  • Days: 28

  • Flight: $2030.70

  • Visa (cash): $1,308.25 (100,000 JPY) + $7.50 + $1.65

  • Visa (Phone Rental): $71.72 (5,376 JPY)

  • ATM:

    • Oct 17: $850.08 (50,000 JPY) + $2.00

    • Oct 17: -$206.14 - $0.02 (Rate adjustment)

    • Oct 18: $846.18 (50,000 JPY) + $2.00

    • Oct 17: -$204.01 - $0.02 (Rate adjustment)

    • Oct 19: $642.07 (50,000 JPY) + $2.00

    • Oct 20: $643.04 (50,000 JPY) + $2.00

    • Oct 20: $646.64 (50,000 JPY) + $2.00

    • Oct 30: $647.56 (50,000 JPY) + $2.00

    • Nov 09: $131.94 (10,000 JPY) + $2.00

  • Total Cash: $5305.58 (410,000 JPY)+ $23.11

  • Total: $7431.11

  • Total per person per day: $132.70

  • Daily expenses per person: 7,321 JPY

Season

I have no first hand experience, but from what I’ve heard, the best season to visit is probably the fall, around October/November. It’s not too hot most of the time, and doesn’t get too cold, and humidity is fairly low.

Visa/Border crossing

Please check ahead of time if you require special visa to japan based on your passport.

At the border, they might ask you for the purpose of your stay. You can definitely say that you are studying Aikido and that this is the purpose of your visit.

Most often than not though, they will not ask anything.

Prepare for up to an hour wait at the passport control.