So today I wanted to discuss how to maintain a reasonable budget during your study abroad. It can be incredibly tempting to want to travel around your host country, try lots of new foods, buy lots of gifts for your friends and family back home, etc. I completely understand all the temptation, it's a once in a lifetime experience and you don't want to miss out on even the smallest thing. Now, I've been hearing the other international students here talking about how they've been going into Tokyo almost every weekend, that is crazy to me! For perspective, Yamanashi is a couple hours outside of Tokyo and takes at least 2,000 yen or more for train fare there and back, If you aren't familiar with currency exchange rates for yen, it's about $40 USD... Every weekend. No way! Plus Tokyo is a huge attraction, lots of shops, places to eat, etc. So after hearing a few stories from the other internationals about how often they've been travelling and how much stuff they're buying, I'm shocked that they can afford to be here. This brings me to my topic, budgets.
*To make things simple, if I'm using $/dollars I mean US currency, if I use Yen, it means Japanese currency*
Myself personally, I've spent a lot of money to be here already and I'm working hard to remain frugal without compromising my experiences. How am I going about this you may ask? Well that's what I'm here to share! I've taken into account the amount of time I will be here in Japan, approximately 4 months. I've got about $500 USD (after inital travel fare from Haneda airport to YGU's campus and a small fee I had to pay the admin office.) Let's just say $500 to make things easy. I set aside $100 dollars for each month, which leaves me with an extra hundred at the end to get gifts for all my loved ones back home. $100 dollars a month, about 11,000 yen, not too hard to maintain.
When you first arrive to Japan you'll probably be overwhelmed by how cheap things seem, you may get a case of conversion syndrome as I've started calling it. That is to say you'll look at the cost of something and go "WOW! 100 Yen?! That's only like one dollar in the States!", but be warned, it adds up really quickly! One big recommendation I'd give for anyone coming to Japan: AVOID CONVENIENCE STORES! Of course they're convenient, and they're everywhere, they may seem cheap at first too, but you will waste a lot of money shopping there. YGU has a convenience store right next to campus, and I only ever go there to get something I can't get at supermarkets (ie. a doughnut). On that note, find a grocery store near campus, they're pretty common, there are 2 grocery stores only a short walk from YGU, as well as, a 100 Yen (the equivalent of a $1 store back home) shop, drug stores, etc. that are so much cheaper.
Another important point, I'm not saying don't go out to big attractions like Tokyo, but be smart about it. Try to plan a weekend out if you can find a cheap little ryokan or hostel to rent for a night or two. Try to limit how often you're paying for trains while maximizing your time in the city. One thing that a lot of the students here can't seem to accept is that you don't have to be going out and doing something extravagant every weekend, sometimes you can just take a little stroll around town, stop in a store and look around, you don't have to be spending money and being in Japan does NOT have to be expensive. If your host university offers a meal plan, spring for the 7-day option if available, it may seem pricey, but it'll save you so much to not be eating out every weekend, then you can pick and choose when to treat yourself out at a restaurant without worrying about how much money you have left.
I've been in Japan for just over a month and I'm having no problems keeping on budget, on the contrary, I actually have about 5,000 Yen left over from September, that's almost half of the money I allotted for the month. I've gone out to restaurants, bought myself some groceries (cereal, bread, jam, snacks, etc.) I've been to Kofu and an art museum too. I'm not missing out by any means, but I'm not breaking my bank either. I'm in the process of planning a trip to Tokyo for Halloween weekend, so I'll be back soon with more from my adventures in Japan!
Until then, jaa ne!
Julia.
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