Quick answer

Pad your budget for transport (many separate fares), tolls and parking if you drive, station lockers, entry fees, daily vending machine and konbini spends, and pricier sit-down meals if you're vegetarian.

Most people budget for flights, hotels and a rough daily food number. Then the final total comes in higher. Japan isn’t secretly expensive, it’s expensive in places you don’t plan for.

The short version:

  • Transport is lots of separate fares, and they add up.
  • Car days come with tolls, fuel and parking.
  • Station lockers can be pricey.
  • Small daily spends (vending machines, konbini) add up quietly.
  • Vegetarian meals often cost more, because options are fewer.

Transport: many systems, many fares

This is the big one. On our trip alone:

  • Airport train into Tokyo
  • Tokyo trains and subways
  • Odakyu Romancecar to Hakone
  • Hakone’s cable car, ropeway, pirate ship and local buses
  • Shinkansen Tokyo → Kanazawa
  • Buses in Kanazawa, and a bus to Kyoto
  • Two rental car days

Each has its own fare. First-timers budget “trains” as one number and get surprised.

Car days cost more than the rental

The rental fee is only part of it. Add:

  • Expressway tolls → small individually, a real number on longer drives.
  • Fuel.
  • Parking.

More in my driving guide.

Lockers and luggage

  • Station lockers → super useful, but large lockers or long hours get expensive.
  • Luggage forwarding → worth it, but priced per bag by size. Use it for the legs that need it.

Small spends, every single day

  • Vending machines → a drink here, a drink there. A couple of hundred yen each, several times a day.
  • Konbini → snacks, water, smoothies.
  • Entry fees → gardens, temples, viewpoints, ropeways. Each is small, together they deserve their own line.
  • Gachapon → you’ll have coins. You’ll use them.

Food costs more with dietary needs

We looked for vegetarian and Indian restaurants in every city. Indian and Nepali places were reliable, but generally pricier than what we’d pay for a regular meal in India. Sometimes we also travelled a bit further just to eat.

If you’re vegetarian, budget more for food than a generic guide suggests.

Rentals and forgotten stuff

  • Bicycle rental for a few hours.
  • Power bank rental (ChargeSPOT) when your battery dies.
  • An umbrella, a charging cable, something you forgot to pack.

What I’d tell you to do

Don’t build a spreadsheet down to the yen. Just pad two areas more than feels natural: transport and small daily purchases. Hotels and flights are usually priced right from the start, it’s the constant small spends that grow.