Kyoto

After arriving early morning in Kyoto fresh off the bus from Tokyo, I begin my 7 day tour of the Old Capital.
I'll be staying at a hostel that is part of the Khaosan chain. Yes you guessed it, Khaosan Kyoto! Now in my 3rd week of travelling, it's time I started to cut back on the spending, and really get into the "traveller" way. So I opted to stay in 10 bed mixed dormitory, and I won't be in a private room again until my last week.

A bed in the dormitory is costing me ¥2000 a night, so I'll be paying around £100.00 for my stay.
<- A picture taken from Khaosan Kyoto's HostelWorld page.
Visit them at HostelWorld or their own site.
I have a total of 7 nights in Kyoto, and I will be leaving on the 16th of June.

The Plan Video

Contact Me

Aside from contacting through the Personal Messaging systems on the various sites that I have listed myself on, please feel free to e-Mail me any other questions or comments you may have.
My address is: gaijinabroad@gmail.com


Please note that I reserve the right to publish and quote any mail sent to me, unless stated in the message itself.

Tokyo

I arrive by plane in Tokyo around noon on the 1st of July. Straight from Narita Airport I'll be heading to my hostel, the lovely looking Aizuya Inn in Taito-ku (http://www.aizuya-inn.com). Again I'm staying in a private single bed room, this time with a shared bathroom. You can straight away see the differences in prices between China and Japan though, as this room will cost me ¥2500 a night, which is about £20. Still, it is one of the better value places I'm staying.
<-- the common room of Aizuya Inn.
This hostel, like many others, has an attached kitchen/bar. It has a slightly different system though. The menu is priced in "coins", with each coin costing ¥100. So a beer is 5 coins, ie ¥500, and an "English" breakfast (including: toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, salad, a yoghurt and coffee or OJ) will cost another 5 coins. It's pretty cheap, less than £4.00 for all that food.
To get to the hostel, I'll take the Keisei Skyliner to Ueno, then hop on the Hibiya Line to Minami-Senju St.. From there, its a short walk to the hostel (or so I am told, this doesn't include getting lost and distractions).

I have 7 nights in Tokyo, this time around anyway. While in Tokyo, I'll mostly be using the famous subways to get around, and the seemingly best and easiest way to do this is use the Suica Card. For a deposit of ¥500, and then top-ups as and when you need it, you can easily swipe in and out of the stations. Very similar to London's Oyster Card.

Getting There & Back Again

A quick note before I start: flights are one of the most expensive things you will be paying for, so choose carefully. Also, look into any extras you can get like I did. And finally, keep in mind that not all seats are released at once, so the flight you saw two days ago probably won't be there again. If you see something exceptionally good value, book it immediately!

Getting to China
For a start, you need a visa to visit China. For information on getting a Chinese Visa, click here.
Now, to get to China, I am flynig with Air China. My flight departs from London Heathrow at 20:25 on the 27th of May, and lands at Beijing Capitol at 13.30 the next day (Ed.- all times are shown as local times). I think it's around an 8 hour flight, but I can't figure it out exactly due to the time differences.

Getting to Japan
Still flying with Air China, my flight leaves Beijing Capitol at 09:25 on the morning of the 1st of June. A few short hours later and I'll arrive in Tokyo Narita Airport at 13:55.

Getting Back Home
I have a two part journey back home, firstly to Beijing again and then back to London. I leave on the 29th of July
Firstly, my flight to Beijing leaves at 09:00 from Tokyo Narita, landing in Beijing at 11:55. I only have a couple of hours here, and my visa will have expired anyway, so I'll stay in the airport for this wait.
At 13:30 I jump on another flight, then straight through to London Heathrow, landing in Blighty at 17:45.

Costs & Other Details
All of my flights were included in one big package, and the total came to £596.73. The 4 nights in Beijing only cost me an extra £50.
I'm going to be travelling light, as my flights only allow me 20kg of baggage.
And as far as I can tell, I do get some food on the longer flights, though I don't know what it will be. But I love airplane food anyway :D.

Before You Leave

These are just a few thing I have learnt while passing time before I leave, and I give you this advice from my own experiences.

Before you start your gap year, consider carefully what you want to do. You'll have an entire year, make the most of it. By the time I leave, I will have spent about 9 months working nothing. It has been boring. Do as much as you can!!

Start saving now! I'm pushing the budget now, because I didn't start seriously saving until January. The minute you decide to travel, start saving, even if you don't know where you;re going yet.

Learn the language. My biggest worry when I get to Japan is that I won't be able to speak to anyone, and I'll end up lost and hungry. I know basically no Japanese beyond the very basics. So start learning now!!

Start planning as soon as possible. That way you can set yourself goals for money, and you know what you'll be doing/seeing/sleeping.

Have fun! Especially before you leave. Obviously the trip will be the time of your life, but don't let before that put it down!!

Beijing

I'm landing at Beijing International Capitol Airport (北京首都国际机场 Běijīng Shŏudū Guójì Jīchǎng). There are several ways of getting from the airport into the city centre, including several bus services, the Beijing Airport Express line(北京机场轨道交通线Běijīng Jīchǎng Guǐdào Jiāotōng xiàn), and of course dozens of taxis.

My hotel fortunately has an offer of picking customers up at the airport for CNY240 (Chiniese Yuan Renminbi), which is about £22.

The hotel I am staying at is Beijing Leo Courtyard & Leo Hostel 2 (I think at some point they merged two hostels into one). It’s an old style hostel, and looks a lot like something you’d get in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

<-- Leo Courtyard er courtyard

The best thing about the Leo Hostels, and most other hostels in Beijing, is the price! I’m staying in a single-bed, private room with an en-suite bathroom, and it’s only £6.00 a night!

I have already paid £4.40 in deposit for the room, and I am to pay CNY216.00 on arrival! That’s only £20.00!

Here’s a link for that hostel: http://www.leohostel.com/. The Leo Hostel Group is also listed on http://www.hostelworld.com, which I used to book all of my accommodation.

I’m staying in Beijing for 4 nights from the 28th of May until the 1st of June, when I hop on a plane to Tokyo.