NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - Nerdy Travel Diaries: Scrimping and Splurging in Japan

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Traveling to Japan can be both expensive and intimidating — but it doesn’t have to be. In this episode of our Nerdy Travel Diaries series, NerdWallet travel writer Sam Kemmis shares how he crafted a vacation in Tokyo that included both luxury amenities and cost-saving travel hacks. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [e-mail]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend.

Welcome to the NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast, where we usually answer your personal finance questions and help you feel a little smarter about what you do with your money. I'm Sean Piles. This episode, we are continuing our Travel Diaries series, where we'll hear stories from our travel nerds about the trips they've taken and the money they've saved along the way. This episode's story comes from NerdWallet travel writer Sam Chemis, who's here to share the details of his trip to Japan and pass along some advice about how you can use points and miles to splurge for international travel once you're ready to get back out there. Also, a quick heads up, we mentioned some companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode, but that doesn't influence how we talk about them. All right,

welcome back to the podcast, Sam. Thank you so much. It's great to be here. Great to have you, of course. And on another podcast, we talked about how you lived in a weird imported Japanese van. And now we are talking about your trip to Japan. I'm getting the feeling that you are a big fan of Japan. Yeah, that's right. And why is that? Well, Japan is just so Japanese is what I like to say. It just feels so different from the rest of the world. That's why you travel, right? You go somewhere else because you want to experience something different.

And I feel like Japan does that to an extent that lots of other places don't. Globalization hasn't bled into Japan in the same way that it has in lots of other places. It's very culturally and geographically distinct, basically. Exactly. I also love walking. That's like my favorite thing to do when traveling and Tokyo especially is just one of the great walking cities of the world. Yeah, we could spend a lifetime walking in that city and never see everything. Totally. Well, I have to admit, I wanted to go to Japan for for a long time i had plans to do so in summer of 2020

and then i'm sure you understand that that didn't quite happen and i haven't had a chance to make it back or even plan a trip out there so i'm very much looking forward to hearing your tips for navigating japan and doing so in a way that isn't extremely expensive but before we get into that i want to talk with you about getting around japan because I've heard that it can be kind of difficult to communicate without speaking Japanese. What was your experience with that? Yeah, I at one point tried to learn Japanese and like totally failed. But this is the thing. Japanese people on the whole, in my experience, are so friendly and eager to help that it overcomes whatever language barrier is there. If you're

trying to ask an old man at the train station where to go, he'll grab your phone and point on Google Maps and have a big smile on his face. I mean, not always, but you know, often enough that it really like overcomes a lot of that fear you might have of imposing on someone because you don't speak their language. I feel like at this point, kindness and also phone software are both international languages. So if you have both of those at hand, it'll take you pretty far when you're traveling internationally. Yeah, totally.

Also, Google Translate is super cool. Now you can just say something into it and it'll say it in Japanese and someone will understand you. Yeah, well, you can even do that with something that's on a sign. You can take a picture of what's on the sign and it will translate it to your language. So that's pretty handy. Well, let's get into some of the travel specifics and see what we can learn from your strategy. And big picture, what was your thought process around using points and miles to travel to and within Japan? I was taking a three-week trip and I wanted

to make it a somewhat luxurious trip like I wanted to fly first class or business class if I could but I didn't have enough points and miles to take a three-week luxurious trip so I used this approach that I call scrimping and splurging. Okay, scrimping and splurging. Please elaborate on what that means. I'm going to take another step back, but we're going to get to personal finance eventually, I promise. Okay. I'm a big believer in the psychological idea called the hedonic treadmill. And basically, that's this idea that whatever gives us pleasure, whether it's like ice cream or a fancy hotel room, stops giving us that much pleasure the more we experience it. And then we need something even nicer, even sweeter,

even better to make us feel that pleasure. So, that's the hedonic treadmill. Okay. So, you're basically never satisfied by what you have after a certain amount of having it. Yes, exactly. If I were a Buddhist monk, I would be like, oh, I'll just be very simple and I'll be happy with what I have. But I'll admit, I really like luxury travel. I really enjoy a nice hotel room or a nice flight. So, I kind of square that circle by going back and forth between really luxurious experiences and really simple experiences. And I find that that resets my expectations that gets me off the hedonic treadmill for a second and lets me catch my breath. So that's scrimping and splurging.

I imagine that even beyond just the psychological aspect of being able to appreciate the luxurious things that you're enjoying, it makes a lot more sense financially as well to not be spending a lot of money on luxury hotels every single night. It just is a lot more feasible to travel this way. Yep, totally. And it applies to travel and it applies to all sorts of parts of your life. Like if you go out to eat every day, you'll start to notice you're not enjoying the food as much. Well, let's get into the trip. I want to talk about the hotels that you stayed at. Were you scrimping or splurging with your accommodations? So right when I landed, and this is one of the big questions, do you splurge right when you land and you're jet lagged?

Or do you splurge once you've adjusted? And I tend to splurge when I'm jet lagged because that's when I want to spend as much time in my bed as I can. And I'm just not going out as much. You need to be pampered and comforted. Exactly. So I stayed at this spot called the Ondas Tokyo. I don't know if you're familiar with Ondas. It's actually like a Hyatt

property. It's like their young, bougie luxury brand. Kind of millennial oriented, trendy spot. Yes, totally. And I used Hyatt points for this that I had transferred from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account. So I think it was 20,000 Hyatt points and that's a one-to-one transfer ratio. And that got me about a value per point of 2.3 cents, which we're getting like very nerdy right now, but it's pretty good. I like made sure I got a good value on my points. And what really stood out for you about this property that made you say, I have to stay here? It was just the Ondas brand. I like staying there. But then once I got there, they had this awesome gym that was like at the very top of the skyscraper that it was in. And it looked out over the whole city. And I found that because I was jet lagged, I was waking up

at four in the morning and there was nothing to do. Nothing was open. So I was like, okay, I guess I'll go to the gym and I would be the only one there. And I had this awesome view of the sun coming up over Tokyo. So that was a real highlight, but not one that I anticipated. So it seems like that was a splurge, but also you were using points. So it wasn't really dollars out of your bank account. It was just points being used. Yeah, totally. And then I also scrimped, but I paid cash for that. I had a hard time in Tokyo, especially finding a really good deal. They're definitely out there, but just for my travel dates or whatever.

So I used cash for my scrimping, but it turned out that because I did that, I got to have a really awesome experience. Oh, yeah? Yeah. So I stayed at a capsule hotel. Have you heard of these? Oh, so you stay in like a tiny little pod of a room, essentially. It's not like a pod. People think it's like the Matrix. You're just sealed into like a coffin or whatever. It's just like a room that's half as tall as a normal room. And someone is living

directly above you. And you have just enough room to lay down and watch TV, but you can't stand up. This does sound like the Matrix to me. It does. It doesn't like seal closed. They don't just lock you in there for the night. It's just sort of open air on the end. And so you like go out into the hallway. It's basically like a barracks, but the bunk beds are kind of sealed. And do you have your own room? Or are there people also staying in pods in the same open space as you? What is that like? Yeah, it's not totally an open space. But there are these pods stacked on top of each other

that everyone's just climbing into. So they give you little slippers and you wear the slippers up to your little room. You take the slippers off and you climb into your little pod and you sit and watch TV or lay down or whatever. But then there's a common bathroom and all of that sort of stuff. This seems like some extreme scrimping. I'm not sure if I would be able to do something like that because I wonder about privacy and we're still in the age of COVID. Do you think that you would feel safe doing something like this nowadays? Yeah, it was definitely pre-COVID. I know it sounds like a little out there now. That would be the last thing you would want to do is just get in one giant room with a bunch of people. I went into it being like, oh, I'm just going to have to get through this. But weirdly,

when I talk to people about my trip, it was so much more of a highlight and so much more of a thing to talk about than the luxury, the non-dos was. Just because people want to ask just like you're doing. They have all sorts of questions about how it works and whatever. Well, going back to your original point about you loving Japan because it's so very Japanese, you can stay in a luxury hotel anywhere and it's going to have nice accommodations, great comforters, pillows, etc. But you're not going to find a capsule hotel everywhere you go. Exactly. So much of it was so Japanese because it was full of businessmen who would all just get trashed and then show up at two in the morning and then wake up at 6am to go to their jobs. So whenever I was

there, there was nobody there. You would maybe just hear them come back late at night. Yeah, exactly. So I know that Tokyo and Japan just have an enormous amount to see more than you could ever see in a lifetime, let alone one trip. Was there one main activity or thing that was your draw to Tokyo on this trip? Yeah, I'm like the worst sightseer in the world. I'm so bad at picking out landmarks to OC. But in this case, I actually was drawn to some of the bigger Shinto temples in Tokyo. And what are those? It was an early religion in Japan, and some people practice it. And if you've ever seen,

they have like a very distinctive arch that goes into them. There is an emoji for it, which is how you may know of it. And they just have this extremely calm energy to them. They often have manicured Japanese gardens that are associated with them. You do this little thing when you walk in where you wash your hands in a particular way. And I don't have any personal connection to like Shinto as a religion, but similarly to visiting any temple, anyone in the world that gives you an insight into how people were or are practicing their religion. It sounds very serene. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've been really wanting to go to Harajuku in Japan, in Tokyo. Have you ever been there?

Oh yeah, I go every time. It's such a trip. I love it. It's teen pop, ultra plastic anime, weird skirts, weird costumes. All of that stuff is concentrated in this one neighborhood that you can just go it's half people who are there being harajuku people and have people who are there taking pictures of those like you basically exactly but it manages to maintain its vibe despite that like despite all the tourism it's like such a strong vibe and it's just such a fun vibe. There's like, if you're into like Pokemon or not, or like just

like weird Japanese snacks, it's all happening there. Sounds like my dream. Okay, cool. Well, let's talk about flights for a little bit. Is it fair to assume that you splurged on flights in at least one direction? I did. And you nailed it how I did it, which was I knew I didn't have enough to go first class both ways. So I had to figure out whether I wanted to go there or back using miles. I was using Alaska Airlines miles. They have really good partnerships with both Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific and a bunch of other programs. But those are the ones that I was targeting for going to Japan. The problem was that the availability on both of those airlines only showed up like two weeks before the flight. How did you navigate that? Just like logistically, how'm going to target these three weeks. And I'm just going to wait until before then and see what pops up. And I'm just going to book whatever works. Usually you would like book your flight and then go on those dates. But it was more I'm going to wait and see what flight happens and then take it. So I ended up finding a JL Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo back to New York in first class, which costs 60,000 Alaska Airlines miles, which is a lot.

But those flights are like $6,000 cash. Yeah, no way. Pretty cool. How long did it take you to rack up those points? I'm always curious about that because you spend it all on one big thing. And then is it taking you two years to get back up to 60,000 points? What's your process? It totally depends. Alaska Airlines miles are like notoriously difficult to get. It's very hard to like transfer points to them or anything. So there's not a lot

of workarounds. They do have a really good credit card that offers a signup bonus that changes, but is usually in that ballpark. So I don't remember exactly how I got those, but I bet it was a signup offer. But then I also took an Emirates business class flight. It was a mistake fare flight where like they mispriced it. So I got it for like 1200 bucks. It was a business class flight to New Zealand. And so you get a ton of Alaska miles if you fly Emirates first or business class and attribute it to your Alaska mileage plan account. So I know I got a bunch of miles from that too. But yeah, if you're not traveling that much, not spending that much on credit cards or whatever, it can take a long time to get that many. Right. I imagine so. Okay. Well, let's move on to other budget travel tips that

you have for exploring Tokyo. What can you tell us, Sam? Overall, I recommend a scrimp and splurge approach. Tokyo has more Michelin starred restaurants than anywhere in the world, I believe. But you can't go to the mall and a lot of them cost a lot of money. So I recommend just targeting one or two, hitting those up. I went to this tempura place in Osaka that it was like the bajillionth generation that this family had been making tempura in this one spot. It was incredible. I can now say I've had the best tempura that exists on the planet. So I got to do that. But then the rest of the time, I have all sorts of recommendations for cheap food in Japan. And there's really fun options. They have vending

machine restaurants. Have you heard of these? I know they have a lot of different types of vending machines. You can get almost anything from one, but I haven options. They have vending machine restaurants. Have you heard of these? I know they have a lot of different types of vending machines. You can get almost anything from one, but I haven't heard about a vending machine restaurant. Basically, you just pick your food and pay at a vending machine outside the restaurant, and then it gives you a little ticket, and then you just hand that inside, and then they just give you your food, which is super bare bones, but it's actually great if you don't speak the language that well, because you can sit outside using your phone on the vending machine to be like, okay, what is this thing? What is this thing? Whereas if you had a waiter there trying to

ask you what you wanted, it's actually a little bit more stressful. And then the food is super cheap. So it's basically like an ordering mechanism as opposed to food just dropping out of this machine. Yeah, totally. I did go to a conveyor belt sushi place in Tokyo where you actually ordered on an iPad that was there and then it would like zoom out on these little magnetic skates. Your sushi would just be like, right after you ordered it. It was amazing. It was like a great Instagram thing because you got to do the little video of here's me ordering it coming toward you. Yeah, totally. So cool. Okay, I'm huge on ramen. I would love to hear your tips for getting good ramen, but also affordable ramen. Do you want to splurge on that? Maybe what are your thoughts? I've never splurged too much on ramen.

It's definitely like the pizza of Japan. it's everywhere it's mostly good everywhere but then also it varies quite a bit from region to region so i think in tokyo i could be getting this wrong i hope someone emails me and tells me how wrong i am about this i just think it's show you uh ramen in tokyo or as other styles in different places so i just recommend trying it all and it has a similar vibe to the vending machine restaurants in a lot of places where you're often just in like a little booth. There's business men and women all around you. They're all just slurping on their ramen. You just write on a little card, you hand it to someone and then they just hand you your ramen. So I love that because I'm like an introvert. So I could just go and get my ramen and not have to worry about

interacting. Do you have any other general tips about traveling around Japan? So the big one that I wish someone had told me the first time I went to Japan is that it's rude to eat on the street in Japan. I didn't learn this until my fourth trip there when I was eating something and a very kind English speaking person came up to me and said, actually, you're not really supposed to eat on the street here. I was just like, got something at 7-Eleven or whatever. Whereas Americans were always snacking everywhere we go. Yes, exactly. And then you see other Americans doing it and you're like, how dare they? Now that you know, of course. Exactly. Exactly. So Sam, do you have any final budget tips for folks who want to travel around Japan?

Yes. My biggest one is a lot of people who are going for a couple of weeks try to like see Japan and there's just too much to see. And it's very easy to just spend that whole time traveling between cities. I really highly recommend

just sticking with one or maybe two cities. You could spend three years in Tokyo and barely scratch the surface. So yeah, less is more when it comes to Japan. My final and most important tip, if you take nothing else away, take this, Sean. You should eat egg salad sandwiches at 7-Eleven. I'm skeptical for some reason. I feel like that's a great way to get sick. No, they're great they're

cheap they're like the best egg salad sandwiches you've ever had they cut off the crusts they're so good listen no one believes me but you're gonna go you're gonna have the egg salad sandwich well sam give us your takeaway tips for travel yeah so in general i scrimp and splurge and that means flipping between luxury and budget travel on the same trip, whether you're paying with cash or points and miles, same thing. And then let the deals decide. If you can be ultra flexible, especially with award travel, booking with miles, it lets you jump on what's available when it appears

rather than trying to make it appear when you want to travel. And it's kind of fun. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Thanks. And that's all we have for this episode. Do you have any travel or money questions of your own? Turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. Also, visit nerdwallet.com slash podcast for more info on this episode. And remember to follow, rate, and review us wherever you're getting this episode. And here is our brief disclaimer thoughtfully crafted by NerdWallet's legal team. Your questions are answered by knowledgeable and

talented finance writers, but we are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances. And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.