Japan Budget Travel

Japan is not known for being the cheapest of countries. Anyone who's been on the road for a long time knows that the travel expenses quickly adds up an constitutes a major part of ones budget. Having been more or less on the road for a year now my budget was already shoot by the time I hit Japan. Not wanting to waste the ticket to Japan as Finnair won't let you change dates or name on their tickets I decided to go anyway. For some quick cash I sold my old ski gear I bought in San Francisco a few years back (with a profit) and decided to go into credit card debit. Hopefully I'll get a new job soon huh ;)

The absolutely cheapest way to get around in Japan is hitchhiking which is a valid way to travel if you have a more flexible time schedule. For me this was not really an option as I had dates booked where I had to meet old friends. This left me with the three other options buses, trains and planes. There is also the option of renting a car but it's not really economically valid traveling alone for most of the time. From outside Japan there is the Japan air-pass, Japan Rail Pass and the Japan Buss Pass. However The Willer Express Buss Pass can be bought online from outside of Japan. http://willerexpress.com
This is the absolutely chepset way of getting around long distances for cheap. The drawback being you need to access the site from abroad. Already being in Japan I fixed this using a proxy in france to emulate me being out of the country.
I used this french free site to do it. http://www.frozenway.com/
Just use Google translate if you can't read it. It's free and easy to just follow the steps. In fact they don't ask you to verify the travelers name by means of id at the buses and although it says to print out a piece of paper you get in the mail this can be skipped too.
As the days of travel in this buss pass are not required to used consecutively it's a very very good deal. Sadly I did't find out about it until the later part of japan trip.
One thing one can consider are the night buses. If sleeping on a buss doesn't bother you also save a night accommodation here.

Traveling a region of Japan at the time can also give your purse a bit of mercy. For example the Kyushu buss pass is a very valid alternative to single tickets if one tends to travel fast and light. There are however a range of tickets available online at very discounted prices if you can muster navigation the Japanese websites.

Getting to and from the islands can't really be done by buss so I tried both the ferry and by air. By air being the cheaper option to reach Okinawa from the mainland. it's 14000 yen for the cheapest ticket by ferry and less by air. If you buy you flights in advance using the Japan air pass it's a very good deal. Otherwise use Sky mark the new Japanese budget airline for some good deals. The further ahead you book, the better the deals in general with sky mark.

Getting around on the main island of Okinawa will require a lot of local buses or hitchhiking. Here renting a car for the day can be cheaper than the buss option. From Naha to the ocean aquarium in the north and back will easily be much more expensive than renting a small car and drive around yourself.

Beware of the dangers outside the BOX.

I was lucky enough to time my arrival in sigapore with the opening of a new terminal at woodlands trainstation. But I was a little dissapointed by the meagere lavishness decorating the welcoming of Singaporean ministers on their walkthrough at the station. Compaired to the general attiere of suits and gray cameramen I was definetly a illuminator with my colorful day-pack, bumming past in my newly attaind quickslivers slippers. Maybe these won't get stolen as fast as my "brand" ones. Then again it is a totally plausible to expect slipper thives to be illitarete. Maybe I have to take care of these anyway.
"Mafa la" as they say here in Singapore. (originally an Chinese expression of boring but is also used as an expression of tiring in Malaysia and Singapore)

The easiest way to get around on a budget is using the MRT and the Buses. If visiting for more than a day or two I'd recomend getting a electronic ticket card that you can top up instead of single tickets. It's a few dollars more expensive but it's very nice to have. Specially when there are lines to the ticketing machines or on buses where you otherwhise need exact change. One of these cards can be aquired through any ticket counter at the MRT.

On the topic of public transportation though the neighboring countries could really pick up a few hints. Besides having a modern transportation system where people actually manages to get on and off, most of the time, they also exhibit a range of maps and other services that makes life easier getting around. The best part is however the ridiculeous zealously when it comes to signs and telling pople what to do. It is quite obvious it's a Chinese run state. Like a Chinese parent who likes you and wants to take care of you, like the little child you are. The singaporian government kindly explains where to go, where to eat, where to sit, where to stand, how to stand, where not to stand and a whole range of other funny things all within box life.

Like a good parent the singaporian government also want to make sure you don't speak no evil, hear no eavil or do no evil. Providing free wifi in most public places is the wireless@sg wifi network. To register one has to have a local number in most cases. To aquire a local number one needs to buy one and registering it with ones passport at the same time. It is possible to register a user with a forign number at certain location. One of these is the changi airport. So if you are ever around it might be a good idea to take care of this before you leave the airport. The cheapest prepaid phone number is 8 dollars and can be provided by either Starhub or Singtel. In most shops these are "sold out" but I'm not sure if it's only cause of the very "limited edition" of these allegedly existing cards. The more comon ones are the 15 and 18 dollar ones.

I recently heard of a Swedish guy and a Chinese girl who studied in Singapore. Getting a bit too drunk and loosing a bet they went outside naked for a prank. It's a good thing that the Singaporean government didn't overreact and only kicked them out of the country. I mean, such heinous criminal acts should at least been met with some caning.. Good thing they never caught me, Mowhaha.