Here’s a link to the Tokyo post.
This time we will be in the lovely mountain town known as Fujikawaguchiko. It sits at the base of Mt Fuji-san and is the most traveled spot for tourists and climbers coming to stay in the shadow of Japan’s highest mountain. So for the sake of readers, I will generalize this post as how much it costs to stay near Mt Fuji, although there are a few other areas that you could be.
This post will be assuming a 100 yen = $1 exchange rate, which makes the math easier for everybody. I’ll be using USD because I’m from the States.
This post also includes the cost of buying gear for climbing Fuji-san, which blows it out of proportion compared to somebody just coming here for the view.
My overall cost staying near Mt Fuji-san was $110 / day.
My average night cost $30 staying exclusively at hostels and one capsule hotel. The most expensive hostel room was $36 and the least expensive was $28. The capsule hotel cost $25.
My average meal in the town cost $8, but it’s much easier to go over that, since it is a tourist town and has some very expensive restaurants. The cheapest meal was $6 that I saw.
My cost of climbing Fuji-san was about $120, mostly due to being ill-prepared. I paid $60 for a sweatshirt and $15 for gloves at the fifth station. I brought about $10 worth of food and drink, and a $10 walking stick. And then I spent about $25 on the way up on food, drink, and bathrooms.
I frequented cafes while I was there, and the ko hi (coffee) was rather expensive, much like the States, averaging at $5 a cup of coffee. The most I paid was at this one I liked a lot due to them having outlets available (surprisingly hard to find), where a coffee and a hot dog amounted to about $14.
So, if you were to factor out the unprepared Fuji-san climb, and reduce the amount of cafe visits, I could have stayed near Mt Fuji for $77/day.
Theoretically, with an average hostel costing $30, and the average meal costing $8, you should be able to stay here for $54/day at the absolute bare minimum.
That’s it for this week. Next will be Kyoto! Thanks for reading!