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Japan as a digital nomad destination? Anything is possible.

March 29, 2018 by David James Leave a Comment

I’ve been looking into staying in Japan for a while now. The thing that has always put me off with Japan as a digital nomad destination is the cost. But when I actually looked into the way to live in Japan as a digital nomad, it is actually feasible if you adopt a different strategy.

Admittedly, it isn’t going to be as cheap as going to Thailand, Cambodia or Indonesia. However, if you want to enjoy Japanese culture without breaking the bank, it can be done if you are prepared to be a bit creative and consider some slightly different lifestyle choices to make the stay more affordable.

I’ve shared as much information as I can based on the research that I’ve conducted. You can also use the table of contents to navigate to a specific topic in the post.

Accommodation.

The most expensive thing that sticks out with Japan is accommodation. Rental prices for places in Tokyo is expensive even to the locals. So many opt to live in suburbs that are outside of the city.

Depending on your budget, you can adopt a similar approach as well.

The best deals will be outside of Tokyo. But it is important to remember that many of the attractions that you want to see can be accessed by train from many of the satellite cities.

Another thing is if you want to go for the cultural experience, much of the authentic Japanese culture is more prominent in cities and towns such as Kyoto (which is the old Japanese capital city) and Nara. You could opt to stay in either of those locations or Osaka, which is the second largest city in Japan.

How much should you budget for accommodation?

If I travel solo and want to stay in hostels, I will aim for accommodation at $30AUD a night or less. But to be productive and to also enjoy some of the luxuries such as a private shower and a private room, $50-80 a night is more optimistic.

It depends how you want to travel. I’ve found a few different accommodation options available across Japan.

Renting an entire place.
Renting a room.
Renting a tent.
Renting a capsule.
Renting a bed in a hostel.

I’ve found that the cost can vary depending on the type of accommodation and the location in which you stay. I’ve seen some places for as low as $800AUD a month, whereas some other accommodation options can be over $4000 a month.

I found some of the best deals on Airbnb. These were good if you wanted to travel around Japan more slowly and even stay with locals. I’ve shared a link to my wishlist of the places that I found in different cities in Japan.

Alternatively, if you want to go more with the ‘hostel’ or ‘hotel’ experience, you can do a search on Agoda to find and compare deals. For hostels, you should be able to find deals from around $20/night for a bed. Whereas hotels may cost around $50+ per night.

Note – There are quite a few love hotels listed on the site. Whilst they look nice, they are for one primary purpose and tend to have a smoky smell. So when making your comparisons, make sure you read the reviews of the hotel before making a booking.

Which place would I choose?

I actually wanted to choose locations based around Kyoto or in the Japanese suburban towns or countryside. It also depends on the time of the year that you want to visit Japan. I would personally visit Nara and Kyoto any time of the year, but preferably around April to catch Sakura, which is the cherry blossom season. (Use this link to see the forecast times of the Cherry blossom season).

I would make trips from Kyoto to the other cities and locations in Japan. When I went to Japan previously, I travelled from Tokyo. Tokyo is a great city, but if you want to experience more than just the ‘city life’, it’s better to base yourself in another location where it is easy to commute to many of the authentic ‘Japanese’ landmarks and attractions. I would personally recommend being based around Kyoto, Nara, Osaka or Nagoya. That way, if you have intercity bus passes or the JR rail pass, you will be able to see more and save on your travelling time.

What would be included in the accommodation?

I always look for accommodation that includes utilities and internet connection. I also hope to have cooking facilities so I can prepare my own meals in the accommodation. If the host can provide a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, that is an additional bonus as I can go outside of the accommodation and work remotely from a location of my choosing.

How much should I budget for food?

If you eat at home, your grocery bill should come to $50-100AUD per week. There are different ways you can eat for cheap. If you head to the supermarket and purchase items in bulk, you should be able to eat inexpensively. You can then add a budget for eating out.

I’ve shared a useful video and some links that can help you with food budgeting and planning, whilst travelling in Japan.

How to be a frugal foodie in Japan.

30 Cheap but delicious restaurants in Japan.

Japan for cheapskates: Eat on the cheap.

What about entertainment?

In my case, there are many things in Japan that I would enjoy for free. I enjoy photography and videography, as well as walking around and admiring landmarks. If I wanted, I could hire a bicycle and explore the country more, which would be relatively inexpensive. However, it is always good to treat yourself from time to time.

Eating out

If I want to have an inexpensive meal, Sukiya and Yoshinoya were hard to beat. Although they are the fast food equivalents of Japanese food, the cost of a meal will often be around $8AUD or less. You can also find suggestions using the site Tabelog. If you are vegetarian, vegan or have certain food requirements, you can use Happy Cow to find other restaurant options along with their reviews.

Things to do

The Japan National Tourism Organisation has also provided a list of free activities tourists can enjoy whilst visiting Japan.

You can also use the following apps to find activities on in Japan.

Tokyo Insight – The mobile version of Japantoday.com, one of the leading English magazines
Odigo Japan – User-generated tips and verified locations with a customizable drag and drop trip planner.
Best Living Japan – Great local events, such as flea markets and antique weekends that make up a truly authentic cultural experience
Japan Travel Guide With Me – An offline travel guide (think e-travel book), which recommends places around the country in relation to your current location and includes articles on sights and attractions.
Triposo – Japan Mini Guides, available for Android and iPhones
Goodluck Trip Japan
As a final tip, all the districts in Tokyo have a local cultural map guide that is free and available at the Ward Office. These are usually in Japanese, but some have English, and have great walking courses and introductions of local historical sites that are non-commercial.

(Note – These suggestions were originally published by Athena Lam on Cup on the Road)

Some other sites that are helpful include:

Timeout – Tokyo

Japan visitor

Japan times

Getting around.

Train (Shinkansen/Bullet Train)

If you do a quick trip to Japan over 3 weeks, you can actually purchase the Japan Rail Pass. This gives you very good value for money in terms of the savings, but it forces you to travel quickly throughout the country by travelling on the Shinkansen (The Bullet Train).

If you plan to see alot of the country and you want to hop from place to place, then this will be an ideal option. But it will be a more expensive option.

Train (Inter-regional)

Alternatively, you can opt for slower trains and buses that will travel between cities. This will give you more freedom to stay in a location for a longer period of time until you are ready to move on.

Seat 61 has an extensive guide on how to buy and use train tickets in Japan.

Bus (Highway buses)

A much cheaper way to to travel throughout Japan is to catch the inter-city buses. If you plan to explore Japan over a period of 2-3 months, you can purchase intercity bus passes that allow you to catch the highway buses from city to city.

The prices of the tickets are much cheaper than the railway options. Depending on which company you choose to travel with, you can purchase a ticket that will provide you with day-long or overnight bus trips. Plus you can use the tickets for 3, 5 or 7 days throughout a 2-month stay in Japan.

There are more details in the links below, which explain the companies and the pricing.

Japan highway buses

Japan bus pass

Air travel

There are surprisingly good domestic air travel deals if you know where to find them. Although the budget for air travel may not accommodate the budget traveller, it will be good for those who want to see the country extensively over a short period of time.

The Shinkansen is a very good network. However, if you need to go from Tokyo to Hiroshima or Sapporo, the quickest option by far will be flying.

There are a few domestic air travel providers that offer special deals to foreigners that want to explore Japan. Some of the deals work out to be $100-200AUD one-way. It isn’t too far out of the budget if time is scarce.

Below is a link that provides more extensive details and deals on domestic air travel.

Domestic air travel options in Japan

Please note that a few of these providers require tourists to purchase their air tickets whilst outside of Japan. So you may need to plan your trip in advance.

Visas.

You will need to check the visa details for your country on the Japanese website. Japan has agreements with many countries allowing their citizens to stay in Japan on a tourist visa for up to 3 months. It is important that you read the specifics about the visa that you enter Japan on.

You can find more detailed information on the Japan National Tourism Organisation website.

Handy apps

If you want to make the Japanese experience more manageable, then you can download these apps to help you with your travels.

Translations – Google Translate

You can get the app to translate when you speak or even hold the camera to writing so you can understand things in your language.

Getting around – Google Maps and Maps.me

Very handy for getting around, especially when you need a GPS tracker to help you get around.

Currency conversion – XE.com or Google Currency Converter

Ideal to keep track of what you are spending in your local currency.

Helpful links

I’ve provided some links to some forum threads and blogs that also discuss the experience as a digital nomad in Japan.

Digital nomad in Japan – Reddit

The cup and the road – Digital nomad in Japan

Japan for digital nomads and bootstrappers

Nomad rides – Working & travelling in Japan

Have you travelled through Japan as a digital nomad? Share your experience in the comments below.

Thanks for reading.

*Disclaimer – There are some affiliate links within this post. However, my opinions and recommendations are my own.

Should you be a digital nomad in Bali?

March 24, 2018 by David James Leave a Comment

In 2016, my wife and I decided to fly to Bali and stay for 2 months as digital nomads. The opportunity would allow us to explore the country, as well as live as locals and stay in a location long enough to embrace the culture and the lifestyle. It was an interesting experience. And what was more surprising was the cost to do it.

I’m an Australian citizen. And prices to travel from Australia to Bali vary depending on where you travel from. It can cost less than $100 if you travel from Darwin, however you can pay upwards of $400+ if you travel from other Australian airports. In our case, we travelled from Brisbane.

The cost of living was much cheaper than I expected if you travelled with the Australian dollar. If you travelled with currencies such as the British Pound or the American Dollar, your purchasing power in the country would be much stronger.

How did we plan our stay in Bali?

We’d arranged to stay in 2 places. The first was in Ubud in Bali. (I’ve previously written a post about living as a digital nomad in Ubud) The second place was in Denpasar, the capital city of Bali.

The two cities offered two different types of experiences.

Ubud

We actually stayed a 30-minute motorbike journey outside of Ubud. It was in Gianyar, which is quiet and we were surrounded by several rice fields. We were able to get studio accommodation, which cost approximately $900AUD/month at the time. This was inclusive of bills.

In Australia, unfurnished accommodation will cost at least $300 a week in Brisbane and more in the other major cities. When you factor in the other lifestyle costs, you will easily spend more than $2000 each month to cover the basic living costs in the country.

Below are pictures of the Villa that we stayed at and a map of the distance from central Ubud.

Here is a video of us during our stay.

The owner of the villa installed a pool and now serves breakfast as a part of the deal. I found one deal for two people staying in one villa costs $1104 AUD.

You can click here to calculate the rough cost of a booking.

Pros

Where we stayed was quiet and tranquil. At the time, it had a pond and an oasis garden. The villa now has a pool. It was also very safe. Food in the local area was very, very inexpensive. However, we did notice that it was difficult to get fresh fruits and vegetables, which did affect our energy levels.

Cons

Unfortunately, the internet connection at the property wasn’t that great. It was a common thing that we found in Bali. We actually had to travel to the gym, where we paid a monthly fee to access a quick and reliable internet connection.

This affected the productivity for working as a digital nomad. We did work around it, but in hindsight, it would have been better to find accommodation that was closer to the centre of town (such as closer to the Monkey Forest) and have an internet connection that was much more reliable.

A the time, I was doing more writing work; so I was fairly unaffected. However, if you require an internet connection to complete the work that you are doing, then the downtime will severely impact your productivity and you may need to consider being in a place where there is good internet accessibility or even considering a co-working space in Ubud.

Denpasar

Denpasar was an interesting place to be located. It is a major city with alot of traffic and alot of noise. It’s not until you are in the city that you will start to notice some of the things that may affect you as a digital nomad.

We stayed next to one of the main roads and as soon as it was early morning or late evening, the traffic would be atrocious. The pollution in the city and the lack of infrastructure was also frustrating. The hotel that we stayed at was very nice on the inside, but was undergoing construction work from 7am until 6pm, with constant banging throughout the day.

This type of thing could happen anywhere. But it’s less likely to happen in the built-up areas.

The internet connection was very poor as well. It was almost impossible to get a signal. In the end, we had to find a coworking space and we found two that were nearby. (We ended up settling for the Sara Residence, which was nice and quiet.) The only issue was the mosquitos in the evening and they had to fumigate the area. But if you stayed in their accommodation, you could easily go upstairs.

As for food, there was an open market 5 minutes away. We were eating vegetarian meals at the time and we could eat 2 full meals a day for less than $10AUD for 2 people. It was more than enough for us. The food at Sara was also affordable, but being a hotel they obviously charged a slight premium for their meals. But it was nice and a different experience as well. Additionally, the staff were all polite and it was a great experience being there. It definitely made our stay in Denpasar more enjoyable.

It was also interesting to see that they had accommodation options in other areas in Bali, such as Canggu.

Other options

Canggu

We actually visited Canggu and the thing that stood out to us was the balance between the countryside and the beach, whilst being fairly close to the city. Canggu is surrounded by several rice fields and there are many villas, cafes and restaurants that are catered for foreigners visiting the area.

The internet connection is more stable in the area. There are also coworking spaces nearby if people want to access the internet. (Although, you should expect to pay a premium fee for the service).

Some of the great things that were appealing about Canggu included:

Access to the beach

You can head down to the beach and surf (or learn to surf). There’s also a bar that sits on the beach and street food vendors.

Drive through the rice fields

There are endless rice fields. You can jump on a bicycle or a scooter and enjoy the surroundings of the rice fields.

There is an expat community in the area.

If you would like to meet other like-minded people, then you will find them in Canggu.

Easy access to the tourist destinations.

If you do want to visit the tourist areas such as Kuta or Seminyak, it isn’t too far away. You can head into the bar and club areas and dance the night away.

There’s a more thorough guide that you can read on Goats on the road.

Thinking about heading to Bali? Start planning.

I’d recommend that you purchase the Bali Lonely Planet guide so you can experience everything that Bali has to offer. Another site that you should bookmark is TripCanvas, with its guides and activity suggestions written by locals. Then budget for $2000-$3000 a month for your stay so you can experience Bali without missing out on anything.

Should you be a digital nomad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?

January 31, 2017 by David James

I was fortunate to stay for 3 months in Malaysia with my wife. It was originally meant to be a 2 month stay, but we extended it to three since we enjoyed the lifestyle and how it complimented what we wanted to achieve as digital nomads.

For me personally, Kuala Lumpur had the right balance of everything. The price for accommodation and going out was affordable. We stayed in a really nice apartment. The food was delicious and there were easy transportation links both locally and internationally.

I’m sharing the insight based on my stay in Kuala Lumpur. If you are considering to go there as a digital nomad, I would consider doing something similar to what we did.

*Note – I financed this stay mainly through getting freelance writing jobs. My digital nomad ebook shows the exact process I used to create an income.

We took advantage of the exchange rate.

At the time we went, the Australian dollar was worth 3 times the amount of the Ringgit. So this gave us a huge advantage when it came to our purchasing power within the country.

So we were able to stay in nice accommodation and eating out was inexpensive.

The complex that we stayed in pretty much had everything that we needed.

I enjoyed staying at our complex because it had given us what we needed as digital nomads. Our landlord provided us with a 4G internet connection that had a speed of 300MB/second. He also gave us a 4G pocket wi-fi that we could carry around with us in Malaysia.

The complex had a rooftop pool that overlooked the Petronas Towers. There was also another pool to relax in on the lower decks.

There was a gym in one of the lower floors. Although the gym mainly had cardio equipment and a few weights, it was sufficient enough for us to do our workouts in our free time. All we had to do was catch the elevator downstairs and we would be at the gym in 2 minutes.

There was also a convenience store in the complex and other restaurants.

Next to the accommodation was a shopping mall called Sunday Putra, which had several restaurants, a cinema and shops that we could visit. It would take us about 5-7 minutes to get there.

Because of this convenience, we were able to be extremely productive during our stay.

This accommodation cost us about $1400 AUD a month for a private studio that was fully furnished. It cost more than living in Thailand, but the productivity and lifestyle trade-off was more worthwhile, as I was able to increase my monthly average earnings by 20% while I was there.

The weather is nice and warm.

You don’t need to worry about wearing warm clothes in Malaysia. The weather is always warm. So if you fancy hitting or lounging by the pool, this is definitely an option that you should consider.

There’s plenty of activities happening in the city.

We worked hard, but we made sure that we enjoyed ourselves as well. We loved going out to eat at the local food stalls or restaurants.

We would love to get roti Canai, which could cost as little as $1. We could also get fresh samosas for $0.30.

Going out to Publika shopping centre on the weekend was amazing, as there was always an event on. The restaurants that we would go to would be amazing, although they cost a lot more than the average restaurant. We would treat it as our ‘date night’ once a week.

KLCC Park.

This was always a spectacle to see, especially in the evening as the sun sets and the Petronas Tower light up.

Enjoy drinks while overlooking the city’s skyline.

We ventured out to places like Skybar, which had a DJ playing in a lounge with a swimming pool in the centre. We were overlooking the entire city as well.

You can easily do trips around Malaysia or visit other countries.

This is one of the interesting things that I liked about Malaysia. The city has a major connection airport that allows people to travel anywhere in the world. We could have bought a plane ticket to see the Maldives for $100 return. Or I bought a one way ticket to Singapore for $50.

So it was also a really good hub for us to pursue our travel goals as well. We didn’t get to travel on this occasion, but we knew that we could if we wanted that as an option.

The living costs could be kept to under $2,000 a month for two people fairly easily. If you earned that for one person, you would be very comfortable.

What do you think about being a digital nomad in Kuala Lumpur? Or have you experienced living as a digital nomad in Kuala Lumpur? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading!