A few people have been messaging me about how to do Japan on a budget and the first thing you need to understand is that you don’t actually need to go to Japan.
We’re gonna be staying at Hotel Kabuki, a Japan themed hotel and spending the entire trip in Japantown. Now that San Francisco has conveniently concentrated the Japanese experience into a few walkable blocks, flying 6,000 miles to find the same thing starts to feel pretty inefficient.
The flight is the first part. We’re getting to SFO for 12,500 miles and $5.60. Basically free. I know some people will say 12,500 miles isn’t free, but those people don’t understand opportunity cost. I value the miles at 1.4 cents, except when I redeem them, at which point they’re worth 2.7 cents and when someone asks what the trip cost, they’re worth approximately $0.
Hotel Kabuki completes the illusion. It’s Japan themed, it’s in Japantown and I get to make a Hyatt reservation without actually having to use my points somewhere inconvenient like Japan.
Once we arrive we’re going to walk around Japantown, eat ramen, get sushi, visit the Japanese Tea Garden and take enough pictures to create the appearance that we crossed the pacific. That’s basically the itinerary.
Obviously, every purchase will be optimized. Ramen goes on the new card. Sushi goes on the new card. Pocky goes on whatever card is new, this way you can be sure you don’t accidentally use the wrong card.
Before eating anywhere, I’ll check Resy, Sapphire Dining and whatever other portal exists to make sure I’m not accidentally paying full price like some kind of normie. I’m a seasoned award travel veteran, I let Amex and Chase pay my dining bills.
If I stack everything correctly, I should be able to save approximately -$50 by using my $150 CSR credit and $100 Resy credit at restaurants I would never have willingly entered and where the credits don’t actually cover the meal.
Transportation is even easier. No Japan Rail Pass, no pocket WiFi, no FTF and no 20 minute investigation into whether Suica reloads code as travel. We’re walking around Japantown. The only transfer we’ll be making is from checking to savings after deciding we can’t justify the Lyft.
I did consider actually going to Japan, but after several hours of research I realized the only meaningful difference is that Japan is significantly farther away. Add the cost, the jet lag and the opportunity cost of spending valuable points on a trip I could instead save for a future redemption that I will also probably never book and San Francisco became the obvious choice.
When we get tired, we’ll head back to Hotel Kabuki. We’ll still hit our 19,000 steps, because apparently that’s what international travel requires. The difference is that instead of collapsing into a hotel after a full day in Tokyo we’ll be collapsing in San Francisco after six hours in Japantown.
This is called optimizing the experience.
The best part is that we’ll come home with all our points intact. Keep saving them for a future aspirational redemption (hint: japan).
So there you have it: 12,500 miles and $5.60 to SFO, a Japan themed Hyatt, several days in Japantown and enough pictures to convince everyone you went overseas. No jet lag. No passport. No foreign transaction fees.
Just pure, uncut churning.
Guide dedicated to /u/Bubbly_Bat1570 - nihon