One month outside of Osaka, Japan | April 2024 Travel Budget Breakdown

I recently spent 6 weeks living just outside of Osaka, Japan in a small town called Daito.

As part of my goal to show how much I spend traveling full-time, I figured it’d be good to share my spending for 4 of those weeks, aka April 2024.

This is actually the second time I’ve stayed in Daito; it’s very close to Osaka, about 20 minutes by train to Osaka Castle, but still small and cute. It’s part of the larger Osaka metro area.

I didn’t see any other foreign tourists when I was there, and it’s not really a tourist destination on its own, though it DOES have a nice temple, some hiking trails, and a big shopping mall at one end.

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Costs for one month in Daito, Japan

This year, I have a total monthly budget of roughly $1,373 USD, with a little flexibility if I want to splurge on something. (Compared to last year’s $1,500/month budget.) I managed to stay under my budget by a whopping $91.51! Woohoo!!

Also, this month’s includes 1 night in Osaka itself, before I got to my AirBNB, and another overnight trip to Nagoya.

All prices are in USD.

Total: $1,281.49 or $42.72/day

Accommodation: $677 or $22.56/day

I booked an AirBNB apartment, a one bedroom on the top floor, for a mere $635.68. While it didn’t have a desk, it DID have a decent-ish table for doing work on, and the kitchen was great!

Located literally 5 minutes from the train station, and 5 minutes or so from two grocery stores and every convenience store out there. There’s also some cute cafes and bars/restaurants, hiking trails, a big Aeon shopping mall, and some neat older neighborhoods nearby.

It’s small enough to feel super local, but well-connected so you can get back into the big city if you want.

I also spent $23.18 on one night at Guest House Yadomaru in Osaka proper, and $18 on one night at Trip & Sleep in Nagoya.

Hostel prices in Osaka proper range from $20-40/night, so staying outside of the main city can be a huge savings if you don’t mind commuting back in for sightseeing or whatever.

Food/eating out: $43

I did way more home cooking than last month in Tokyo, and it shows in the budget. I spent about half the amount compared to last month’s spending. Yay for me!

This particular spending was mostly in Nagoya and a few quick meals from 7-11 and Family Mart.

Groceries: $236

I don’t THINK groceries are that much more expensive in Daito compared to Tokyo, even though I spent almost $100 more on them this month compared to March. I DO think I kept buying way more pasta sauce, shredded cheese, and various other “Western” foods compared to March’s spending. 😉 Maybe that contributed to the increase?

Daito has two really good grocery stores, including an Aeon-brand one that does clearance sales after 6pm. I also had access to a rice cooker, microwave, stove, and toaster, plus a decent-sized fridge, so I was very happy to cook at home and save money for other stuff.

I’ll have a post up about grocery costs in Daito specifically compared to Tokyo later this month.

Shopping: $52

I bought some small things from Daiso to supplement the AirBNB’s kitchen (mostly needed kitchen towels and a veg peeler), plus some more art supplies for my travel journal.

I also went to a GREAT flea market in Nagoya and snagged a few cool vintage things!

Tourism: $79

This was entirely spent on a ticket to Cats the Musical in Nagoya. It was SO FUN, and the stage design was amazing!

Some of the “shopping” money was spent on Cats merchandise. I snagged a souvenir program and a few other small things that I ended up mailing back to California before I left Japan.

Transit: $131

I spent $93.90 on a bullet train ticket from Odawara to Osaka at the beginning of the month, which I bought via Klook.

I also spent about $25 on buses to/from Nagoya. The rest was local train expenses, which from Daito to central-ish Osaka was about $5 round-trip.

Medical: $45

I have a monthly insurance policy with SafetyWing. I haven’t had to actually use them so I can’t vouch for anything other than affordability, but I prefer having it just in case I need it.

Other: $17

This includes laundry, as the apartment didn’t have a washer. Japan laundromats come with free laundry soap and softener, and I’ve always found them to be clean and well-kept. In Daito, one load of medium-sized laundry with one drying cycle was about ¥800 / $5.20 USD.

I also got an eSIM card on Airalo and it worked well over the month I had it.

Daito Photo Gallery

Just a few photos from around town. Click to enlarge!

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