the planning of a trip.... Tokyo

Two concepts that usually do not go together - "Tokyo" and "good deal".  We are attempting to combine the two.

Here's the thing.... for me, living in Singapore presents conflicting opportunities.  On the one hand we are here, as are many foreigners I suppose, to work and save some money.  And we do work and we are able to save probably more than we would in the U.S.  So that's great.  And all while having a pretty good quality of life - live-in help, lots of going out to eat, etc.  Now comes the conflicting part... living here so far from home we want to take advantage and see Asia.  Of course even though we get to see such amazing places for such a low cost from Singapore, at the end of the day trips cost money, and with a family of five usually more than you think.  And that's not even counting the trips we take home to see our families.

Therein lies the conundrum.... spend on travel vs. save for tomorrow

Where does that leave me?  Oh yes - Tokyo - the children have a week off from school in October.  We have been discussing going to Japan during this week for the past few months but, being the slackers that we are, we did not actually buy tickets.  I researched Tokyo, Kyoto, the bullet train, what to see, etc.  The original plan was to see both Tokyo and Kyoto, taking the famous bullet train one or both ways.  This trip would be around 7-8 days total.  We did not buy tickets, and as time went on the tickets got a little pricier and we realized that we were looking at an expensive trip.  Lodging in Japan is extremely expensive.

So we started looking at other destinations, still not booking of course.  Then we see a sick deal - round trip Singapore-Tokyo on Delta for US$340 per person.  Usually it's almost double that.   The flight is 7 hours.  The catch? It's leaving on a Monday and returning on a Friday.  Is it too crazy?  Is it worth it?  My husband and I discussed, consulted with some people who know Japan and decided to go for it.  We figured (a) since there is no jet lag really - only a 2 hour time difference - although it's a long flight it's not so difficult and (b) it's way fewer nights of hotel to pay for - only 4 instead of 7.

Now we are in the anticipation/planning phase of the trip - tickets booked and looking for where to stay. We are likely going to stay with airbnb since hotels are so off-the-charts pricey.

I'll post about how the trip went.  Really looking forward to it, and the kids are superexcited.