Mindful of Extra Costs

So, you've finished most of the grunt work and have finally made it to your dream study abroad destination. Though I must warn you, the work is not yet over, there is still much to do before you can fully relax. The monster that looms over everyone as a continuous shadow: FINANCES. I must say I was definitely surprised at how many unexpected fees there were in Japan that seemed to pile up out of nowhere. I was lucky enough to have saved enough money to out-weigh the surprise fees, but if you aren't expecting them, they could put you in quite the pickle. 

For me the surprise fee had been with the transportation fees that came with traveling in Japan. For me I was used to free public transportation because I was a student and students get those perks because, well U.S. school prices in general. I was not expecting more than half of my saved money to go to modes of transportation, Since we were not allowed to get bikes (for good reason) we had been relegated to using the train systems or having to get an uber if you were running late to school. Now, see, our dormitory had been about a 45-minute train ride to school costing about 200 yen, about $1.30 USD.

While this may not seem like a lot of money at first glance having to ride to and from school for about four months can really put the strain on one's wallet. In fact, one of the first things we did when everyone got to Japan was chosen whether or not to but a commuter pass. While the commuter pass did save some money it was not always the best option for some people as the pass would only pay for one train line. All together the pass cost about $136, woof, talk about a money eater. Even still the commuter pass did not cover costs for outside the specific train line so if you wanted to travel somewhere farther out of where you were staying it would cost more money. Again, it's not like the train rides were expensive, most of the time they would range somewhere from $2-$13 dollars a trip. A lot of people would probably shrug it off saying that's not much so why are you complaining about this matter? Well, I can say that after a month of wanting to explore various places farther than the train line we had a pass to the prices quickly drained my wallet. I must've spent more than $300 on travel expenses along and that definitely was a bit of a downer for me personally. 

While I will never regret choosing to travel rather than staying close buy, I will regret not saving enough money to buy more things for people. A good chunk of my personal debates had been if I should buy a thing for myself or someone or take a trip to see somewhere pretty and new, and a lot of the time the traveler in me one and I went on my way to explore a new place. While I should have had better foresight to expect these types of fees, I had assumed the tuition I was paying to participate in the program would cover the fees of things that needed to be paid for. Unfortunately, that was not what was happening, and I had to pay the fees whilst emptying my wallet and letting the flies in. I know I've only talked about the transportation fees but that is what got me the most. I was so used to having a car to drive around in and only pay for gas when it was close to running out. Having to be conscious of how much traveling somewhere would cost was something I had to get used to fast. Though that wasn't the only surprise fee that took place, another more prominent one was having to pay for health insurance. It's not that big of a surprise that we had to pay but still something that was rather frustrating to deal with.

Only because this fee was brought up at the end of the program where most of my money had been spent long before. Granted, health insurance is quite cheap in comparison to the U.S. but still not fun to pay when you weren't sure how much it was going to come out to.  I guess the end goal of this post is to just make sure everyone is more aware and more expectant of fees that may come up and try to take your feet out from under you. Like I said I will never regret choosing to travel than staying close by, but that won't remove the ick I felt watching all my money for souvenirs go down the transportation financial drain. 

So, to break it down for everyone, and to make it easy for those who might've skimmed the post here is what I would recommend doing before you get hit with the finance monsters. 

1. The best thing you could do is contact your program providers, I promise they are more than willing to help with any questions and/or concerns you might have.
2. Look up general costs of things you think you might be paying for. i.e food, transportation, school stuff, etc.
3. Save up MONEY- yes, I know this seems like the obvious thing to do, but I mean save up more money than you think you need. A lot of small expenses can build up fast. 

So, folks make sure to save up at least 3x of what you expect to use because oh my, that basically happened to me and it was rough having to pinch my pennies.