#at least one of those expo's will definitely pay for my taxes

[genericpuff]

girl math is making $670 for the week and then spending $650 of it on a credit card bill and now you're excited because you made a profit of $20 in your bank account and $650 more of free money

[dyernews]

Quickbooks Self-Employed Review (2019)

A few years ago when my dad did my taxes, it was kind of a mess. Sure scanning my 1099s, W-2s, and other forms to send to him in Arizona was simple enough, but when it came time to talk deductions, I was ill prepared. While I did make efforts to find old e-mails or dig up receipts from throughout the year, it was clear I could be a lot better organized with the whole thing and potentially save more as a result.

Shortly after getting through that, I decided to sign-up for Quickbooks Self-Employed (or QBSE, for the sake of this article) to see if that could help make tax time a bit easier the next go round. Now, two years later and having just completed my latest return, I can tell you that it certainly did make a difference. With that, here’s a quick look at Quickbooks Self-Employed and how it has helped me to save money the past few years.

What is Quickbooks Self-Employed?

Even if you don’t recognize the name offhand, there’s a good chance you’ve at least heard of an Intuit product. The company is behind the TurboTax software you’ve likely seen on Costco displays each spring as well as their Quickbooks

suite meant to aid small businesses with accounting. In that same vein, Quickbooks Self-Employed is a pared-down version of Quickbooks Online (from what I’ve been told) specifically aimed at sole proprietors like myself.

Getting Started With Quickbooks

Tracking Transactions

To me, the most useful element of QBSE is the ability to keep track of all your transactions. This is accomplished by first linking your bank accounts and credit cards to Quickbooks. Doing so will then allow you to go through all of your transactions — incoming and outgoing — and label them as “personal” or “business.” Furthermore, if it is business, you can select more specific categories that will come in handy when figuring out your tax deductions. You can also split transaction amounts between personal and/or as many business categories as you want and in whatever manner you choose.

One particularly cool feature related to transactions is Quickbooks’ integration with Amazon. Instead of your purchases merely being labeled as “Amazon” like they normally would, linking your Amazon account to QBSE will allow you to see what items were included in each shipment. From there you can also label individual items in your order as “business” or “personal” without having to calculate the split yourself.

You can either use the website or the app to go through your transactions. In fact, doing so on mobile provided an almost Tinder-like experience as you can swipe right to mark a purchase as “personal” and left for “business.” In either medium you can also set up rules so that future (and even existing) transactions of that nature will automatically be categorized for you. Another helpful element is the ability to attach digital copies of receipts to any transaction. This is achieved by simply taking a picture of said receipt or forwarding confirmation e-mails to a Quickbooks from a linked e-mail account. Honestly this was a feature that I haven’t made much use of just yet but it’s one I probably should start taking advantage of moving forward. I will offer one word of warning, however, and that is that you may want to double check all of your business transactions even if they’re already be categorized manually or via a rule. That’s because there have been a handful of instances where I’ve spotted duplicate transactions displaying in my expenses. Obviously this could throw off your deduction calculations so it’s important to exclude these rogue clones. Luckily that part is easy enough to take care of — but I do wish this didn’t happen in the first place.

You can see for yourself how easy Quickbooks is to use in my video reviews below:

Totaling Mileage

While I don’t have a job that requires a lot of driving (my typical commute is the 20 feet from my bed to the next room where my home office is), Quickbooks Self-Employed opened my eyes to how lucrative tracking your business mileage can be. In case you don’t know, the current rate is $0.58 per mile driven for business. That means that my road trip to Tulsa to cover an event for another website earned me more than $200 in deductions.

If you do drive a lot, the QBSE app also offers an auto-tracking option. Although I haven’t used this feature to a great extent, I have experimented with it a few times and it does seem pretty helpful — and it definitely comes in handy for people like me who forget to check their odometer until it’s too late.

Of course you can always add your miles manually along with a description of what the travel was for, including start and end points.

On that note, one slight annoyance I’ve found with QBSE’s mileage entry is that you don’t seem to be able to duplicate a trip easily. This came into play when I was logging several days of drives to last year’s FinCon Expo and would have loved to simply copy the trip and change the date. Instead I had to manually enter everything — including the addresses — over and over. I will say this process was slightly better on the app where QBSE would pull data from Google Maps to help autofill the addresses but it still wasn’t as easy as I believe it could be. The moral of the story is, if you’re going to be claiming a lot of business mileage, make sure to try to the auto-tracking feature.

Invoices

Another useful feature for freelancing is Quickbooks’ invoicing section. Not only does QBSE offer the ability to generate and track invoices but you can also sign up to make those invoices payable online. If you do sign up for that option, bank transfer transactions are free, although credit card payments will cost you 2.9% plus $.25. That might not exactly be ideal but it’s also not terrible.

Tax Estimates and More

Now onto the reason I bought the software in the first place. In addition to the extremely useful transaction classifications and mileage tracking that come into play around tax time, Quickbooks Self-Employed also helps you estimate your quarterly taxes. To do that, you’ll want to set up your tax profile, keep up to date on categorizing your transactions, and be sure to include your business income. Of course it should be noted that QBSE only offers federal quarterly tax estimates so, if your state collects income tax and also requires estimated quarterly payments, you’ll still need to calculate those on your own. Meanwhile, for those of you who are unsure if you need to be paying quarterly taxes, Jonathan Dyer actually has an insightful article on that very topic that I recommend.

This is also where another minor annoyance with the basic QBSE comes in. Although you can generate some helpful tax reports including a spreadsheet of your different expenses and deductions, I was unable to find a way to export that data in a format that my father could plug into TurboTax. Additionally, there is a way to invite your accountant to access your books but, at this time, I’m unsure if that means that they’d be able to export the TurboTax file or not.

Doing some poking around, I found that this problem may be solved by upgrading to the Quickbooks Self-Employed Tax Bundle, which runs for $7 more a month. This package not only allows you to export a Schedule C to TurboTax but also enables you to pay your federal quarterly taxes through QBSE (although you’ll still need to sign-up for EFTPS in order to do so). Finally the tax bundle also includes one federal and one state tax return filing. For the record I intend on testing out the Tax Bundle upgrade this tax season so be sure to check back for that review. Plus, even without the bundle, you can easily print off payment vouchers for your quarterly taxes, which saves me the hassle of tracking down such forms when mailing in my payments.

Despite not utilizing the bundle upgrade, this past year I actually managed to do my own taxes (thanks to Credit Karma Tax) and it also seemed to go well. The reports that I was able to export from Quickbooks allowed me to easily plug in my deduction numbers, although I will say that some didn’t seem to properly line up, so I had to pay extra attention. Still, it did make things much easier than they would have been otherwise.

To me, this is where the software really paid for itself. Instead of fumbling for receipts or trying to brainstorm other items I was entitled to write off, I was able to easily provide all of my deduction data, which added up to be quite a substantial amount. Better yet I remember that, after my first round of taxes following my QBSE subscription, my dad even told me how impressed he was with my organization. Even in my 30s, that still feels nice.

Quickbooks Self-Employed Cost Quickbooks Self-Employed can be accessed through their website and/or their helpful mobile app. A monthly subscription for the service retails for $10 a month, but they do sometimes offer sales. For example, at the time of this publication, they are offering the first 3 months for 50% off. Additionally, the Tax Bundle option retails for $17 regularly is also often discounted to $12 a month for a trial period. Incidentally you can actually write off your subscription as a business expense, which feels awesomely meta to be honest.

Final Review on Quickbooks Self-Employed

Having now gone through the whole tax process solo, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have been nearly as successful had I not invested in Quickbooks Self-Employed — it’s not a commercial, it’s just true. While I can’t say for sure how much I saved as a direct result of the software, I can tell you anecdotally that there were plenty of business transactions I came across I wouldn’t have given a second thought to had the software not brought them to my attention. Additionally, I’ve now learned just how helpful it is to have all of your business expense data in one place along with invoice tracking. In that aspect, while I mostly use it to help with my taxes, this could also be an important tool for freelancers looking to keep better track of their finances.

Having now gone through the whole tax process solo and staring down the barrel of another one, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have been nearly as successful had I not invested in Quickbooks Self-Employed — it’s not a commercial, it’s just true. While I can’t say for sure how much I saved as a direct result of the software, I can tell you anecdotally that there were plenty of business transactions I came across I wouldn’t have given a second thought to had the software not brought them to my attention. Additionally, I’ve now learned just how helpful it is to have all of your business expense data in one place. In that aspect, while I mostly use it to help with my taxes, this could also be an important tool for freelancers looking to keep better track of their finances overall.

Special Offer for Dyer News Readers

Here at Dyer News we really believe in the benefits of Quickbooks so we reached out and were able to secure a deal for our readers. Instead of the normal 3 months of half price if you sign up through this link you can get Quickbooks Self-Employed for 50% of an entire year!

Per FTC guidelines, this website may be compensated by companies mentioned through advertising, affiliate programs or otherwise. (Note: advertising relationships do not have any influence on editorial content. Advertising compensation allows DyerNews to provide quality content for free. All editorial opinions are those of the individual author and/or Dyer News.)

The post Quickbooks Self-Employed Review (2019) appeared first on Dyer News.

[jeanmonzo]

Quickbooks Self-Employed Review 2019 — My Most and Least Favorite Features

{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Quickbooks Self-Employed Review 2019 \u00e2\u0080\u0094\u00c2\u00a0My Most and Least Favorite Features","description":"https:\/\/dyernews.com\/50percentoffquickbooks First, what I liked about the tool was that I could easily link my various financial accounts and categorize each of my transactions. Furthermore, the site and app offers support for tracking business mileage, which can also factor into your tax deductions.<\/p>\n<p>Review: https:\/\/dyernews.com\/quickbooks-self-employed-review\/<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of taxes, Quickbooks Self-Employed also gives you estimates of how much you should be paying for your quarterly taxes based on your income and expenses. However, if you\u00e2\u0080\u0099d like to make tax payments through Quickbooks, you\u00e2\u0080\u0099ll need to upgrade to their tax bundle plan, which is https://dyernews.com/50percentoffquickbooks First, what I liked about the tool was that I could easily link my various financial accounts and categorize each of my transactions. Furthermore, the site and app offers support for tracking business mileage, which can also factor into your tax deductions.

Review: https://dyernews.com/quickbooks-self-employed-review/

Speaking of taxes, Quickbooks Self-Employed also gives you estimates of how much you should be paying for your quarterly taxes based on your income and expenses. However, if you’d like to make tax payments through Quickbooks, you’ll need to upgrade to their tax bundle plan, which is $7 more per month. One downside is that this only accounts for federal taxes so you’ll still need to figure out any quarterly state tax payments on your own.

Lastly, Quickbooks Self-Employed offers an invoicing tool so that you can easily request payment from clients. If you want, you can even sign-up for Intuit’s payment feature, though this functionality will come at the cost of 2.9% of the bill amount + 25¢ if your client is paying with a credit card, although bank transfers are free. Admittedly, these aspects of Quickbooks Self-employed are those I’ve used the least, but it could definitely be helpful for those currently without an invoicing solution.

Starting off with the good, one of the features I’ve really been enjoying lately is Quickbooks’ Amazon integration that makes categorizing your purchases much simpler.

If you do a lot of shopping on Amazon, letting your personal and business expenses mingle as a result, the ability to view more detail on each of your transactions from Quickbooks can be of great assistance.

Now, instead of seeing a purchase listed just as Amazon, you can view the items included in your order, Furthermore, you can go through and label the individual items as either business or personal. As it turns out, this is a feature I didn’t really know I wanted, but have definitely been making use of it and increasing my deductions as a result.

In my last review, I definitely discussed how you could set up rules for certain transactions and have them automatically be categorized in the future. Well, after another year of using the app, it’s really become clear to me just how much this feature can help you keep up to date.

Admittedly, while I try to keep on top of categorizing my transactions with some frequency, there have been a few times I’ve fallen behind. Thankfully, in each of the cases, the backlog wasn’t nearly as bad as I would have anticipated thanks to the number of rules I had already set up. Basically, since I had previously defined where my most frequent purchases fell, there were only a few outliers to go through each time.

One small word of warning I’d give about setting up rules is that you may find yourself going overboard and overlooking some potential expenses. For example, while I nearly set up rules to have some of my favorite restaurants automatically categorized as personal, it occurred to me that I might end up dining at these chains while on a business trip, in which case they’d be partially deductible. That said, you can get around this my just reminding yourself to look back at transactions made during any business trips you may take and correcting any purchases you may have missed.

Just as spending more time with an app or service can highlight more of the benefits, it can also bring your attention to some annoyances. For me, Quickbooks Self-Employed’s occasional duplicate transactions as well as the inability to clone business mileage trips have become my pet peeves.

Even if you have all of your rules in place, one thing I’d definitely recommend is to double check all of your reviewed business transactions in order to weed out any duplicates. For the life of me, I can’t quite figure out why this pheneonoen happens but it definitely does from time to time. While it’s easy enough to exclude these duplicates when you spot them, it is still unfortunate that you even have to.

Meanwhile, in my previous video I mentioned that I rarely used the mileage options in Quickbooks as my job didn’t require me to drive all that often. Yet, when I went to enter a few consecutive trips I did take driving to and from this year’s FinCon Expo,. I noticed how tedious entering these individual drives could be. That’s because there doesn’t seem to be an option to duplicate a trip, which seems like a pretty obvious feature. Moreover, unless your computer already has a location in its autofill directory, you’ll have to manually enter the addresses each time if you want to keep track of them. This process is slightly easier in the app where Quickbooks will search Google Maps info to fill in addresses.

Despite those notes, Quickbooks Self-Employed has still been extremely helpful to me when it comes to keeping track of my businesses expenses and maximizing my deductions. more per month. One downside is that this only accounts for federal taxes so you\u00e2\u0080\u0099ll still need to figure out any quarterly state tax payments on your own.\n

Lastly, Quickbooks Self-Employed offers an invoicing tool so that you can easily request payment from clients. If you want, you can even sign-up for Intuit\u00e2\u0080\u0099s payment feature, though this functionality will come at the cost of 2.9% of the bill amount + 25\u00c2\u00a2 if your client is paying with a credit card, although bank transfers are free. Admittedly, these aspects of Quickbooks Self-employed are those I\u00e2\u0080\u0099ve used the least, but it could definitely be helpful for those currently without an invoicing solution.\n

Starting off with the good, one of the features I\u00e2\u0080\u0099ve really been enjoying lately is Quickbooks\u00e2\u0080\u0099 Amazon integration that makes categorizing your purchases much simpler.\n

If you do a lot of shopping on Amazon, letting your personal and business expenses mingle as a result, the ability to view more detail on each of your transactions from Quickbooks can be of great assistance.\n

Now, instead of seeing a purchase listed just as Amazon, you can view the items included in your order, Furthermore, you can go through and label the individual items as either business or personal. As it turns out, this is a feature I didn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t really know I wanted, but have definitely been making use of it and increasing my deductions as a result.\n

In my last review, I definitely discussed how you could set up rules for certain transactions and have them automatically be categorized in the future. Well, after another year of using the app, it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s really become clear to me just how much this feature can help you keep up to date.\n

Admittedly, while I try to keep on top of categorizing my transactions with some frequency, there have been a few times I\u00e2\u0080\u0099ve fallen behind. Thankfully, in each of the cases, the backlog wasn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t nearly as bad as I would have anticipated thanks to the number of rules I had already set up. Basically, since I had previously defined where my most frequent purchases fell, there were only a few outliers to go through each time.\n

One small word of warning I\u00e2\u0080\u0099d give about setting up rules is that you may find yourself going overboard and overlooking some potential expenses. For example, while I nearly set up rules to have some of my favorite restaurants automatically categorized as personal, it occurred to me that I might end up dining at these chains while on a business trip, in which case they\u00e2\u0080\u0099d be partially deductible. That said, you can get around this my just reminding yourself to look back at transactions made during any business trips you may take and correcting any purchases you may have missed. \n

Just as spending more time with an app or service can highlight more of the benefits, it can also bring your attention to some annoyances. For me, Quickbooks Self-Employed’s occasional duplicate transactions as well as the inability to clone business mileage trips have become my pet peeves.\n

Even if you have all of your rules in place, one thing I\u00e2\u0080\u0099d definitely recommend is to double check all of your reviewed business transactions in order to weed out any duplicates. For the life of me, I can\u00e2\u0080\u0099t quite figure out why this pheneonoen happens but it definitely does from time to time. While it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s easy enough to exclude these duplicates when you spot them, it is still unfortunate that you even have to.\n

Meanwhile, in my previous video I mentioned that I rarely used the mileage options in Quickbooks as my job didn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t require me to drive all that often. Yet, when I went to enter a few consecutive trips I did take driving to and from this year\u00e2\u0080\u0099s FinCon Expo,. I noticed how tedious entering these individual drives could be. That\u00e2\u0080\u0099s because there doesn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t seem to be an option to duplicate a trip, which seems like a pretty obvious feature. Moreover, unless your computer already has a location in its autofill directory, you\u00e2\u0080\u0099ll have to manually enter the addresses each time if you want to keep track of them. This process is slightly easier in the app where Quickbooks will search Google Maps info to fill in addresses.\n

Despite those notes, Quickbooks Self-Employed has still been extremely helpful to me when it comes to keeping track of my businesses expenses and maximizing my deductions.","thumbnailUrl":"","uploadDate":"2019-01-08T00:49:00.000Z","duration":"PT5M27S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/youtube.googleapis.com\/v\/WYAn5diMvms"}

This video, https://youtu.be/WYAn5diMvms, can also be seen at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFfM5Lf816akffqDilBgawubR7sSZSgFW.

[traveltheworldwithme]

Conquering Your Fears: Tokyo, Japan

Whenever we decide to travel, we have these anxieties, fears, and all those scary feelings aside from the excitement that we get when we know we’re going to go somewhere new. SOMEWHERE NEW. There are really those people who are adventurous enough to not be bothered by the anxiety of going someplace new. Whether you’re traveling somewhere local or traveling internationally, there’s always one or two things that make you worry. In this post, I’m going to list some of the most common fears/anxieties/whatever you want to call it of foreigners when going to Tokyo, Japan.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

The first thing that would really scare you when going to Japan is the language barrier. All those signs you can’t read, all those sentences and words you can’t understand, it would really put you off. Now I’m not going to say that I have gotten over this worry already because I still worry right now that I badly want to take actual classes to learn how to speak and read Japanese. My level of understanding with the language is just about 10% which knowledge I just got from anime. I still can’t read any hiragana or katakana and kanji. I can understand the context of the sentence by hearing words I’m familiar with but I can’t come up with my own coherent sentence because the placement of words is just different. I usually end up just saying words without forming sentences.

While there are some phrases you need to at least know before coming to Japan, I can pretty much say that you’ll get by there by using hand gestures and even though it’s not perfect, using Google Translate. Japanese people are very kind and will try to communicate with you and help you when you need help. I personally had some trouble with a coin locker and asked someone standing there for help, and she helped me. She was meeting with her boyfriend that time and when her boyfriend came he asked what happened and he also helped. I think I wasted 15 minutes of their life but I’ll never forget that moment when someone genuinely wanted to help a stranger. Another instance was when we were lost because the Google Maps walking path is not accurate (yep, Google Maps is awesome when it comes to pointing you to the right train station to ride but it sucks when there’s walking involved) and we just asked someone and she helped us tremendously, even using Google Translate to communicate with us so that she can point us to the right direction.

At the airport and on major train stations, there are tourist information booths and they usually speak and understand English. In most touristy places like in Nakamise-dori going to Sensoji temple, the vendors there can also understand and speak English.

In restaurants, there are some which offer an English menu so you can ask them for that. In case there’s no available English menu, most restaurants would have a picture of every dish they have there. In case you want to go to a place where there’s really no English menu nor photos of food, it’s best you Google all the information about it first or look up for some Youtube videos about the place so that you won’t be at a loss. If you’re really adventurous, go ahead and just use Google Translate coupled with hand gestures and they will try to understand you and you can still order.

In trains, specifically JR trains, the announcements are also broadcast in English so you’ll know which side of doors will open and the stop and where to get off if you want to transfer. However, in some subway lines, there’s really no translation whatsoever but you can still hear the name of the station where you want to go to so just remember the name of the station and listen carefully. Usually the name is written in kanji but there will be the Romaji equivalent of it, and if there’s none, just look at your Google Maps and try to remember the symbols/characters.

PRICE OF FOOD, LODGING, TRANSPORTATION, GOODS, ETC.

“Tokyo is an expensive place to go to!” is what people would always say. While comparing to the prices of goods here in the Philippines, the goods in Japan are really more expensive, I can still confidently say that you can go to Japan on a budget.

Comparing the price of food to the Philippines, it is really more expensive in Japan. However, you can choose to buy those relatively cheap food from restaurants or fast food places - you just have to know where to look. You can buy a plate of sushi for just 100 yen. 10 plates and it will just cost you 1,000 yen (+ tax) and you’ll be really, really full. In Yoshinoya/Sukiya/Matsuya, you can buy gyudon for less than 500 yen and it is already filling. It is optional to buy drinks at these food places because they offer water or tea for free!

JAPAN VISA

First thing that you’ll have to spend money on is getting a Visa. There are a lot of accredited agencies and there are some which are cheaper than the others. Watch out for Travel Expos too and you can apply for a Japan Visa for just Php 500. I think this is the cheapest that they offer. You can actually see the prices of getting Japan Visa through their websites so you can already include this in your budgeting.

PLANE TICKETS

Next would be plane tickets. If the flight is just 4-5 hours, I guess you can just choose an airline offering cheap economy seats instead of those airlines which are really more expensive. You can compare prices online (click here for my previous post related to this) and choose which is the cheapest. Most budget airlines don’t have wi-fi or any form of entertainment at the plane, and it doesn’t automatically include the checked-in baggage fees, seat selection fees, and meals so you also have to check this. Just my experience on this:

So we belatedly bought plane tickets last year because we’re still weren’t sure of the date so the prices are pretty much the regular prices and not the discounted ones. I was about to book at Jetstar because I thought it was the cheapest. They have this bundled add-on which includes a checked-in bag of 20kg, meal, and seat selection. The bundle is to be bought per trip so you will pay for the bundle going to Japan, and coming back from Japan. It has a fixed rate but you can still purchase add-ons like if your checked-in luggage is heavier, if you want premium seats, and all that. I then went to the Cebu Pacific website and tried to book there to see if it’s cheaper. So you can choose if you just want to fly, or if you have checked-in luggage, or if you have checked-in luggage plus meals. I chose the one with the checked-in luggage already Then on the next pages you’ll be asked if you want to choose your seats for a fee, if you want to add more kg to your baggage and if you want to pre-order meals. I just chose seats as another add-on because I’m traveling with my sisters and I want to sit beside them and I want the window seat! If you want to save up money, you can just do an early web check-in which can be done 7 days prior to your departure and you can choose your seat there for free. What I like about booking with Cebu Pacific is that they have the option for you to pay your travel tax which is Php 1,620 already so you don’t have to line up there! The lines can get really long. (When I checked Jetstar though this 2018, if I remember correctly there’s also an option already to pay for the Philippine travel tax.)

This 2018 trip, we bought tickets when it was on sale by Cebu Pacific. It is around Php 35,000 cheaper! Even though it’s not from the Php 1 sale (Piso sale), it’s still a whole lot cheaper when it’s on sale.

LODGING

Next thing that you would look for is the place where you’ll stay. Booking and Agoda are great apps for you to look at to have a rough estimate of the costs of hotel. When we went there we stayed at a hostel and it was great! However when I checked even months before June 2018, it is already fully-booked. Most cheaper hotels are also fully-booked so I looked for another option and found Airbnb. I booked there and even with the new Japanese law we were able to stay there (really a relief!!!) and it was a great experience. I will provide a separate post about the Airbnb we stayed at to give you an idea about it.

If you’re traveling alone staying at capsule hotels is actually a good idea because it’s inexpensive but it still looks good. 

There are also those manga cafes where you can stay at a cheap price but I just don’t think it’s comfortable to just stay there if you’re staying for more than a week in Japan.

GOODS/FOOD ITEMS

There are a ton of shops and restaurants in Tokyo - you just need to look for it. There are many travel guides available online and on Youtube, so you can just search for it. Most of the time they already include the prices of the goods or the food so you’ll have a rough estimate of how much you’re going to spend. (Check out this post for a list of Youtubers I watched!)

For souvenir shopping, there’s always those 100-yen stores like Daiso and Can-Do. They have a vaaaast selection of items and you just have to decide whether it’s worth it or not. Daiso is everywhere too and you can find a lot of Can-Do stores as well. I like Daiso but there are items in Can-Do which are not available in Daiso so you definitely have to check it out.

In buying chocolates or grocery snack items, it is best to go to your local grocery than to those tourist-y shops because it is cheaper at the groceries. For snacks, there’s this place in Ueno located Ameyoko which is Niki No Kashi and it pretty much sells all kinds of snacks and chocolates. It’s also a tax-free shop! Also in Ameyoko there are a lot of stores there which sell snacks and teas so you just have to look for the ones which offer the cheapest one.

TRANSPORTATION FEES

When you arrive at the airport, you need to ride a bus or a train to go to Central Tokyo. There are quite a lot of options here - some expensive, and some cheap so you just have to choose accordingly. Taking the bus is the cheapest I think because it just costs 1000 yen as opposed to those trains like the Narita Express which I think is about 3000 yen? There are also those local trains which are cheaper but travel time is longer. What you’re basically paying for those Narita Express and Keisei Liner (the expensive one) is that you can get to Tokyo in less than an hour and they have reserved seats. You can also search for this in Youtube as there are many guides there already. Pretty much everything I know, I learned from vloggers first before I was able to experience it myself.

Just a quick story: When we went this 2018 in Japan, we had a place at Kinshicho and we chose that place in Airbnb because it has a direct train to and from Narita Airport. Our travel time from Narita to Kinshicho station is about 1 hour and 30 minutes but the train was not packed when we rode so we were able to sit, and it just costs 1,320 yen one-way. A lot cheaper than 3,000 yen!

Going around Tokyo, Google Maps is your best friend. From there you can see the price of trains going from one place to another. We used this to have an estimate about the transportation fees that we need to spend.

TRANSPORTATION - TRAINS (and others)

Traveling around Tokyo is easy. Yep, I am kidding you not, it is easy. “But what’s with that subway map that you so graciously provided without explaining anything? It looks so complicated!” Well yes it looks so confusing and you really wouldn’t understand it. However, Google Maps is your best friend! It shows you everything you need to know. The time trains depart, the stops, the cost - just everything. I also used another app which is the Japan Travel app by Navitime Japan, and when you reach Japan, you can also download the Hyperdia app. These apps have this option to prioritize JR lines for when you have a Japan Rail pass so that you can maximize your JR pass. (Picture provided is just a subway map. JR lines are not included yet.)

The trains can take you around Tokyo and it costs about 170 yen from one stop to another. The price differs but yes, Google Maps and the other apps I mentioned provide the price already so you don’t have to worry about it.

Another worry would be the buying of tickets. I removed this worry altogether by just purchasing an IC card. I had a friend who didn’t know about the existence of this and he had a hard time navigating Tokyo just because he cannot read the name of the stops and he doesn’t know how much the fare is and he had a hard time communicating there because they don’t really understand English. Anyway. mine is a Suica card just because it looks cute. There’s also a Pasmo card. The only difference is the issuing authority. These two can be used in any station or subway, and can be used to buy drinks from vending machines or stuff from convenience stores as long as they have the option. I think it can also be used in buses. Basically you can have this card at the train stations. There’s an English menu available so you can just choose that. (Please search for this in Youtube so that you’ll know what I’m talking about. There are many vloggers who show how it’s done and all that. I wasn’t able to make a video about this because I completely forgot to do so.) There’s a deposit fee of 500 yen, and you must load it there. We had a rough estimate of how much it would cost us to go around Tokyo for the entire time we’re there so we deposited that amount. Once you leave Japan, you can return the card and the balance would be returned to you and the deposit fee. However, I’m not sure about this fee that they’d charge you if the balance is more than 500 yen still. Since we know we’ll go back to Japan again and again, we just kept the card because the card is valid for 10 years. Yes, it is valid for that long so if you’ll go back to Japan within 10 years, I highly suggest just keeping it.

So I just talked about trains because this is the only mode of transportation we used (aside from walking). I apologize if this is not enough but with the convenience of trains, I just really didn’t bother with other modes of transportation anymore.

Oh, there are taxis too but they’re expensive especially when you’re alone and you have no one else to split the bill. We used a taxi once during our last trip because we were just so tired and from Skytree to our place in Kinshicho, it costs 810 yen. Considering that it is just near, this is quite expensive but I was with my sisters so we split the bill. Taxis are amazing because of the automatic doors! Also, they issued a receipt when we paid. There are some taxis too that accept Suica/Pasmo as a mode of payment which is just really convenient.

So these are some fears/concerns we commonly experience. I know there’s still a lot so you can leave questions or comments or just anything in my Ask.

I will try to update this post when needed because I know I forgot something which I’ll remember soon. :)

(Posted on July 17, 2018)