shinilh t1_jedqyih wrote on March 31, 2023 at 7:45 AM

Reply to comment by [deleted] in S. Korea to allow online permit-free entry for tourists from 22 nations to spur spending by Kingofearth23

I’m sorry I had to do a big “WTF” to this comment?

what exactly did you do/buy and what did you consider “super cheap” relative to Japan?

Because for the past few years Japan has been SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than South Korea. Like SIGNIFICANTLY. It’s kind of a thing right now. Young South Koreans are going on trips to Japan in droves because of how cheap everything is. It’s a whole trend atm. I went to Japan this past fall (probably exactly around the time you went) and it got almost annoying the amount of times someone from our group would say “It’s so cheap!!!” Like that was THE theme of the trip. The single main takeaway. How all the food, transport, shopping, even lodging was so damn cheap compared to Korea.

I’m just flabbergasted that someone could have the opposite take… like I wouldn’t have bothered to type this all out if it weren’t for the fact that there is literally a whole ass societal trend happening in Korea right now where people are talking about how damn cheap and affordable Japan is compared to Korea. Like Korean YouTube is absolutely disgustingly flooded with Korean travelers visiting Japan and gawking at how affordable everything is.

anxiousfool007 t1_jeeg7qv wrote on March 31, 2023 at 12:49 PM

It’s because this guy is lying and never went to japan. He’s just bringing up old tropes and biases because the world doesn’t change in his view.

scene_missing t1_jef9t4i wrote on March 31, 2023 at 4:14 PM

Who even writes like this? Because my info might be out of date, I'm a liar, a man, and biased? I went to Japan in 2020. Food and hotel were significantly more expensive for us than South Korea in 2022. It may be that Japan would have also been cheaper two years later via USD, but what's with the anger?

scene_missing t1_jef9ccz wrote on March 31, 2023 at 4:11 PM

So to be 100% fair, my comments were based on going to Japan in Feb 2020 vs Korea late last year, each trip around two weeks. So if Japan's exchange rate to USD is down overall since then, I could be 2-3 years out of date.