Or at least a special edition Porsche Rimowa! (I bought one for a friend that owned a porsche -- it has a special handle to help it in and out of the "trunk")...

Not having looked at costs to travel in Japan in a long time (in USD), I was stunned to see how inexpensive things have gotten (in USD).

I actually decided to cancel an Orlando trip and add a few days for Universal Studios and DisneySea in Japan instead.

Looks like the parks are better, and far cheaper than Orlando, especially the premium park hotels.

Mundane options are downright cheap. Approaching southeast asia prices. Hilton Narita offers base rooms for $54. Incredible.

I remember Japan of the early 1990s and the idea of it as a value destination seems bizarre to me.

(I know Japan is only open for guided tour groups at the moment, but I'm looking at November when all restrictions will certainly be lifted if current circumstances continue)

an equivalent meal like that now in Los Angeles probably would be closer to $30, excluding tax and tip.

$8 will barely buy you a combo meal. A cheeseburger fries and coke is $8 here @ McD's.

That's awesome, wish I were there.

Something to point out though is to look into your what your credit card charges for foreign transactions. I'm sure FTers are aware, but as a rule of thumb you should always choose to be charged in the foreign currency, vs. USD. There are long threads on this (perhaps in the China forum) on DCC (dynamic currency conversion) but it is a ripoff.

I wasn't sure but I was hoping that someone would chime in and set me straight on this. I can certainly believe that it would be more than $20, and given all the recent supply chain issues in the US, I guess $30 is pretty believable. Wow, $8.00 for a fast food combo meal, I guess that $8.00 teishoku meal was a tremendous bargain, I hope the strong dollar lasts for a while.

Here in NYC an MCD combo meal costs $10++.....

The dollar and disney park prices in Japan make tokyo disney and disney sea a smoking hot deal.

I'm familiar with the issue that you've raised. I think all FTers are savvy enough to only use CCs that don't charge a foreign transaction fee when traveling abroad. The other issue of which currency to choose may be less well understood by some. To be clear, my $8.00 Japanese meal was what it cost based on a straight yen to dollar conversion calculation a few days ago. Apparently, I didn't specify the desired currency for the transaction and after checking Amex actually charged me $8.69 for the purchase, still a bargain if there ever was one, plus I got 15 MR points from Amex per dollar spent as part of my card welcome bonus..

Looks like JAL is following ANA with $3500 business fares NYC-BKK with extended layover in Tokyo +$100.

For another $200 becomes fully changeable and refundable. Might be wise in case Japan doesn't open to independent travelers by trip dates.

The price discrepancy wasn't due to DCC, since Amex doesn't have / doesn't allow it. That's one reason I tend to use Amex internationally: not having to worry about DCC opt-out or cheating merchants that don't honor your stated DCC preference.

JPY1100 to USD8.69 is 126.58. Today's exchange rate is 138.46. That's an 8.5% difference, and very significant (multiples of any rewards value). These amounts can add up. If it were me, I'd try other US cards to see what kind of exchange rate they offer.

The photographed meal was actually eaten on May 27, when the yen-dollar exchange rate was 126.8583 (I went back and checked the May rates at: nl.bk.mufg.jp) which is close to 126.58 as you calculated. That would make the actual cost US$8.67. What I'm basically saying in this post is that if I ate that same meal today, it would only cost $8.00 (as calculated a few days ago). According to Steve M's post above, Amex doesn't have DCC, so this calculation basically confirms that. Still, at 8.69, that meal's a bargain and will continue to get cheaper as the dollar gets stronger.

Amex seems to have better exchange rates than visas from Chase, Citibank, Capital One, and BofA. I test the exchange rates by loading up my mobile Suica for �2,000 per card all in the same couple of minutes.

Also, Apple raised prices up to 25% in Japan on July 1, 2022. I'm sure other foreign companies will follow suit.

mind posting your data points? Would be fascinating