Would Japan or India be a better bargain now than Western Europe because of exchange rates?

[raccoon]

Now that people from SOUTH AMERICA are buying stuff in the US due to the dollar's fall...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Japan is definitely cheaper than Europe

and a lot more pleasant than India, I imagine.

I'm speaking as one who was in England in June 2007 for six days and in Japan in November 2007 for 10 days. I spent more on my trip to England, including airfare, than I did on my trip to Japan.

Of course, I know how to travel cheaply in Japan: Stay in so-called business hotels, which offer simple but clean and safe rooms for about $80 a night for a single, eat in hole-in-the-wall restaurants, most of which have either plastic models of the food for you to point to, or else picture menus, and buy a Japan Rail Pass to travel intercity and always take public transit instead of cabs unless you're really stuck.