rachelle, sleepysleep.. yup, we carry heavy tripod all the way... it was a back packed trip, so we are very "budget" wif our spending.. all in all, we only spend less than 4K for 2 persons (including air tic, accom, transport).. but of cos, no shopping for me (damm ex) except for a few souvenirs back for families memeber..
we indeed went to many places, we covered kyoto, hakone, osaka, nara and lastly tokyo.. quite easy to navigate actually though we can't speak jap at all..