Two Weeks in Japan with a Backup Plan: Aurélie’s Home Exchange Story

At HomeExchange, we love letting the people who know best do the talking: our members. Aurélie, a HomeExchange member since 2014 with 123 exchanges under her belt, took her two teenage children on a two-week trip to Japan, finalizing exchanges in both Kyoto and Tokyo as a backup plan for each other.

Off to Japan, despite a few hiccups

Because you only live once, and since I'd been saving up for it, I decided to finally say yes to Japan for my daughter, who gave that answer every time I asked, "Where should we go next year?"

Started researching in May 2025.

I very quickly finalized a home exchange in Kyoto for exactly the dates we wanted. The kids (16 and 19) compromised by agreeing to share a bed. We were warned it was small. After finalizing, I found out there was a 7,000 yen cleaning fee. I know full well that's against the rules, but honestly, it suited me fine — I used that time to visit a lovely temple, and 7,000 yen is only 35 euros. I wasn't about to get into an argument with a host over something like that, on a destination that's already a bit tricky to organize!

Tokyo, the backup plan

A host in Tokyo replied, but asked me to get back in touch later since they weren't sure yet how things would work out on their end — fair enough, especially since they hadn't even finalized their summer 2025 plans. I got back in touch in October and asked for the same dates as the Kyoto exchange. Bingo, it was finalized quickly.

Why the exact same dates twice? If one of them cancels, we have a backup plan. We'll be able to travel between the two cities as we please, with both hosts informed of our movements each time.

Hosting at home: between lovely gifts and ungrateful guests

So I committed almost 4,000 points. Which meant hosting a lot at home. I had some really lovely guests who left me really lovely gifts, some more impersonal contacts, people who left nothing, and people who were quite demanding and not very grateful in the end. That's just how exchanges go these days.

As for me, I carried packets of cookies, savory snack biscuits, and keychains made by a craftswoman from Normandy all the way to Japan, and received neither a welcome gift (nor did the guests staying at my place at the time, for that matter) nor any recommendations on things to do in the neighborhood or city — but that didn't stop us from enjoying it at all.

More than 120 exchanges with HomeExchange, and already planning the next one

We might regret certain behaviors, but in the end, we've done more than 120 exchanges with HE, sometimes just for a single night while on the road during holidays — but this time we especially got to spend almost two weeks in Japan, and without HE I clearly wouldn't have been able to do it. London is already booked for Christmas, at least our 5th exchange there — again, without HE, that just wouldn't be possible on my budget.

Well, summer 2027 isn't booked at all yet, but I'll be choosing a destination that stresses me out a lot less 😄