My wife and I just can't get enough of Japans beauty and wonders, so this year we visited the land of the rising sun once again. Japan is an extraordinary over-the-top place. The two-week trip was an absolutely unreal experience for us.  Whether you are a foodie, monuments hunter or a city crawler that explores urban places, I would recommend booking a trip to Japan.  Don't put it off until you have "enough” savings, for  it is not as expensive as one might assume. . The trip can be done on a  budget – that is, if you can keep yourself from nerd spending once  there. :)

Planning the trip

Planning  is half of the battle, well maybe even more  when traveling. There is  an abundance of online material,  available for you to plan a trip to  Japan. You can find itineraries that include all the famous places with optimized routes.  As useful as that is, we prefer to take our sweet time to experience Japanese daily live, and not just run around from one spot to another.

Tools and materials

We live in technology driven world, we should not use it just for social media and such but also for trip organization. It would be very difficult to list all the information sources we used, so here is just a few:

• https://www.japan-guide.com/ - definitely the good starting point of finding general information about Japan, places you will enjoy and read what other people think of them
• https://www.inspirock.com/japan-trip-planner - itinerary planning, we have used it to plan major parts of the trip; where to go, where to stay
• https://amzn.to/2Rp180o - Lonely Planet Japan guide - in a wast selection of tour guides we found that lonely planet currently offers the best information for us
• https://www.google.com/maps - last but not least :D, in all serious everybody uses it but it has a lot of 'hidden' potential. Build your lists and select them on the map to be used afterwards, you can also build an itinerary on the Google Maps
• http://bit.ly/matchaapp - Matcha is a tourist information app, it has a lot of info about the famous sightseeing spots, food but also interesting articles like what to wear, the weather, events and lots more. We used this app more on the go than for planning, but still it deserves a place in this list

Planning the basics

Before any real planning takes place we had to define what kind of trip are we looking for, how long can we stay and how much are we willing to spend. On the topic of which kind of trip what I mean are you looking for a summer or winter trip, rushing over hot-spots or relaxed, to give your trip some rough outline so you can build on top of it.

Somehow bad weather can easily spoil a good trip. With just some googling it was decided that the trip should happen in spring, right after Japan's Golden Week. Golden week is a series of national holidays that take place end of April or the beginning of May and as you might imagine a lot of people take holidays during that time. Japan has quite advanced tourism inside of the country so during Golden week famous places are overcrowded. If you are considering a budget during that period flight and hotel prices are much higher than a week after. During that period the weather is just right, it is warm enough to be in short sleeves and pants but not too hot so you can't walk during the day. As Japan is a coastal city during summer it's very humid so if you are not used to it it can be very tiring. One more option would be to travel during winter (I hear it is very nice) but as I wasn't there in winter I can't judge. If you are big on snowboarding winter Japan may be just your thing, it has more than 500 skiing resorts (well most of them small ones) but still 70% of the country is in the mountains so it can't be bad.

There is sooo much to see and experience in Japan, it is a totally different universe from US and Europe. The western world feels a lot like copy/paste, you have seen one big city you have basically seen them all. But here it is different, sure there are tall buildings in big cities but everything else is the same but different. I feel like you could spend a year traveling to Japan but still, you would be able to spend a month more. But most of us don't have that kind of luxury that we could spend a year traveling (or we are just not ready to give up other things in life) so I would say two weeks are somehow perfect to get a feeling of the life there and see some more spectacular places and events.

Cost analysis

Before we deep-dive in the actual trip let's look at the potential costs. No matter how good are you situated this is probably one of the major factors in destination selection and trip planning. The numbers are purely based on our planning and it will differ for you based on your itinerary, number of people, duration, level of luxury....

Without presents for family and friends, we have spent 3530 euros for 2 weeks trip for 2 people. Everything from the time we left the house doors to the moment we have arrived back home is calculated in the cost of the trip. We didn't have any so luxury splurges, nor we were penny-pinching during those two weeks, so moderate would best describe it. We have traveled with economy class with Japan Airlines (their economy class is wonderful), we have traveled with bullet trains between the cities, mostly eaten out and stayed at 3-star hotels in the city center. With simple modifications like staying outside city centers, using airlines instead of bullet trains and eating in the stores (more on it below) we could easily spend 500-700 euros less but still, have a similar comfort level.

Transportation

Flights

Multiple international airports are awaiting you but mostly you will either land in Tokyo at Narita or Haneda airport or Osaka Kansai airport. Our itinerary started at Kyoto so landing in Osaka would be preferable but the flights were more expensive then to land in Tokyo and immediately go to Kyoto, so we chose Tokyo (of course). Japan Airlines is surely one of the best airlines I have flown so far, and due to my work I fly quite frequently. In comparison, last time we were flying with Air France and had much less leg space in Economy class and poorer selection of food.

We have found our tickets via SkyScanner and bought over Opoodo, with non of the mentioned providers there were any problems. Keep in mind that the prices vary a lot on which exact days you selected and also the same flight changes prices every few days. An easy pro tip is to always use incognito browser, if you have VPN select poorer country as an exit point, and track prices daily until they hit what you have as a target. I have written about that topic in a separate post.

Be aware of the 'too cheap' flights, they may not have airport taxes or other obligatory price components included in the listed price.

Intercity travel

If you visit Japan you have to visit more than one city, I would recommend at least: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kamakura.

The fastest, and most expensive, is to travel by a bullet train Shinkansen. You buy an Ekiben (en: bento box) on a train station, hop on the train and enjoy a smooth ride while you eat, drink or sleep. If you are planning to travel to a lot of cities you should consider buying Japan Rail pass. In short JR pass is a tourist ticket for unlimited train raids for a certain period of times. It is only available for tourists and to buy outside of Japan (in recent years it is temporarily available in some places in Japan but considerable more expensive than ordering online). I would suggest that you use a JR calculator to see if it is worth it for your itinerary, I didn't buy it but I probably should as it would be cheaper than buying tickets separately.

There is also an option of using domestic flights to get between major cities, we have tried this last time to travel between Tokyo and Kyoto (Osaka airport). It is certainly cheaper than taking a train but also much more time-consuming, taking into consideration all the time you have to reach the airport, be there 1h before the flight etc. There are a lot of budget airlines that will take you between the cities for a small price, we have used Peach airlines and you really wouldn't say it is a budget airline except there is no luggage and a meal included in the price.

One option that we didn't try is the overnight buses. They seem to be by far the cheapest means of transportation, but it also means that you are dead after trying to sleep on the bus the whole night.

City travel

Welcome to the most organized public transportation place I have ever seen or heard about. Forget that you don't speak the language or even can't read the letters, just fire up Google Maps on your phone and all the information is there, from directions to timetables. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I found easier to get around than in my home town. Get yourself a Suica metro card, put some money on it and you are ready to go, you can even choose hello kitty design :)

Food and drinks

If you are a foodie like me (ok, I just love to eat), Japan is a place to be (and gain max kilos while there). The country is filled with small family restaurants of all flavors and convenience store food sections. There is something for everyone but most of their food is based on rice&fish, ramen (kind of soup) and of course sweets.

If you are traveling relatively on a budget you can easily find a decent meal in your local convenience store for 5 to 10 euros. If you are thinking of the west world pastry section of the store you couldn't be further off. You can find packed lunch boxes with fish and rice, meat and pasta, freshly prepared sushi or even just slices of Salomon or Tuna. On our last trip, we were staying right next to a shop that had a rice cooker, water heater, coffee machine, and all the food was gone by 12AM. Fresh food sections take a rather large portion of the store and it is not uncommon that stores also have tables and seats so you can eat your food. Probably because of the cheap price it seems to be very popular in major cities as mostly locals buy convenient store food.

If you want something better to eat there are plenty of small family-owned restaurants all over the city. They are usually a small restaurant with 1-2 people working in it with 10-15 places to sit at best. I would recommend avoiding restaurants in the main tourist places/roads they are more pricey and the food is more mass-produced. Even if you end up in a restaurant with no English translation just take out Google Translator to order whatever everyone else is eating. Family restaurants are specialized and don't offer a wide variety of food but only house specialty. Prices there can vary a lot, we experienced paying between 15-20 euros per person, but the meals were usually really delicious. You can find good places using Google Maps or Yelp, most of the places we visited had a high score.

Itinerary

Well, this is basically up to your own preferences, duration of stay, budget and other variables (weather?!).

For our trip we have booked 2 weeks and managed to fully book every day with something to see and do. To take a full advantage of good public transportation and avoid having to move a lot of times with our luggage we selected two main cities and took multiple day trips. This might seem like more work and wasted time but if you take into account how much time you need to pack your things in a bag, booking procedure, checkout, etc  we estimated that taking day trips is much more efficient and enjoyable.

Kyoto

A MUST see city, full heads on Japan experience. Kyoto is the old capital of Japan full of beautiful gardens, Buddhist templates, Shinto shrines and Geisha. Walking around the city while passing by people wearing kimono and visiting many wooden shrines within the city you can feel the traditional culture. You can even rent a traditional kimono for your visit to the shrine if that is your thing. The city is full of wonders, if you have some extra time from visiting the famous places it will be worth your time just to walk aimlessly around the city. We some beautiful shrines and relaxing gardens that are not on any tourist map but in a city with so many of them it would be pointless to try to advertise local small places.

Before taking it easy, there are a couple of things that you have to see when you are in Kyoto. Information is abundant online so here are just a few that we found extraordinary in the city with already amazing places.

• Fushimi Inari Taisha - Head shrine of 'kami' (god) inari (fox). Certainly one of the most iconic places to visit. It is located on a mountain and consist of multiple shrines connected with mountain paths, some of the paths are surrounded by orange gates. The full path takes around 4 hours, I would recommend that you visit it on a hot day as the light breeze and shadows from the trees give a nice time out from the city heat.
• Kiyomizu-dera - Buddhist temple that is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto UNESCO World Heritage site. On your way there it would be a shame not to stop at only Starbucks that is renovated old Japanese building. After the long walk you must be feeling peckish and I found a very nice Okonomiyaki restaurant nearby so head over and enjoy your lunch.
• Ginkakuji - aka Temple of the Silver Pavilion. One of the most famous Zen temples and part of the must-see list, come here in the morning as there are more templates close by awaiting you. When you are here and you want to go forth go down the Philosophers path to the next templates.
• Nanzenji temple - One of the most important Zen temples in Japan, and personally the most beautiful
• Kinkakuji - aka Golden pavilion. Extravagant gold-plated Zen temple sitting on a lake.  It is really remarkable but be warned it's not anywhere close to other worthwhile places to visit
• Nishiki Market - Strange food everywhere! Well we ended up going here multiple times during our last trip, everywhere you look there is something strange and new but tasty. Don't be afraid to try stuff :D.
• Monkey Park Iwatayama - a mountain filled with monkeys, you feed them, play with them (they can be dangerous a bit). A fun way to escape the city.
• Wajouryoumen Sugari - probably this should not be in this list but ramen here is amazing, the best one I have ever tried. The place is packed as soon as it opens so you will have to wait 30+ minutes but it is worth to wait. They don't speak English but there is an ordering automate at the front that has an English menu.
• The list can go forever, and there are plenty of guides that will lead the way, the place is amazing!

Nara

One even older capital of historic Japan, to be more precise capital before Kyoto. This is a must do a day trip from Kyoto and using the train it takes you around an hour to get here from Kyoto main station. To make the best of your day trip go to:

• deer park - a huge park where more than 1000 deer roam freely and you can feed and pamper them. They are considered a national treasure and you can only feed them with official cookies that are sold in the park (I think it was 100 yen per pack)
• Todaiji Temple -

Osaka

Food city, no seriously Osaka is famous for its food, especially in Dotonbori district. Some local food is internationally recognized, but fear not you can eat really good on a budget. Just to tickle your interest a bit I would recommend that you try at least: Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki and Soufflé cheesecake. Trust me you can do it in a day trip

• Osaka castle - this is a must-see place, a grand castle that overlooks the city. We climbed to the top where a beautiful overview of the city awaits you, during the climb there are small museums that teach you of the castle history
• Dotonbori district - it's truly a food district, small food shops as far as you can see on both sides of the street. Personal recommendation is to save yourself until you reach here and come hungry.
• Rikuro-ojisan no mise - best huge Soufflé cheesecake we found. I somehow managed to eat the whole cake but it is really for two :D
• Okonomiyaki Mizuno - a really good okonomiyaki restaurant. It is a little hard to find as there is only a small sign at front (and a line of people) with the small entrance. They make the food in front of you while you eat, so it is also a very unique experience

Tokyo

The world's largest city, with 13M inhabitants in the city or 37M in the Tokyo area. The city itself is actually an aggregation of 23 wards (like towns), that form what we reference as Tokyo.

• Akihabara - Weeaboo and Otaku paradise, or any other geek paradise. Neighborhood in Tokyo filled with anime, manga and electronic shops and on top of that maid cafes
• Imperial palace - huge palace located in the heart of Tokyo, still acts as a residence for Japan imperial family. There is a free guided tour of smaller part of the castle but you have to make a reservation well in advance. Unfortunatelly we never made it on time, third time is a charm.
• Shibuya crossing - crossing that you probably saw a million times on TV/news and yes it is worth to go and experience. When there make sure that you visit also the surrounded streets as it amazing how this huge group of people gets assimilated by smaller streets and huge buildings.

And many many more places to visit in the city, there are whole guides just for Tokyo so look it up :D, to name a few that we visited:

• Tsukiji Outer Market
• Yasukuni Shrine
• Asakusa
• Sensoji Temple

Kamakura

A smaller costal city just 1h south from Tokyo station via train, perfect for a daily trip to escape in the nature. Worth to visit:

• Great Buddha
• Hokokuji Temple
• Hasedera Temple

Anime

Japan is the origin and mecca for anime and manga, our trip wouldn't be complete without extensive visits to the merchant stores in Akihabara. There is a surprising influence of anime in the Japanese culture and everyday life. You can find anime characters everywhere from parking location mascots, drawings on ambulance vehicles and even on the offerings to the gods in temples. If you are an anime fan you can get all kinds of merch for much less money then in EU and US, we filled our living room with anime figurines. There are blogs dedicated solely to anime and merch so if you are into it check them out before the trip.

Small tips

Money

Japan is still mostly cash country and it doesn't look that this will change anytime soon. They accept credit cards in major store chains, shopping malls, hotels and similar but street vendors, temples, traditional restaurants usually accept only cash. There is also a smaller number of ATMs that accept VISA and MasterCard, we used Revolut for paying and withdrawing money and it worked without any problems. For some credit card companies, you have to announce in advance that you will travel to Japan otherwise your credit card will be blocked. This happened to me last time that we visited Japan, making calls to EU to unblock a card was really not fun.

Internet connectivity

I would strongly recommend you to equip yourself with some data plan on your mobile phone, it makes everything so much easier. Roaming was not an option for me as it was crazy expensive for any relevant data plan so we bought a data SIM card at the airport. We choose the medium-priced one from JAL as they have selling points on the arrival terminal and offer unlimited data plans for a more or less affordable price. This was the easiest choice but there are cheaper ones with similar characteristics but buy one that is partnered with DoCoMo mobile provider as it offers great coverage and speeds. We had 4G all the time which made video calls a breeze.

Conclusion

In my opinion Japan is the most unique country in the world, it is a mixture of western civilization and something completely alien. The land of different cultures, ultimate politeness, extraordinary cuisine and of course anime. This has been by far the most fascinating trip to take and I wholeheartedly suggest it to everyone wanting to experience another culture, as in my mind this is by far the most another culture out there. Regardless of the fact that Japan is a developed country with a high GDP, it is one of the safest countries in the world and you can travel on a budget.

All of us base our beliefs on what we know and what we can best guess with the information that we have, based on personality we relay more on information or guessing. This blog post is simply a reflection of my personal experiences, it is aimed to give some insights on the travel cost and possibilities as I see them. While talking to people around me I see that there is a lot of people that believe that traveling is just for the rich, for privileged ones. Those assumptions and beliefs are not based on investigation of the topic but rather just some general public opinion or even fear of traveling to an unknown. I'm even saddened by the fact that a lot of people don't see the benefit of the travel, on one hand they readily complain about the situation, but they just don't want to exit their small world. Before we even start about the travel costs, one important note: traveling opens your eyes and expands your horizons. Once you really engross yourself in the unknown you see just how irrelevant you are, how your village/city/country is just one of the many. How your beliefs are just one of the many, often even not the best, it enhances your being from within.

Now that we passed why you should travel, you need to specify your wishes and a budget to cover it. Until you have that down there is no real moving forward. There is no simple formula to forge what is a budget for a trip but it's variables can be separated quite easy on:

1. travel costs (getting to the location), 40%
2. living costs (you have to sleep, eat and drink) 40%
3. activities (local travel, attractions, things to do), I don't consider shopping here as travel expense 20%

Generally the best thing would be that you work in high paying country and vacation in the underdeveloped country. But this is possible just for some and even if you are one of the lucky ones you also want to visit developed countries of the West and East. For instance it is probably easy if you work in Switzerland to travel to Vietnam, but not to so easy (affordable) to travel from Croatia to US. Still it is not impossible, or even far fetched; you just need to plan it better, preparation is the key. Everyone has their sense of the cost but since we started this journey as a reflection we can continue on the examples. My future wife and I really love to travel, we are from developing EU country meaning GDP per capita of developed countries is far greater than ours, but we also found a way to travel everywhere just with more preparation. We try to balance commodity with costs and this would lead us to something like: flying when over 800km to destination (driving for shorter routes), staying at the hotels but cheaper ones, eating at supermarkets and/or cheaper restaurants, selecting activities that would bring most of the memories.

I see a considerable increase of materials (books, blogs and vlogs) for long term traveling, or even living on the road. Each story I found is completely different, it is astonishing how many possibilities people found to achieve their dreams of travels. They are ranging from digital nomads (people who work remotely), people who come back home for a limited time to earn for travels, people who work on the travels, the list goes on and on. The basic idea for long-term travels is to make money in the high paying country and to live and spend it in cheap countries. You would be amazed how some of those possibilities are very feasible. In my current company I had a colleague who saved 20k€ to travel the world for a whole year with his newly wedded wife. I find this possibilities fascinating but I would also say it is not for everyone or even most of us, but just reading about it opened my eyes and I believe it could do the same for you.

One of the many takeaways from all of those stories is; don't wait for old age and retirement to start doing what you want, life will just pass you bye, start traveling as your daily life.

Perception of the cost

Travel costs money and time, well dooh. But how much money exactly?, what will you have to sacrifice in order to travel to your dream location. Well this is the fun part, for most people this is some huge sum of money they have to pay even to start. But this doesn't have to be the truth, as always you have to find your balance between commodity and cost. The more time you want to invest in planning and the more risks you are willing to take the price can drop considerably. I would also suggest that you relax a little, write down your fears and analyze them one by one. I tried this exercise with a few people that I hold dear and we found that most of the fears are not grounded, they are just fear of the unknown. You need to play it smart and sometimes just take a leap of faith.

Traveling with the tourist agency

In my previous job I was one of the development leads on the software for tourist agencies, at the time the company had more than a 100 agencies using our software. I can honestly tell you that there are tourist agencies that can organize your trip to the last detail, they cater each need and each type of traveler. They can provide you services if you want an individually built trip or just join the group for the regular sightseeing. It is crystal clear that they provide the easiest way to travel with the most optimized route for sightseeing and such. In essence you find a good trip with your travel agent, pay it and you are good to go :D. Pro tip: read the fine print; the price may not include airport taxes, entry fees for the attractions and such. Tourist agencies provide you a nicely packed holiday plan and prepare everything that you have a nice vacation. Depending on the package you book they will take care of transportation, hotels, guide and that you enjoy your vacation to the fullest with the thoroughly planned time. A good guided tour will really give you the feeling of the place you are visiting, they are often full of stories about the place intervened with the most important parts of the the history.

Most agencies allow you to save some money either to buy early-bird or last-minute arrangements. For early-bird arrangements they discount the price to find enough passengers in order to cover their costs of travel, it is different for each agency and also more often with the trips that are guaranteed. Since they have bulk arrangements for the flights, hotels and possible others they would have to cover the costs if they fail to find enough passengers. Other option is to wait for last-minute deals, the premises is the same they have some booked capacity unused, it's better to forfeit profit for the passengers than having to pay your suppliers from other passengers. But this also a risky option, last-minute deals are exactly that last minute, nobody can or would guarantee that the agency will have them, how many  spots are open and such. Be wary that some agencies advertise last-minute deals much earlier and those are not real deals just a marketing campaigns.

Traveling on your arrangements

More on the adventures side of traveling, or rather you are never sure what awaits you. Was the hotel as described on the internet, can you actually find public transport on the location in time, can you not get lost in the totally new location where you don't know anybody or even the language. Don't be frightened, this really depends on the location, on some occasions you might even find yourself in an more friendly place than your town. This is what I would call really traveling and experiencing the new. But since everything is up to you it is also possible to plan your costs the way it suits you, you might say that you are trading your time while planning for a lower cost. I consider time planning as part of the trip, this is where you can learn a lot about the trip: culture, history, fun facts of the desired location.

You might be saying that you are trading your time while planning for lower cost, but I would say that it is more a state of mind, planning is also part of the adventure and it starts at home. This is my favorite type of travel for many reasons; you can travel at your pace, visit the places that you want to visit; travel much more for the same budget. It doesn't matter if you like to endlessly roam the place or storm through attractions and historical monuments you can build your own perfect vacations.

Arranging your trip opens a world of possibilities, if you are limited with time you can find fully organized trips on TripAdvisor, lonely planet or similar site. The more time you have you can customize ti more and more. let's see how you can save on the big things.

Flight tickets

As you are traveling to a far away country you are probably getting there by a plane. Plane tickets can be really expensive and quite cheap to the same location and are heavily influenced by:

• Season of the trip - each destination has its peak times for prices. Peak times are most often defined by tourist attractiveness but can also be affected by other factors as holiday seasons.
• Popular dates - most leisure trips start and end on the weekend, that means that the plane ticket for the same route is probably much more expensive where a ticket demand is higher. Airline prices are also defined by supply and demand principle. You want to book a ticket for example on Tuesday at 6AM when there is smaller demand for the ticket
• Airlines and stops - airlines usually charge the ticket based on their category (low cost vs regular) but you can save quite a buck if you are willing to have a larger stop or if a stop is not on your route (longer flight time). This is great if you can trade your time for the ticket cost.

The main question is still here, how to find affordable flight tickets. I would definitely suggest using aggregators like: skyscanner,  priceline, idealo, etc. Those are just a few but I usually use a few of them to find the best deal and also to search multiple dates. Recently google published their flight search which has a really nice filters and comparison of travel costs per day

Traveling without a destination

This is basically total flexibility, if you are not stuck to a single location or route you can find amazing deals. Try subscribing to some local forums or websites where travelers exchange information, there are usually deals that blow your mind. The deals can be out of many reasons as sales on a certain location, not sold ticket, transferable tickets or a group buy that has an opening. This really depends on the location where you are but it is worth a try, I found amazing deals there but often with a short notice like few days before the trip. If you want to travel on a more arranged trip try talking to a local travel agent that can probably find you some interesting deal.

"There’s something about arriving in new cities, wandering empty streets  with no destination. I will never lose the love for the arriving, but  I'm born to leave." - Charlotte Eriksson,         Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps    

Just a few days ago my mom asked me to build her a simple website to help her be present on the internet with her side business. Well I only have a general idea how to do it, no knowledge of any CMS and some knowledge of HTML and CSS. So it has to be simple and fun to do :)

The first part of any project (work or pet project) is analysis of requirements. There are numerous ways to make a website, probably one of the most versatile and colorful fields in computer science today. The options are ranging from static website vs dynamic websites backed with CMS, and DIY vs full fledged SAAS solutions online. So getting all the requirements right is the most important step, if we simplify too much it could be hart to maintain and update, if we over-engineer it adds just the unnecessary complexity on the long run. Our pet project is a two page website with static text and images, that will probably never change and will get little to no traffic.

Exploring solutions

Too make it a successful weekend pet project I'm willing to invest too much time into learning complex frameworks. Complex frameworks or CMS usually give us all the flexibility with all nice features right out of the box. The main disadvantage is that they require a lot of knowledge how to properly configure and run. Even worse sometimes a small change on the website requires a batch of plugins, additional configuration and quite a bit of work (plus the maintenance).
One of the options is to go with the fully fledged SAAS WYSIWYG site builders like ghost, squarespace or similar. They offer a possibility to create a website with basically no knowledge. I could just subscribe for some service and with simple drag'n'drop create a good looking site with responsive design for mobile phones. But this would also go against the initial requirements to make it a poor man's solution. Some of the services like ghost can be self-hosted but that would require maintenance work and I would like to avoid it if possible. BTW I really like the ghost platform, but I felt that it is an over-kill for the real requirements, and it is important to choose a right tool for the job.
Other option is to go with the simple HTML website, this brings ultimate simplicity but can be tedious to change the content. Just there it comes a pearl that I found during the research, static site generator. I found great reviews and some of my friends recommend hugo, a small and flexible static site generator (disclaimer: I'm in no way associated with hugo). What it actually does is combine a simple templating engine and all the content to produce HTML files. In the end HTML files can be hosted anywhere without the need to configure any application servers or anything.

Making and running the site

Making a website was a real breeze, basically just following the basic [quick-start](https://gohugo.io/getting-started/quick-start/) tutorial and finding a good [theme](https://themes.gohugo.io/) will get you well on your way, basically the hardest thing for me was finding a good theme for the website. The majority of the website building is generating the content. Content is simply a collection of Markdown files each one representing the blog post or the page. You can edit the whole website using your favorite text editor, no special tools or knowledge needed.

After the content is done we have to build the site (to generate HTML pages) and publish them on some hosting. Both things leave you with plenty of options to choose from but I have decided to narrow it down to:

1. build the site yourself, and host it on your server
   • pros:
     • possibility to create any set of http/https or www/non-www redirects
     • usage of let's encrypt to get free SSL certificate
   • cons:
     • you have to have your own server
     • you need to know how to administer a server
     • a lot of work
2. use gitlab CI and pages
   • pros:
     • everything happens auto-magically (build, deploy, ...)
     • no worry solution, good guys at gitlab are solving all for you
   • cons:
     • you can have HTTPS but either you have to manually renew let's encrypt every 3 months or buy a certificate for a longer period
     • you have to control over DNS sever to prove the ownership

For now I went with the first solution since I already have a fully configured server and it gave me more room to play with tools. But if you are doing it for something more serious than playing around I would recommend the first solution since you don't want to be be called in the middle of the night that the site is down :D. BTW this site is build the same using hugo.

Update 2019

Well now that I have been using hugo for well over 6 months I can give you a better insight. Truth to be told I haven't been actually posting anything for the last 6 months but I have been tinkering around my blog quite a bit. So let's get into the lessons learned

Performance

The page is run by a smallest digital ocean VPS instance and using nginx as a web server. GoHugo actually generates static HTML pages so it can be hosted anywhere without real performance impact on the server nor some special requirements. You can see the results using google lighthouse.

This result is measured from my home pc but still it gives a nice consistent 2s response. I tried using multiple other tools from different locations and even making a small load test and the response times are consistent.

Customizability

The engine provides a lot of possibilities out of the box, just by reading the docs you can customize your website quite a bit. That being said all the changes are really manual; change the config file, override layouts, create custom variables. This gives us a lot of control, after just a few small changes you already feel like a hacker from a movie, typing endless commands in bash and vi. But it took me more than a few hours to configure the web with ordinary functionalities like: sharing on the social media, post tags, custom css, easy deployment.

Sharing on social media

A possibility to share a post on social media is not a requirement but is a nice thing to have. You can of course share any page but social media sites won't recognize important parts like short description or image of the post. It took me a better part of the day to properly set it up by doing the following
- Sign up for Share buttons by AddThis - they offer share functionality via their customizable JS script- create custom single post page layout and put the addThis code in it- create a custom page variable for main image location and put it in a custom header.html layout- test it for facebook - upon learning that it doesn't work due wrong nginx configuration add gzip functionality to nginx on the server- success, it works for facebook- learn that it doesn't work for linkedin; give up for now
This has been a fun experiment but I wouldn't recommend it if you want to be efficient.

Blogging experience

I LOVE markup and you actually blog using it. No HTML no WYSWYG just markup :D. That being said there is no web interface as this is a pregenerated page, so in my case I would just use VS Code or anything at hand and transfer it later on. But as this is generated on the client it is quite tedious to set up the environment on multiple machines. I know that this is a first world problem but I like to write when I have inspiration not when I'm at my home PC. So every time you have a process similar to:

• install hugo on PC
• pull the latest blog from git
• do the changes
• configure deployment (this will be avoided in the future with automatic deployment from GitLab)
• deploy changes- push the changes to git

As I don't have the routine to write I'm ashamed to say that his has put me off blogging on more than one occasion. The other big problem I have is that there is no image optimization or something similar, so you have to manually embed your images and it could be much better.

Conclusion

In the end I'm really satisfied with the overall experience and happy to give it a go. Currently it usage I see only with really tech savy people with a wider scope of knowledge. There is basically endless way how to use it and host it, but for me I had to have my server, git repo, knowledge of bash and of course basic HTML, CSS skills to modify anything. Even with this knowledge it ended up a nice small challenge and every post was much more than just writing. Once setup I can see usages in smaller static sites (actually the intention of the creators) or documentation sites (as markdown is really easy to use).