"Budget" is the only way I've ever traveled to Japan. You know, Japan gets an undeserved rap for being unbearably expensive, but if you know what to do, it's cheaper than Western Europe. On an absolute scale, it's cheaper than the UK for the budget traveler.

I think the "expensive" myth comes from two sources--

1. During the boom era of the 1980s, a lot of Japanese people became ridiculously extravagant, meaning that prices for certain luxury goods or unusual things became outrageously high. A lot of Western news media did "gee whiz" article about how it cost $200 to take a cab from the airport (uh, you can take the train for $15-$35) or how melons cost $80 (special, perfect melons to be used as gifts for the boss, not ordinary melons that people eat routinely) or how a full Western breakfast with bacon, eggs, and fresh-squeezed orange juice cost $25 (in one of the most expensive hotels in Tokyo).

2. Backpackers who have just been in Southeast Asia and India stop off in Japan and have trouble readjusting to First World prices. They have this idea that Asia should be CHEAP, and when they find an Asian country with First World standards and prices, they can't reconcile their stereotype of Asia as CHEAP with the reality of Japan as a First World country.

I haven't stayed in a hostel in 20 years, so I don't know how much they cost these days. However, I can get a small, plain, but clean and safe room with private bath and heating/air conditioning, sometimes including breakfast, in a so-called "business hotel" for about $80 in Tokyo, less in other cities. Those prices in New York or London would have you tripping over drug addicts in the hallways.

The Japan Railpass is a great deal (Japanese people envy us foreigners in that respect, because they can't get it) IF you are at least making a roundtrip between Tokyo and Kyoto. Otherwise, buy single tickets.

For travel within Tokyo, a Suica or Pasmo prepaid card is a better deal, since you can ride almost anything on tracks with it. (It works like London's Oyster Card. It's preloaded with a certain amount of money, and if you run out, you can top it up at a machine in any train or subway station.)

Avoid cabs unless you are out late at night after the trains stop running or you have a lot of luggage. They're expensive.

For meals, the literally thousands of mom-and-pop restaurants all over the cities, as well as the restaurants inside department stores and office buildings, provide reasonable meals at prices of about $8-$10 for lunch, $15-$20 for dinner, cheaper if you can subsist on convenience store food or noodles or fast food. The affordable restaurants have either plastic models or photos of the food on display with prices marked. If a restaurant doesn't have something like this, you probably can't afford it.

I can travel in Japan for about the same price as in the States, something I can't do in Western Europe.

By the way, not getting a guidebook is penny wise and pound foolish. The Rough Guide to Japan is the one most geared to younger and budget travelers.