VoiD

I agree I was looking at the range and Medium budget felt more like low budget especially if in Tokyo.. $5-$10 breakfast? that's like McDonalds budget.

Pureboy

I have dietary restrictions and on every trip to Japan eat 1-2 meals/snacks a day straight from conbini. 1-2 Onigiri, pickled vegetables and a drink easily keep you under $10- sometimes far below that. And it is a fun experience! Other meal is usually some form of sushi- kaiten or middle-tier. However, to give some perspective, U.S. Government (State dept) Meals and Incidentals per diem rate for Tokyo city is $229 vs $79 on the low end for Japan.

lianluo

Absolutely agree on the tip about lunch vs. dinner....go to your higher end choices at lunch and you can save up to half off for the same meal. I read that tip somewhere and last year went to a highly recommended Tenpura restaurant in Tokyo...sure enough, their prices doubled for dinner. So stuff yourself for lunch and try street side food, Konbini snacks and Izakaya joints for dinner!

lianluo

Additionally, go to the basement of department stores...they have the MOST AMAZING food courts...seriously...also high end grocery stores. The basement floor of the Nagoya Station department store is wonderful and I'm looking forward to it next month. Last year, I wanted a quick Sushi bento prior to catching a train and was able to get delicious Chu and Otoro Bento at the grocery for under 1500 yen....and they put these little frozen ice packs in with the bag...I haven't had that quality of fish in the US at nice restaruants...and this was a basement level grocery store.

MSPeconomist

Note that the basement food halls in top department stores are among the fanciest places to buy groceries in Japan. The quality and variety is amazing. I like to go and walk around, considering it as a very interesting tourist attraction, even if I don't plan/need to buy any food. I'm fascinated by the incredibly expensive fruit, including the melons in with perfect bows tied on their stems sitting in velvet lined wooden boxes for gifts. The white strawberries are cool too.

freecia

On the other budget end, you can find cheaper non-gift fruits at countryside fruit stands and more residential neighborhood supermarkets. Left to my tastes, my diet can get unbalanced and unhealthy in Japan as I eat way too much of my favorites so I make it a conscious choice to eat some nutritious fruit and dark leafy greens when I can find them. If not, veg bento sets and veggie tasting smoothies/juice. It is easiest for breakfast or supplement a business hotel breakfast. That helps offset the budget for those nicer meals.

ksandness

For transportation, figure out whether it will be worth your while to get a JR Pass. If you are staying in one area, it's not worth it, unless you plan to do what I did one year, namely stay in Tokyo and take long day trips to places like Nagano and Sendai. Even then, it pays to check Hyperdia to see what your planned trips would cost with single tickets and whether they would be on JR trains as opposed to private lines.

Japan is about the size of California, and it has a far superior rail system, so you don't need to move between cities every couple of days. Many places are doable as day trips from Tokyo or Osaka-Kyoto.

Taxis are by far the most expensive way to travel. Avoid them unless absolutely necessary. If traveling between cities, send your bags on ahead of you by delivery service (your first hotel will help you do this) and just take a carry-on on the train or bus.

portland67

Excluding hotel, I gave my wife and I 25000 yen per day for food, gifts, etc. We were able to do Japan on a relatively modest budget because we paid for our hotel with points.

5khours

What is the point of this thread? I've done two weeks at Yen 3,000/day including transportation (Tokyo to Kagoshima and back.) You can just as easily spend 300,000 a day. It just depends on what the OP wants.

evergrn

The only way this question can be addressed properly is with a lot of stipulations spelled out.
Ex: Lowest possible daily budget staying at a bare-bone but safe and private-room lodging, eating 3 meals but as cheap as possible, not including shopping.
Ex: Reasonable daily budget staying at a 3-star hotel with hotel breakfast, fast food lunch, but decent sit-down dinner, couple of sightseeing spots each day (name type of sightseeing you want to do).

I can think of a day in the past during one of my points stay at Conrad where our daily spending for the entire family was probably <1000yen all spent at Family Mart below the hotel (free hotel, free breakfast, free snacks and dinner at lounge, not going out anywhere in order to enjoy the 5* star stay).

LapLap

As someone more familiar with the low end of the reasonable budget style, there’s a mis-step in your summary which is particular to Japan - the lunch and dinner need to be switched. In cities, it makes much more sense to have a sit down lunch somewhere decent and a fast food dinner. Seems nothing but that change in mindset yields enormous advantages.

I won’t quibble on breakfast, only to say that when trading up basic hotels for 3 or 4 star places (part of becoming a regular at Flyertalk was learning how to use offers and points to get nicer accommodation at backpacker prices) the all inclusive breakfast is commonly sacrificed. But that’s fine - an extra 500yen will resolve this somewhere or other.

evergrn

There's no doubt that lunch time offers far better values at sit-down places than dinner time. Never suggested otherwise. I was merely laying out examples of how I think this type of question by the OP should be posed.

Having said that, the way we do it is that, when the hotel offers great breakfast for free (eg, from status) or for only small additional cost, we have hearty breakfast then have no/light lunch. When staying at a hotel where the breakfast isn't free or worthwhile, then lunch becomes our main meal. In either case, we generally don't spend much for dinner because we eat for free at the hotel lounge and/or go to a cheap place.

Pickles

I like to keep my stays in Japan below JPY 100,000 per day all in, but it isn't always possible.

AlwaysAisle

You spend 100,000 yen per day, are you talking about 100,000 yen per person or 100,000 yen pre family or a group? 100,000 yen = US$ 926 = 849 Euro. US$926 per day is a lot for me...

MSPeconomist

If someone is trying to do a lot of tourist things in a short time, doing a big lunch (or even lunch in a real restaurant at all) can eliminate many prime hours when tourist places are open. In some places, lounge happy hour times can create the same problem.

Assuming that I have a decent breakfast, I don't then want to have a big lunch unless the lunch can be very late