Japan (Tokyo) Budgeting

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Dear Ania&Tomek,
- And all the others, who want to visit Japan (Tokyo) and would like to have fun, but must stick to the limited budget -

as you have asked me about the prices in Tokyo,
here they are.
I have decided to put them on blog, as it may be valuable (yep, tokyo is rather expensive - but not as bad as may be described) info for other travellers.

Let's begin from the morning.
Food:
My breakfast is:
A bottle (500 ml) of coffee/water/(green) tea 140-160 yen (from the vending machine at the train station/on the road on the way)
There is plenty of these machines all over the city, and also in the middle of nowhere, where I used to live in Hyogo, there was no shop, just ricefields, but...veinding machines with drinks)
A bun/yesterday a Baumkuchen* - also around that pice above 120 y+
*Baumkuchen!!! - What is is, what they sell here under athe German name "baumkuchen", It's the Polish "sękacz", maybe it originates from Germany, I have not checked it yet, but indeed, I know it from Poland and I have hardly ever*, or never, seen it in Germany. *not sure...if I saw it, having my eyes sticked to the Good German bread and the best of all Marzipan Croissants (while living in Berlin), before I discovered Kaese Croissants (while living in Nuernberg,..where the Marzipan croissants were v. rare, and even if they were there, the taste was incomparable to the good ones from Berlin)

So here we go the the...

Bread - the basic Japanese bread 150yen (budget option)
What it is: the bread? As describe d in my TimeOut Tokyo tourist guidebook: "It's soft, fluffy and moist, when you buy it; and virtually the same a week later. Don't ask why" ( nic dodac, nic ujac ) - there is no word's to describe it better. Oh, just one word to add, the bread is sweet. Any.
Twice I have gone for a little higher-priced. option
Higher-priced version of the bread No1: costs almost the double of the "normal" one, tasted exactly the same, had the name "HOTEL BREAD" (why?) + had the description, below that name, in English(!): " Please enjoy eating our breads. You won't feel crusts". Hence, if you want to have "no crusts" guaranteed, please pay 100 yen extra. So then you are sure that the soft sponge you are eating - what the local bread always is like - will be surely no less spongy.
Higher-priced version the bread No 2: the other day, I tried the Japanese bread, spongy of course, but pinkish with linseed (siemię lniane). This one was also kind of spongy, but seemed somehow less & tasted almost as the bread you may get in European countries, some very very cheap supermaket/ Tesco bakery product in Poland could probably taste like that.
Price , around 2x the basic one, what is 250yen+
You can also go for the Luxury option as described in my TimeOut gr8 guide: “Baked in Paris on Thursday, flown to Tokyo at the weekend, and on the shelf at Takashimaya in Nihonbashi (*) by Wednesday; the Poilâne loaf is pricier than a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, but only five of them make the 9,600-kilometre (6,000 mile) trip to Tokyo each week. And, yes, it tastes like a six-day-old loaf”.
Price: just 5,000 y/loaf. (affordable! but makes sense? ) :P

Lunch:

In the area, where I work (Daikanyama), the lunches do not go below 1000 yen (drinks included, sometimes even a tiny dessert - when I say here tiny I do really mean it: it is no more than 2a tiny dessert”).
What you get for that for lunch in Daikanyama is unfortunately a poor variation of some European food, some miserable spaghetti, for instance. The other day I found here, in Daikanyama, a Japanese place - price the same, just the food better - rice balls and a tiny portion of these sweetened mashed beans - for a dessert.

*rice balls is..a rice ball 😉, sometimes wrapped with nori, and inside you may find sveriaty of stuffing, all kinds of Japanese marinates, seaweed, salmon or fish eggs, …and many not mentioned, not discovered yet.
Price of rice balls range from 105 yen to almost 200 - for fish eggs - but these fish eggs it's not caviare, but big ones, orange, looking a bit like cod liver oil in gelatin capsules (tran) tastes probably like that too. Don't like them (one of very few - maybe 2 - things to eat I do not like from the Japanse cuisine). My Japanse friend neither. Thier price from all of rice balls is the highest.
All the other rice balls/triangles taste v. good! 😊)
And the rice balls is the thing, the first and the only one of Japanse friends was missing most, after the family and friends, while living out of the homeland!

In the other places of Tokyo, not so Westernised & trendy/fashionable as Daikanyama, in one of the centres of the city, which are nearby, like Shibuya or Ebisu, or any other, f.ex. or Shinjiuku, where you will surely go, which are considered to be expensive, you can get a meal for 800 yen or less.
for 880 yen in Ebisu I had pasta with octopus, meet was 100 yen cheaper
750 yen in Shibuya ramen - the “new traditional” Japanse noodles, came to Japan around 100 years ago, from China (according to my Japanese friend)

Dinner :

For a dinner in the restaurant & 1 drink you should have at least 2500-3000 yen.

Drinks ,
if I remember well 😉 550-600 yen+


Transportation

Tokyo's underground/subway/trains is considered to be relatively cheap. (cheaper than in Kyoto)

A single journey the price depends on the distance, no less than 120 yen.

When you travel around the city, probably you will need to change, the densha(trains)&underground lines and so called JR lines belong to different companies, then you are separately charged when you switch between them.

For the transportation, when you travel around the city, I would count unlimited +/ tiny - 1000 yen/day.
Unless you go to one place and back home then it may be less, of course it depends where you go and where you departure from.

From transportation, we move to the trips tips

Trips off Tokyo
From Tokyo I highly recommend moving bums to Hakone.
Hakone is the place, where you can relax in hot springs and admire the great Mt. Fuji.
The best way to get there is with that Hakone Free Pass: 5000 yen. It cover the price of the return ticket on the route Tokyo Shinjuku-Hakone+transportation in the Hakone area. I cannot imagine seeing these area without using the public transport, so don't think you can deal without it.
If deciding to go to Hakone, you should go there for two days. I have gone there just for one, what was kind of mistake, especially this time of the year, when it's getting dark quickly, so I got to the Ancient Cedar Avenue after sunset and in the end did not manage to go to the onsen, I planned to go, as there was a huuuge traffic jam...
It is possible to go there for just on e day, but you need to departure realy early, not just early (8.00) as I did, then you would need to rush all day long and you must skip some things, so less fun and a bit of disappointment is included in one-day trip.
We managed to see quite a lot and even hike part of the way instead of using rope-way (queues were giant on that Sunday), but all that was done under time-preassure.

Kyoto
I went there, while I was living in the Hyogo prefecture, so one day trip was possible for me (much too short though)
If you are in Japan for a short while and you come basically to Tokyo and you would like to see Kyoto, you probably won't want to waste time in the meanings of transportation.
Definitely the fastest way to get there is by Shinkansen (the bullet train) which is rather pricey.
The cheaper alternative is a bus, which travells the whole night

Osaka
The same refers to Osaka, whereas Kyoto is more recommended to see.

Kyoto is for Japan like Krakow in Poland, whereas Tokyo would be like Warsaw 😉
What do I mean?
Kyoto is an old city, old capital with plenty of temples (!exacly like churchy Krakow!) and the old buildings and real plenty of relics from the old, noble history of Japan. Whereas, Tokyo is the new capital, the city of business and the government.

Kamakura
I am departing there in 7 hrs, so I will give you the account tomorrow (or later).

This is also the reason why I need to finish soon.

To be continued....


** I just came across the information on the cheapest accommodation, its's 1,500 bed/night in 12-person shared dormitory.

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Comments

[Dzika]

chlebowe podróże
the story with the higher-priced bread no.2 - unbelivable!