RM150 on bottled water??
All that plastic thrown away...

Bring your own bottle, boil water in your hotel, refill everyday.

Even my AirBnB provides kettle to boil water. I just need a 600ml bottle for whole day since I can drink as much free when we eat our meals. Plus many parks have water fountains if you know where to look.

The only time I ever bought bottled water was to try Japanese matcha tea because shockingly many places don't offer it.

Basic tonkotsu ramen or gyuudon at restaurants is good enough dy. At most places cost 550-750 yen. Set meals -I find- are more for big eaters or those wanting to try the side dishes.

But yeah, our RM is getting worse. Now waiting for yen to appreciate further before I change out my remainder notes. Haha!

Try to look for hotels which provide free beverages / snacks after breakfast. I usually fill up my bottle either during breakfast or at snack bars provided by hotels.

Yoshinova or Matsuya are the cheap/ value eats. Some of their branches even provide free parking as well. But if you eat this regularly during your trip, you will get tired eating the same thing over and over again.

This post has been edited by TOMEI-R: Oct 16 2019, 06:15 PM

In Japan, nothing is cheap la. Also, everyone's expectation and budget is not the same.
2000 yen may be expensive for others but cheap for me, or vice versa.
That said we try to keep within 2000 yen for each lunch and dinner, obviously few dinners will burst our target la.

We are going to have crabs dinner at Dotonbori but that will be on me as a treat for my friend, I guess RM 500-700 will fly that night.

My travel partner fancies and I eat everything, moreover I'm particular with food and read good reviews about this, so just giving it a shot since we will be at Arashiyama anyway.

I feel you, I ended up drinking beer more than water in Europe. In Europe, it is safe to drink from the tap though. In Japan, I haven't tried before.

This post has been edited by fruitie: Oct 16 2019, 05:31 PM

Maybe it's due to habit but I drank tap water as well when I was in Tokyo last year.

I felt fine with no side effects lolz!

Yup agreed. Budget can be anything, but on average a normal meal would probably be around 1k yen. I budgeted that much for lunch and 2k yen for dinner but on average my meals are < 2k for both. We mostly went for small mom-and-pop restaurants and never felt lacking in anything.

Hokkaido crab in Dotonburi eh? Nice! Japan is certainly no country to travel on a shoestring, imho better to save money and travel comfortably at a later time than to travel now and constantly worry how much everything costs.

Good to know we can do it lesser than 2k yen. Yes, I prefer normal small restaurants, those are the most authentic ones. Language could be a problem though. I did the same in Korea when my Korean friend was not with me, simply walked in to small restaurants and pointed what I wanted.

Yes, correct. Japan is not the country to save when it comes to holiday, not that I'm rich, I'm just a normal salaried lady but our currency sucks hence we feel Japan is expensive. Hopefully my allocated budget for this trip will be enough, kinda scary to think about it..

Drank tap water from hotel, didn't get any stomach problems thankfully. Refilled my water in the hotel and in water fountains at parks, no issues. Sapporo 2017.

Just my 2 cents.

I want a cheap bento like this only 300 yen per box and the portion is very big. Where to get beside tokuya?

And I have a baby. Are baby diapers cheaper there? Plan to bring baby milk only and buy diapers there.

This post has been edited by L.Torreira: Oct 16 2019, 08:27 PM


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For instant bento sets, you can easily get them at any Family Mart, Lawson, 7i /7Eleven convenience stores, and many shopping malls like AEON have supermarket section that sells them. Prices & choices available may vary from each of them around 400~550 yen, but AFAIK only those in supermarkets have late nite discounts and this can be a battlezone. I saw someone quickly grabbing a bento set marked down 40% before i could reach it. Haha.

As for diapers, your asking if Japan cheaper than here, I don't think so. Good thing is, you have hand carry baggage to Japan so use it to carry diaper supplies and run them down so you can return with carry on baggage of goodies.

Thanks guys! Yupe, it’s just a reference for the temple as some of it is along the way, not out of the way and I prefer some non touristy temple.

Agreed and maybe I should mix some scenery so I don’t get bored 😁

Any idea for Osaka?

This post has been edited by sebastianX11: Oct 16 2019, 09:58 PM

Wonder how is the taste since most of the bentos are frozen.

All free water in restraurant are tap water. Mostly you will find inside ramen shop. Big water container front of desk for you to fill.

IINM you should reheat them via microwave. I saw most kombinis have microwaves and even my AirBNB have a microwave. All said, there is nothing wrong with eating cold, its not frozen just refrigerated.

One way to eat somewhat hot; turn the bento cover around, then pour some hot water into it and then place the food tray in the water, let it to reheat for a bit. Just be careful with the hot water.

So that means it's safe to drink.

Haha! Good to know!

question about Japanese tourist visa:

if I enter on the 30th March, then I'll get a visa stamp on my passport on the 28th June (90 days).

if during this period, I exit Japan, say 15th April, and enter 30th April, will I get a new visa stamp 30th April + 90days?
Or they will continue from that old visa stamp?

why need reservation?...so good?
why not try "京都祇園う(木桶)鰻魚飯 Uokeya U" at gion?


5000 yen for 100 gram..this is the one sold at kuromon market..the cheapest kobe beef u can get


yes, been drinking tap water in japan since like ever
they don't even provide bottled water for that reason

Any unagi restaurants in Osaka/Kyoto to recommend over Unatoto where you can get a big serving of unagi for 1300-1500yen? See below

Our budget is below 1700-2000Y per person .