After been to Japan, I find good food is a given and may not have to be expensive. A sushi platter for 1200yen is probably low end but it felt much better than anything more expensive I get in Malaysia. I saw unagi bowl don't have to be that expensive but I guess foodie enthusiasts can tell the difference between a 1800 yen unagi and a 3k one. As for my commoner tongue, everything was good; from the sushi platter to the Ichiran & Yoshinoya to the obscure mom-and-pop restaurants I went to. (Izakayas are just plain ripoff because of the booze).

As for cheap food? I find no such thing. A reasonable mean should budget 700~900yen per person, unless willing to live off kombini bento box sets.

This post has been edited by babylon52281: Oct 16 2019, 04:34 PM

Remember that its a rental and need to take care so it don't get damaged or dirtied yea.

This post has been edited by babylon52281: Oct 16 2019, 04:35 PM

Better to boil just to stay safe. Anyways, I find nearly all full serviced restaurants I been to provides free water.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Haha! Good to know!

Getting super cheap bentos are more on luck. Don't hope to get it at the price you want, with the varieties you want, on an everyday basis. AFAIK only supermarket bentos have deep discounts and often you have to battle with the locals to get some. Don't plan ur daily meal budgets around 200yen or you'll quickly run out of cash.

I find Matsuya is cheaper a lil bit (100yen or so) than Yoshinoya. I only go Matsuya 2 times for breakfast because it only cost 290 yen for basic gyuudon set.

Ramen franchises like Ippudo or Ichiran is about the same price. Another chain that I went to is Tendon Tenya (天丼 てんや) which primarily serves beef and seafood don. Not sure if you can find in ur area of visit. Another franchise I tried is Coco Ichibanya (curry rice). All 600-800 yen with good portions. Others mostly I tried is small family restaurants but I see ur need for halal(or pork free) food so that is a challenge. Most restaurants display their menu at front so it helps if you can read them. Otherwise McD, KFC, Mos Burger, Starbucks, is your best choice.

I would usually include meals as part of my trip experience so I prefer to try as much variety and not too worried about the prices but that's me personally.

This post has been edited by babylon52281: Oct 18 2019, 06:13 PM

I tried Wiyo. Speed is okay but during my usage duration had to restart the dongle becoz it hanged. Best is can pickup and drop off the dongle at KLIA2 24/7.

Any full size meal I find it sufficient. Just don't expect to go on only 1 meal a day.

I didn't do too many gyuudon. Twice at Matsuya for breakfast (small beef portion), once at Yoshinoya, one time at Tendon (the other time I went for their ebi katsudon). Truthfully each of them are tasty that I probably could eat the same food daily, but then I would have missed out on eating the other varieties of food I tried. haha.

Load up with medicine and Vitamin Cs and you should able get well in 2 weeks no problem. Anyways, is not like people stop travelling when they are sick. On my flight back, I had a person behind constantly coughing and sneezing all 7 hrs at back until I can feel his breath at my head. Haha! lucky I didn't catch anything from him.

Ohh so you got APA Hotel. That's just a stone throw away from my AirBNB just beside Hotel Coure. Haha! Good choice as catching the trams, buses, & JR train is super convenient. Plus you can easy to buy the passes and tickets at Info Counter.

We did the whole pharmacy visits but we find the standard medicines are more expensive than in Malaysia. Whatmore all the packaging are in Japanese words so it was real challenge to find anything, one of our group wanted Japanese tiger balm but we gave up finding it.

Instead we loaded up on just Kitkats.... all 6,000+ yen full of Kitkats. We nearly emptied that pharmacy of their Kitkats

I think most go there to buy beauty products (SK2, Shisheido, etc).

This post has been edited by babylon52281: Oct 21 2019, 05:27 PM

We weren't really going there just to buy medicine but one of our party had travel sickness so wanted tiger balm but we just don't know how to describe it to the staff. Probably if we say tiger balm, they won't know rite? And none of us know to read or speak mandarin so yeah.

Anyways it was just a couple days by 3rd day the person was alrite. So not getting any medicine wasn't a deal breaker for our trip or anything.

Buying a row of medicine? Err.....

This post has been edited by babylon52281: Oct 21 2019, 06:17 PM

Beauty products my friend. Many of the stuff we even get in Malaysia is not available in China (or at least only in high class boutique shops at expensive prices). That's what my colleague told me before.

I guess you missed me saying that we don't know to read or speak mandarin. Not sure if they would know Cantonese though.....

But yeah, its quite awkward hearing mandarin in Japan, like the one time I was at a matcha tea prep demo and the presenter was talking in fluid universal mandarin. For a split second I thought I was in China!

fruitie
Don't forget that you can also buy the 1000yen Mt Inasa pass at the Info Counter too! You can probably get other tourist only deals as well so be sure to ask!