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Going to Japan for a month, need help with food!? |
Travel Info I'm going to Japan for about a month in August and am thinking of staying in hotels the entire time. I will be spending about 2 thirds of the time in Tokyo and one third in Osaka. Now, here's the problem, I will not have any cooking facilities when I'm there and since I'm currently a university freshman I don't have a huge budget for food and drink... does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do for food for a month? Thank you so much for any help! Travel Tips If I was in that situation, I'd go to the grocery store anyway and find stuff to fit what I can in the hotel fridge, and a few non-perishables on the table or wherever. Look for this sign: 绔嬨仭椋熴亜銇濄伆 It reads "tachigui soba". These are small soba shops where you can buy a nice hot bowl of soba or udon noodles for only about 3-500 yen. You have to stand at a counter to eat though. It's healthy, warm, and cheap. Definitely go to convenience stores and get some onigiri (triangle-shaped rice "balls" with a filling in the centre, wrapped in seaweed). Yum! They usually sell for about 100 yen, which is great. Convenient, cheap, and healthy. Not to mention very Japanese. That's an easy lunch or breaky: a couple onigiri, a drink, and a chocolate bar. All for about 500 yen. Check out some of the rags intended for foreigners in Tokyo. They'll probably advertise some all-you-can-eat places if you want to splurge. If you want to have a good fast-food burger, go to Moss Burger. It will make you look at burgers in a new light. And go to my secret little gyoza place in Ueno. I love that place. If you like gyoza, these are massive gyozas. Get into Ameyokocho. It's a market area near Ueno station. There are basically two streets parallel to each other on either side of the elevated train track. Once in awhile there's a cross street that connects the two. I think it's the second or third little cross street. You'll see some stores under the track, and one tiny place will be selling huge gyoza outside. Get in line, and buy yourself a nice place of gyoza, maybe some wonton and a beer. Delicious! Japan doesn't have to be expensive for food. Rent is another story though. Others I lived in Japan for a year on a VERY tight budget. Food is reputed to be expensive there, but you just have to eat as the natives eat! That means noodle shops, cheap Chinese, curry on rice, and sushi - yeah, even sushi. EASIEST ADVICE: Get a hold of Lonely Planet's guide to Japan - Lonely Planet has you covered for INexpensive travel, including cheap AND GOOD eats. Get the Lonely Planet guide (NOT Frommer's, NOT Foder's). And just do as you see the young students do - follow them down the narrow streets and into the working class neighborhoods. That's where you'll find good eats. Have fun! [ADDED] Just looked at the other answers here and just remembered this: At that major department stores (Seibu, Mitsukoshi, etc.), they sell wonderful Japanese foods in the basement level. You can go through at lunch time and sample to your heart's content and make a healthy meal out of it! It's truly a part of the Japan experience - just don't show up too frequently at any one store! Also, check out this website: http://www.japan-guide.com/ they have mcdonalds there and they have food kiosks in the subway i went to japan for spring break!! food over there is pretty expensive so just try out the local shops for some ready made food that isn't as expensive as a restaurant. Since you don't have a place to cook, you will have to rely mostly on ready made food, so just look around for the lowest prices you can find. i went to osaka last year but ate mostly at motels and hotels, so the best thing to do is just look around for the best prices. I could give you several options, but I don't know how much food do you consume daily. In supermarkets, around 7-8 in the evening, they start selling part of the ready food (there's ready food corner almost everywhere) at half price, so if you hang around , you will find something cheap for sure. There's also 100yen shop, where you can buy instant noodles- in Japan there's huge variety of instant noodles any type and taste- yakisoba, udon, ramen, spaghetti, anything. In every decent hotel there's a pot to boil water, so this might decide your dinners. In 24h stores (combini) Sunkus and Circle K there's a corner, where they sell donuts and other sweets 2 pieces per 100 yen, and you are not much of a breakfast person, you can do well with breakfast for 50yen. Besides, if you haven't decided hotels yet, the chain I usually use , Toyoko Inn, provides free breakfast-onigiri,croissant, tea, miso soup, coffee. http://www.toyoko-inn.com/eng/ There are heaps of cheap restaurants all over Japan - usually you can get a decent meal for around 500yen, sometimes cheaper. Look for restaurants where you have to buy a ticket for you meal when you enter. Another option is the convenience stores - they sell meals that they will heat up for you and they're usually quite cheap, they also sell ready-made sandwiches. Supermarkets (and convenience stores) also sell instant noodles so all you have to do is add hot water - again, convenience stores usually have an urn of boiling water just for this purpose. A lot of supermarkets also have microwaves for customer use too. |
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