Tips for travelling on a budget in Japan...and not going hungry!

View of Tokyo Tower

Japan isn’t known as a budget travel destination. However, it is possible to stretch your yen without going hungry. When I backpacked Japan, I managed to eat more than just ngiri.

My tips for budget travel in Japan:

• Get a Japan Rail Pass – I travelled on the 14 Day pass which now costs about $600AUD. On the pass we travelled extensively throughout Japan on the high speed bullet trains. You can jump on any JR train including the JR Yamamote line in Tokyo.
• Eat at food stalls - the hole in the wall eateries in train stations and off the street. A steaming bowl of udon noodle soup is usually only 120 yen with seaweed and tofu.
• Have a breakfast at a bakery. The self serve Bread Talk-style bakeries are everywhere – in shopping malls and train stations. Stock up on the buns for snacks on a train ride as they're cheaper than buying goods from the singing waitresses on JR trains.
• Drink coffee from a vending machine. It’s out of a can, but coffee is still coffee, right?

• Eat dinner from a vending machine. This perhaps isn't as appealing as drinking coffee from a can.

• Buy a bento box dinner. I admit buying a bento box meal in Japan is like getting a Happy Meal when you're a kid. It's strangely exciting, particularly as you don't quite know what pickled vegetable you're eating and you half expect to find a toy inside the box.
• Take an overnight train. We took a train (with three changeovers) from Sapporo all the way to Kyoto. This was a crazy 13 hour journey but we did save on one night's accommodation and saw some beautiful scenery along the way. 

One of my readers asked about seeing more budget travel posts just as I was drafting this article. I promise I'll be doing a lot more budget travel posts regularly. Follow my tweets and stay tuned!