Hello hello, I'm back again, just a day after the last post
Since I've gotten used to life in Tokyo I think I'm going to make a post about how to get cheap stuff in what is considered one of the most expensive cities in the world.
There are some areas where, yeah, Tokyo is expensive, you can't do anything about that (see: apartments & houses) But since I first came to Japan last year I honestly don't see why it's looked at as such a horribly expensive city to visit.
This doesn't really apply to me since I live here but for anyone planning just to visit, in terms of hotels Asia is good in having a variety of budget hotels and hostels. In some other countries those may be a bit sketchy, but Japan as a whole is known for being safe and immaculate and speaking from experience, it definitely lives up to that.
When I was here just visiting last year I stayed in 3 different budget hotels and they were cheap. The cheapest of the 3 was a hotel but instead of typical hotel rooms they had dorm style rooms, so you'd have your own room with a bed, but showers and toilet were all shared with the entire floor. This place cost 3000￥ a night, about ~30$CAD (and that includes free wi-fi, woooooo internet, and there's also a TV in every room with cable, a bonus for me since I love Japanese television). If you're like me and prefer having your own bathroom though there are many budget hotels with an en suite bathroom as well.
The other 2 hotels I stayed at were of those type and cost about 6000￥, or ~60$CAD per night. That included free wi-fi, a TV with cable, a mini fridge & en suite bathroom, and the location was great, about a 10 minute walk to one of Tokyo's major stations, Ueno. This place was my favourite out of the 3, it's called The Oak Hotel.
The only thing is that these places are usually pretty small, especially the bathrooms. But it's liveable. I might be a bit biased since I prefer small rooms to large ones but I think for sure if you're just staying for like a week it's completely fine. (Unless you're super picky, then go stay in a proper hotel, but be prepared to pay a lot of money)
Now one that applies to me, FOOD!
Regular restaurants in Tokyo I find aren't any different in price than what restaurants back in Vancouver charge but if you want to be even more stingy the best option is CONBINI!
Conbini = Convenience Store.
My absolute favourite thing in Japan, their convenience stores.
Back in Canada/North America convenience stores typically just sell snack food, some drinks, and magazines, and maybe a small variety of actual food. BUT IN JAPAN: they sell every single thing you could ever want in life.
Rice balls, snacks, baked goods, bento boxes, frozen food, alcohol (I don't drink, but hey, the option is there), millions of drinks, shampoo, soap, stationery, manga, magazines, ETC ETC ETC. They also have an ATM and a machine for printing and scanning, and at Japan's convenience stores you can pay for a variety of things including your National Health Insurance payments (every resident of Japan needs this by the way), and things ordered on Amazon, and concert tickets, ETC ETC ETC. And in addition to all that, EVERYTHING IS EXTREMELY CHEAP. Way way way way way cheaper than food stores in Vancouver.
In Tokyo there a variety of convenience stores, the 3 most popular being Family Mart (my favourite), 7-11 (waaaay better than the 7-11s in North America), and Lawson. They all usually have generally the same things, but have some small differences.
Instead of just continuing to describe what convenience stores in Japan have I think I'm just going to make a list of all my favourite conbini food/drinks that I get on a daily basis.
1. Melon-pan (Melon Bread)
My #1 favourite food. It's called melon bread but it doesn't taste like melon, it's just called that because it looks like a melon. It's literally just a sweet bread with no filling or anything special, but for some reason it's just THE MOST DELICIOUS THING I HAVE EVER EATEN. Melon-pan usually sells for 100￥ (~1$CAD)
Breakfast? Onigiri. Lunch? Onigiri. Dinner? Onigiri. Snack? Onigiri. Rice balls save my life. There are tonnes of different kinds of rice balls, including salmon, konbu (seaweed-y thing), tuna, etc etc etc. And they're only 130￥. So buy 1, buy 500, buy enough to feed yourself for the next 7 years.
I originally found out about Family Mart's eclairs through Koyama's extreme obsession with them and ever since I tried them last year the obsession has been past on to me. I don't even know what it is that makes them so delicious, but they are HEAVEN. And only like 150￥.
A recent favourite of mine, it's exactly what the name implies, banana milk with caramel in it. Amazing. ~100￥
A variation of regular melon-pan that actually tastes like melon. It's bright green with a melon flavoured filling inside. I don't think I like it as much as regular melon-pan, but man, it is good.
You can find a variety of iced coffee in bottles in convenience stores, I was obsessed with iced capps and iced coffee back in Vancouver but I had to go to restaurants and fast food places for it so now that I can find it in a convenience store for ~150￥ I'm drinking iced coffee all the time.
Basically flavoured jello topped with a cappucino-ish flavoured cream, DELICIOUS. SO SO SO DELICIOUS. Unfortunately because coffee makes me feel sick because of the acidity and I already drink so much iced coffee I had to stop getting this so often but, SO GOOD.
Even in Vancouver my apartment fridge was always full of milk tea. If you don't know what milk tea is it's basically exactly how it sounds, it's usually sweetened black tea mixed with milk or cream. It's a bit more expensive than regular tea and I don't get it as often as just regular unsweetened iced teas but it's definitely one of my favourites.
A more traditional Japanese food, dango is just like mochi (these little balls made out of rice flour, has a jelly-like consistency) on a stick. The ones I see in convenience stores the most often are mitarashi dango (dango coated with syrup made out of soy sauce and sugar) and three coloured dango. My favourite is the mitarashi dango.
Again, as the name suggests, yakisoba on bread. (Yakisoba = fried noodles) Like it's literally like a hotdog bun with yakisoba stuffed in it. I don't know why, but it just works.
And I should probably stop now huh. I'm just really passionate about convenience stores.
If you're visiting Japan and don't want to spend money on restaurants for every single meal, definitely go to a conbini and pick up some stuff instead, it'll save you tonnes (& it's delicious).
And lastly, clothes.
If you walk around Tokyo you'll notice that 95% of the population is dressed amazingly well. The women especially. Seeing how nice everyone looks you'll want to go buy clothes to look just as nice, but clothes are not cheap in Tokyo. And on top of that, if you aren't the average Japanese size it's unlikely anything will fit you. (a North American "M" size is basically an "L" here in Japan) Especially shoes. Good luck finding shoes over an American size 6 or 7 in regular stores.
Recently I have been needing to buy new shoes and a winter coat but seeing as I've wasted all my money shopping around Harajuku I couldn't afford to just go anywhere for those, + I'm like extremely obese according to Japanese standards so finding shoes in my size and a jacket that would actually fit is near impossible.
BUT!!!! THERE IS HOPE!
And hope comes in 2 forms, Shimamura and Mode-Off.
Shimamura is a clothing/shoe store that not only comes in a variety of sizes (including "big" sizes - I'm not joking they have a whole section of the store labelled "大きい" aka "Big" for us obese members of society) but also at low prices. Probably the most expensive thing I've seen in Shimamura so far was 6900￥ (a big winter coat). The best deals here are their shoes however. The thing that drew me to Shimamura in the first place was their larger shoe sizes at extremely low prices (at least in comparison to shoe costs back in Vancouver). Sizes go up to a 3L (I'm not sure what this translates to in American or European sizes... a 9 or 10 in American maybe?) and prices range from 1000￥-3000￥ (~10$-30$CAD). Truly a blessing.
& as for their clothes, as I said, they have the "big" section which in some cases is even too big for me, but also the rest of the stuff in the store is also a bit bigger than what you find in usual stores so that's nice too. Stuff that fits foreigners!!!!!!!!!!!!! Truly amazing.
As for prices of clothes it goes anywhere from 500￥-3000￥ (~5$-30$CAD) usually. They also have really cheap tights, go buy 5000 of them (I did).
And second, Mode-Off.
Mode-Off is basically a big second-hand clothes/shoes/accessories/etc store. Basically a Japanese version of Value Village. In comparison to Shimamura it can be a lot cheaper (because they're all used clothes), but it can be difficult finding bigger sizes.
But when I say cheap, I mean like really cheap. Last time I was at Mode-Off I bought a jacket for only 300￥ (~3$CAD). A whole big section of the store is specifically for things that are just 300￥. There you can find anything, jackets, dresses, shirts, skirts, trousers, anything, for just 300￥. But the rest of the store, for the most part, is extremely cheap as well. Most things I buy there tend to be from 300￥-1500￥ (~3$-15$CAD). Like I said, it can be difficult trying to find bigger sizes and it's also sometimes difficult to find something that doesn't look like your grandmother wore it in 1762, but you can find really nice things for super cheap if you look hard enough.
And now that this post has gotten long enough, I think I shall stop there.
Basically what I'm saying is... PLEASE COME VISIT ME IN JAPAN, IT'S CHEAP
