Mangakissas, McDonalds and other cost saving tips

Japan is a very expensive country to travel around. It was by far the most expensive country we have visited on our trip. The Japanese Yen has always been strong against the pound but with the pound itself weak at the moment things were even worse. When we were there £1 bought you about 160Y (today its dropped even further to 140Y). We spent a month in Japan and in order not to completely wipe us out we had to economize where we could.

The big three costs are food, accomodation and transport. Transport is the easy one because of the Japan Rail Pass – don’t come to Japan without one – they are amazing value for money.

On the food front it meant eating (I shudder to say it) in McDonalds a lot. Mostly we’d eat 2 hamburgers each for lunch or dinner (100Y each), forget fries as they are way too expensive (250Y+) and a big mac meal was also out as it costs about 600Y and if we we’re spending that sort of money we’d eat proper food! So when eating cheaply we could both eat for 400Y (about $2.50 – pretty good really). Japan is a very clean country so thankfully we could drink tap water instead of buying expensive mineral water. We ate plenty of nice food too like Sushi (plates from 160Y to 500Y) we would eat about 4-5 plates each, Bento Boxes which are a boxed meal including a variety of items (600Y) and Susan’s favorite Okonomiyaki which is a lovely savory pancake with various vegetables mixed into it (600Y for a meal set with Miso soup). Most food dishes in Japan are about 600-800Y per main dish – even simple noodle dishes, so if you are on a budget you will end up eating at McDonalds quite a bit.

On the accomodation front, a simple business hotel room will set you back £70+ a night. Even hostel rooms with shared bathrooms can cost £50+ a night. So to cut costs we took overnight trains whenever we could and slept in our seats (unfortunately you can’t get sleeper beds with the Japan Rail Pass). When we didn’t sleep on the train we tried as much as we could to seek out the Manga Cafes – you can find these quite easily by following your ears until you can’t hear yourself think over the sound of Pachinko machines, then look around for a bit until you see 24H written somewhere amidst all the Japanese signage. Chances are the 24H sign is a mangakissa. You need to wander over to the sign and look for an entry way, the manga cafes are usually upstairs above the Pachinko Parlours or “other” entertainment establishments.

When you arrive you will be greeted with a confused expression by two impossibly young auburn/spikey/asymmetrically haired fashion victims. They will assume you are lost and expect you to leave in a few moments. They wont speak much, if any English, but they are usually friendly enough and when they realise that you aren’t in fact lost they will be happy enough to help you. On the counter you will find a price list, its quite easy to work it out although none of it will be in English. One of the price boxes will have a moon symbol on it or something and times will be marked in familiar characters. Often you’ll need to join the Manga Cafe before they let you stay overnight, this is usually another 150Y each and you’ll get a little card which you can use if you come across another Manga cafe in the same group in another town. Prices for overnight are about 2000Y (~£12) each for a fixed time period. You have to be careful not to oversleep – we did on our first night and the extra hour in bed doubled the total cost! The great thing about the manga cafes is that you get free drinks – soft drinks, coffee, tea, even slurpees and ice cream in some of them!

In spite of what you may have heard, the magazines themselves for the most part seem pretty harmless although needless to say they are totally bonkers, and of course they are all in Japanese. If you do try to look at the pictures remember that Japanese is written right to left and books are therefore read back to front from our point of view. Although they are so incomprehensible to the uninitiated that I doubt it would help you which ever way you read them!

There was a time when we were going to put off Japan until we had a bit more money to “do it properly” but honestly I’m glad we did it on the cheap. We saw a different side of Japan and, dare I say it, we got in touch with the real Japan in a way we never would have if we had been insulated in a comfy hotel.