The biggest question is going to be WHERE in Japan will you be?
Even if we remove rent from the equation, food costs, transportation, etc are going to change based on where you live.
Back when we were poor students, we lived - the two of us - on 120,000/month. If I take rent out of that around 70000....
I hunted down the old post I made about it;
Quote:
Depending on what you are doing, I`d say you can get by with only about 120,000/month - for two people.
We`ve been there, done that, and were quite happy and comfortable at the time. (Although I can`t say I`d choose to do it again.)
48,000 for rent
12,000 for utilities
20,000 for food
20,000 for train passes
and... whatever was leftover was spending money. There were months in which we only used 10,000 for food, and months when we went way over. But it was more than enough to survive and be quite content.
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I think what makes the biggest difference is taking the effort to what is cheap and easy to make in Japanese food, cook it yourself, and not be wasteful. Eating out is WAY too expensive, even if you stick to cheap places. You can make three different meals out of a 300yen pack of pork/chicken, a big bag of moyashi for 80yen, a 60 yen pack of tofu, and 1/4th a daikon for 50yen. Eat out, and you will spend 800 or so at almost every meal.
A lot of people kill themselves in the food department because they don`t realize that what was cheap to make back home is probably not cheap to make in Japan.