I also want to thank everyone for their comments. I've been studying Japanese on my own, and I was thinking next year I'd like to take a trip there for three reasons:
#1 Most Important: To play
Go there
2: To "experience" Japan
3: To scout it out as a potential place to live
Judging by Sangetsu's estimates, I'd want to at least budget ¥10,000/day---more if I wanted to have a less-than-barebones experience. The basics, plus ¥45,100 for one 14-day adult JR pass (necessary if I'm looking around for potential places to live!) would put me at ~¥185,000 minimum, weighing in at around $2,000. That plus the cost of plane tickets---which I hope aren't too expensive---comes out to a pretty hefty sum for sure, likely $3,000+.
I'm hoping by this time next year I'll have saved enough and acquired enough language proficiency to pass the JLPT level 2. The latter is not a requirement, but would be nice in terms of comprehending the environment---especially if I'm scouting to live there. Only time will tell for either of those. In either case, there was a purpose to this post besides summarizing already-known details.
I'd like to ask about the actual tourist-amenities available in Japan. For instance, do the hotels provide any manner of cooking apparatus? ¥2,000/day for food is all well and good if I'm to be eating out of restaurants twice a day, but I think I could cut a fair amount of it if I were cooking my own foods right? I don't need to be eating out all the time; I'd be fine with 1 restaurant meal every day or two, and for the rest I'd happily settle for whatever the equivalent is to the 30-cent, three-minute ramen noodles I survived so well on not long ago. Naturally with a budget reaching upwards of $3,000, I'll be looking to cut costs in many departments, and eating gourmet has never been my perogative.
Aside from cooking away my costs, are there any other suggestions for what to do or buy while there that will save money? All advice welcome, and thanks again for the enlightening posts! ^^