Davisman

We are scheduled for a group trip with Overseas Adventure Travel to Tokyo and then on to Kyoto in October. There will be several meals on our own. This is our first trip to Japan.
Would any of you please suggest how much money to allow for the meals we will have on our own? moderate to lower price.
thanks.

rkkwan

At noodles and rice-bowl stores where you pay at a vending machine, then go inside to sitdown and they bring you the food, you can get a bowl of noodles or rice with salad and soup for about 600-700yen. A real nice restaurant about 3,500yen. And many in between.

hopeless_nomad

If you feel like a taste of home, you can drop into Mos Burger or Freshness Burger for some cheap Japanese style fast food. There are regular burgers naturally, but also tofu-burgers, teriyaki rice burgers and other novel menu items.

If you're interested, I just wrote about Freshness Burger on my travel blog:

http://www.thejadedtourist.com/2010/...ss-burger.html

rhkkmk

try pulling up some menus for restaurants in the area and you will see the prices

usernameistaken

A nice place to get affordable meals is at department store food halls. They are a little more expensive than noodle shops and kaiten sushi, but they are a little less intimidating.

At the downstairs food halls you can get bento boxes and nice takeout for around 500-1500Y. Upstairs, at the restuaarnt, you can get sit down meals for around 1000Y-2000Y per person.

hopeless_nomad

That's a great suggestion from usernameistaken. Another tip is that the bento boxes go on sale at the end of the day.

BigRuss

And for snacks -- pastries from Vie de France (it's actually a Japanese chain). There's one in just about every major train station (including Kyoto) and the pastries are less expensive than US equivalent and likely less caloric because the Japanese use far less sugar.

I miss me some Vie de France just thinking about it . . .