toyko/kyoto $ pp/day?
 

What should I expect to spend pp/day in toyko and kyoto? (NOT including lodging and we have a JR pass for the later part of our trip tokyo-kyoto-tokyo)
transportation in tokyo?
food?
admission?
etc?

right now I was hoping 50$ a day is reasonable but have no idea

It depends on what you want to do. I would guess that you'll probably need more than $50 pp. I did a 1/2 day tour of Tokyo arranged thru the hotel and that alone cost around $45. Lunches CAN be affordable during the business week(under $15) but dinners can cost you a handful. My dinners were averaging $50 per person...As for transportation, take the subway. Taxi's are really expensive!

50 pp for dinner (eek!) I didn't know it was that $$$!

We mostly want to see tech areas, museums and a few shrines, gardens and temples-

as for food we dont need to eat nicely just a bowl of noodles from a street vendor would do (if there is such a thing)

Dinners do not need to cost $50 pp. We ate lunch at noodle shops--didn't see many street vendors--for about $10-$15 pp. For dinner, we consulted our guidebooks and chose places for about $25-$35 pp. Once in a while, we splurged a bit more. I would consider that we were medium-budget people--not too expensive, not backpacking it either. I think that you can do $50 pp per day for food, but should add more for transporation and admissions. I'd say about $80 pp would be good. Tokyo is like any other expensive city--there are expensive and cheap places to eat and a lot in between.

Have fun. We loved Tokyo and can't wait to go back!

There are many reasonable (and delicious) places to eat in Tokyo. I would urge you to check prices before entering (actually, many Japanese places have their prices posted in the window, sometimes in Japanese characters). If you stick to noodle shops and small sushi sets at reasonably priced sushi bars, you can probably just meet your goal of $50 per person. Depending on how far you travel within Tokyo (and whether you use subways or taxis), you may be able to keep your transportation budget to a minimum. In the past, I've spent about $8 per day on subways (three general destinations per day). The places for noodles and and reasonably priced sushi meals I described should cost you about $10 and $20 respectfully.

Good luck.

MMM

Worst case we can spend around 100$ per day.. so its good to know 50 is doable even if its a strech...
(although I was told bora bora couldn't be done for under 100 per day and we did it for 50!)