More on Travel

More things I've found out.

When going to a country with a different writing system, culture shock is a big possibility. Not only are you in a foreign country with a foreign culture, but you're illiterate. This makes it rather hard to memorize city and place names, since they're written in another writing system. Tokyo wasn't a "planned" city. This means not only will you have issues reading city names, you'll also have problems memorizing street names. Why? They don't have many. At all. This also means that roads are not in the easy-to-navigate-because-they're-all-straight-and-numbered method of city planning. Japan's addressing system is also REALLY different from what America uses. Here's a comparison:

American - 1234 Street, City, State 00000
(house number)(street), (city), (state)(zip code)

Essentially, there is NO ambiguity in our system. No one has the EXACT same address and it's relatively easy to find because of the "zip code". Another reason our system is different is because we start small and then work to the bigger fish.

Japanese - 〒100-8994 Tōkyōto Chūōku Yaesu itchōme goban sango Tōkyō Chūō Yūbinkyoku
(Postal code)(Prefecture-to)(City-ku)(City dictrict-chome)(5-block)(3-house number)

Think of it like zooming in by section or gradually using higher powered magnification. The idea behind it isn't bad at all. The only problem is that nothing is in order. Your next door neighbor could be on the other end of the house number spectrum. The last 3 are usually written as a string of numbers. In this case, it would be (1-5-3). There is some confusion as to how to use this address system with google maps. So far, I've had no problem, but some people report having to google it using Japanese characters. With the new postal code, there isn't much ambiguity, however it will still take awhile to find an address without directions.

Eating Cheap

I've really no clue. The best thing I can say is give the Japanese grocery store a go or eat convience-store meals. Using this method, you should be able to keep meals around 1500 yen a day. I'll let you know how it works out.