Well yeah, it depends on what you want to do. Like for me, my plan is to go to all the touristy places in the Kantou Tokyo region (池袋、浅草、銀座、秋葉原、原宿、新宿などなど）。 I know that doesn’t really seem like I’m seeing “real” Japan, but thats my plan and what I want to do so figured about $5000 for everything and a high possibility of free lodging.

But if you’re set about doing that, then you should definitely do it. I mean, it sounds like a great idea. Though like what KiaiFighter said, probably your biggest costs will be transportation lodging. Not that I’ve been to Japan before but I can imagine it would have to be that. Where did you say you wanted to go?

Also, can anybody here who’s currently living in Japan or has been to Japan, enlighten us about how the train passes there work? There’s like this $700 JR pass offered on the website for 2 weeks and thats kinda crazy. I know theres cards like Passmo and Suica but not really sure how that works and how much that all is.

Depends on where you stay I think. Someone who has probably been to Japan would probably know. Im figuring the same amount that you are thinking but for about 2 weeks so you might wanna double that for an entire month. I mean, I’m gonna be staying at multiple friends houses while I’m there so it helps alot but…..also remember that around 1/5 of that money is just gonna be used for the roundtrip plane ticket. Taking account the fact that the yen is much stronger than the dollar right now, its probably safe to say that $5000 is not enough for one month unless you find the the cheapest lodging, cheapest plane ticket, and eat cheaply.