Cheap eats travel tip: BUY GROCERIES

It's probably a good idea to buy groceries instead of eating out. Twenty bucks can feed three people in Japan. Seriously.

Oh and we actually had an extra bowl of eel (yes, we had way too much we couldn't even finish it!) but it's not in this photo.

A good way to save money while traveling (well a good way to save money in general) is to buy groceries.

While we were in Ameyoko yesterday, we came across a bunch of fish! We had been planning on cooking dinner that night for our host, Andrew, so we decided to make sushi! Haha. Two American girls making sushi in Japan.

So in Ameyoko, we ended up buying eel for 1000 yen. That is $10. We didn’t know what to get for sides so we were super frustrated and eventually gave up.

After hitting up Ameyoko, Steph and I crossed the street toward the train station. It was so frustrating not having the stuff we needed and we were all the way on the other side of the city. Tokyo is a HUGE city. It’s not like San Francisco, where we’re from where it seems big but is really only 7 square miles big.

Anyway, we had just gotten into Daikanyama yesterday so we didn’t really know where everything was. Instead of going into the station right away, Steph took a smoke break and I started roaming around. I noticed that there was a department store looking place and in the basement was a grocery food store! Apparently those are very popular in Tokyo!

We were able to score some rice topped with seaweed wrap, mushrooms, and cucumbers for less than 9 bucks all together!

Total for the meal: 1834 yen. That’s less than 20 bucks. Yum!

Smart, cheap shopping in Ameyoko!

Before we even came to Japan, Steph and I had been so excited to hit up Ameyoko, "Candy Store Alley". After World War II, Ameyoko was basically the black market. Now it's a bargain area (think flea market but better) where people can get imported products for cheap. Ameyoko is in Ueno, a district in Taito which is a ward in Tokyo. I know. It is set up right by the Ueno Train Station.

We were very careful about spending our money though. I mean, HELLO, we didn't come to Japan to spend our yen on American stuff when we live there. And to us, it's not that much cheaper. However, we WERE able to get some other cool stuff.

Now because this is an HONEST, budget blog, I will say that personally, it's a bit hard to shop for authentic Japanese souvenirs here as this place seems to cater towards shopping for Western products.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of the things you can find in Ameyoko:

Yummy street vendor goodies with friendly, cute kids. They're so adorable!

Lots of different types of fish for good prices.

See this dress? It cost only 599 yen. You bet your ass I bought it! I've always wanted to look like those cute Japanese women on those game shows who are dressed up to look like obedient little schoolgirls! Kidding.

Big crowds. I got a little overwhelmed at one point actually. It's okay to take breaks.

We took our break at Mister Donut on one of the side streets. Now Mister Donut wasn't cheap at all. It cost me about $5 for all this. And the donut wasn't even that good but that's probably due to my spoiled, unhealthy, American taste buds. I think it's a bit more health conscious here in Japan because it wasn't sweet at all - at least not to me. Although it did taste VERY FRESH. Maybe that's why fat people don't live in Japan. Maybe we Americans can learn from them heh? I'm not kidding this time.

Now we did come across some really beautiful postcards for 86 yen each. That's about 86 cents. I think it's 100 yen for 97 cents so do the math yourself. Now, I have only been in Japan a few days so I don't know if this is cheap or not. To me postcards seem to all be the same = pricey. But whatever. I did pick some up though just because they were just too freakin cute!