I never said I was living in Japan, just that I have the time and money to visit for a few months because I properly manage my time and money. I congratulate you if you are frugal, but your previous statement that you need at least $100K a year to live well is disgustingly wrong. In fact you don't need to be rich to travel the world...my total cost (including flight and room) for three months here should be about $5K. A trip like this occasionally shouldn't be impossible even with low income, as long as your not throwing away your money the rest of the year.
First, what expenses do you have each month...are you living with your parents when in the US? My wife goes to Japan each year (she was born there and her entire family lives in Shinzouka and the surrounding areas (middle Japan). A couple weeks is about $2000 and she's not spending money on lodging. $1200 of that is airfare. The exchange rate is terrible now fortunately now it is at least hovering around 80YEN per dollar...it had dropped to around 70 for a while.
To put this in perspective, even 4 years ago it was around 120YEN per Dollar. 10 years ago a bit more. Oddly the 'historic' sites don't show that picture accurately.
Most low income people couldn't come up with $5,000 of disposible income, that is about $400 per month. What kind of lodging are you doing in Japan? You are doing Hostels. You don't have a private bath, you share a room...most people wouldn't even qualify to lodge there and if they did most wouldn't want to do that.
Personally I think this is far more enjoyable than bragging about the fancy clothes I have and getting drunk with people who admire how much I wasted on said clothes. Today for fun, I'm going to go to the hooters (Nagatacho Station) here in Tokyo...see how they compare
It's interesting that you are claiming you can do all this cheap and are still eating out at the 'expensive' places.
And the place I'm staying, currently there are 5-7 french girls sharing rooms. They like to walk around topless and share the shower. Wasn't planning on that, but its a pretty cool bonus. They can't really speak english, and I highly doubt I'm gonna get any...but I'm not complaining.
again a very rare situation. It's common to bath around each other and see tits and the like, especially at the hot springs...but most aren't walking around half naked outside of that. Most hostels are VERY STRICT in Japan about separating the males and females. Also your stuff is sort of free for the taking.
And for those who do like to drink, you can get dinner and all you can drink (nomihodai) for 2 hours for like $20 here. I tried it once just for the heck of it and you can get a very large variety of drinks, not just beer. Now I know what alcohol is like and I didn't have to spend a ton. Actually I had some edamame, bacon cheese things, and some kind of ice cream parfait type thing that were all great as well. I didn't actually get real food because I had already eaten (didn't know meal was included at this place).
Nomihodai is very limited. You are getting the small selections of beer, wine and some cocktails that restaurant bought, these are all the 'well drink' types. You aren't getting Patron, Moet, etc. They usually have a white and red wine, only a few beers, some regular spirits. You also only have 1 or 2 meal selections for those places.
Haven't gotten out of the city yet, but I hear the country is great... I'm looking forward to going out and exploring later on in my trip. I hope I come back glowing in the dark (stupid American fear mongers). I know an actual in the field professional nuclear engineer, and Ill take his word over random idiots on youtube...its safe here
If you are in North Japan then things will be better as the tourism took a big dive. I know guys that clean up reactors that recommend staying away from 20 miles minimum from that disaster site pretty much for our life times. They also did not sign on to decontaminate even though it was tied to up to half million dollar bonuses. Many died and have had issues that did.
You can do Japan for $5k over 3 months...you aren't going to really enjoy places like Tokyo on that. Mt. Fuji area, the country, etc sure. If one likes just getting out in nature, it can be cheap...but you still are faced with the terrible YEN exchange. There are many islands that over a better experience and much much cheaper.