In Tokyo, we rented an apartment to save a little money on both accommodation and food. (Although Tokyo nevertheless tore a hole in our budget that you could drive a shinkansen through.) I spent a significant amounts of time in high school and college watching anime, reading manga, and shopping and eating at places like Uwajimaya, Little Tokyo, and Monterey Park. So Japan, and especially Tokyo, felt so strangely familiar to me that, spoiled by subtitles, the language barrier surprised me every time. Cooking at home and shopping in supermarkets added to this sense of odd familiarity.

At the local supermarket in Nakano, where our apartment was located, we bought rice, miso, tofu, fish, green onion, kombu, cabbage, and powdered dashi: most of the components of a basic Japanese meal. I made miso soup, rice, and grilled fish, and we ate our first meal in Tokyo with our dishes balanced on our knees and our eyes on the TV　(where we had to make a difficult decision between Dr. Doolittle in English, or reality tv in Japanese), and enjoyed the calm of a dinner that felt refreshingly routine after months of traveling.

For our lunches, I made onigiri with a few budget filling picks like pre-seasoned curry chicken, canned tuna, and dinner leftovers. Onigiri are as easy, portable and durable as sandwiches. Pretty much all you need to know about onigiri can be found on the Just Bento Onigiri FAQ.

While my homemade onigiri are still always a little lopsided and lumpy, if you prefer a more tidy presentation, pre-made onigiri can be bought at any convenience store, or at dedicated onigiri counters, and while they aren't quite as cheap as making your own, they're a bargain compared to almost any other prepared lunch aside from instant ramen.

For breakfasts, we ate the Japanese way as well, with leftover rice and miso soup most mornings. We definitely saved money by cooking in, which made us feel better about the few meals we did eat out at Tokyo prices, but it was also nice to feel a little bit like a local. With our apartment, we got to sleep in when we felt like it, cook what we wanted, and get to know a more residential neighborhood a little bit better.