How much does Food in Japan REALLY COST?!?

In this episode, we discuss how much Japanese food cost and its portion sizes as compared to different countries.

This episode was edited by @hideikeda
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[TokyoCreativeTalk]

Is Food in your country as expensive as Japan? Comment your thoughts down below!

[Angultra]

Not legally required to tip in Canada (but of course still customary), also some places add a service charge (tip) for 6+ people so need to be careful not to double tip.

[kaltask]

Tipping is bs, just pay actual salary to your workers! Happy that we dont have that in Finland.

[mattluck]

Perfect timing! I was just making myself some tea!

[pikachuiloveyou]

I love watching your videos! They are always so informative. I have the world's shortest attention span, but I always find that I'm able to watch your videos from start to finish.

[rachelruthfrankle]

Very useful video as I’m travelling to Japan end of May and this video has given me plenty of tips for when I need to budget keep up the good work x

[XSpImmaLion]

Oh, I'll just add one more thing as a tip for people going there.. and perhaps people living there too.
For restaurants, if you wanna go in the cheap, there are family restaurants with really cheap but still good food. I bet Shizuka and the others already know about this but they forgot to mention. These types of restaurants usually have a... how was it called? Drink buffet? All you can drink buffet, and then cheap menu plates.
One that we went a lot on our trip last year was called.... Saizeriya? Near the Narita station area.

[calvinchapman]

It's definitely not legally required to tip in Canada, everyone is just really nice and generally tips even when they receive bad service. The tip is an expected part of the salary, however if you give me terrible service you're going to make less because I won't tip you.

[nikkeii]

There are supermarkets in the US that mark down food as well. Mitsuwa, Marukai (now Tokyo Central) and Nijiya will mark down the bento boxes like sushi, fish and fried foods.

[aegistahl]

Can you make a video about the overall cleanliness of Tokyo being the large city it is? Like garbage/recycling rules?

[zam]

On my campus, we have the 100yen breakfast from 8:30am to 9:00am. You get a small bowl of rice, miso soup and 2 side dishes (eggs, fish, veggy etc). Tea is all you can drink. It is only for student and staff though. For normal lunch and dinner time, students and staff get a discount, comes to about 400 to 600 yen per meal, it depends on what you take. Visitors pay normal price, but it is still pretty cheap, and it is really good.

Could I take Shizuka out for lunch if I come to Tokyo ^_^ It will be on me.

[yury]

for lunch, the best deal for me is the university canteen...they sell donburi for only 300 yen with free flow ocha, meanwhile for dinner for sure go to the supermarket for the half-price items, if you're okay to wait until like 9 pm...you cannot beat 45 yen onigiri or 150 yen soba set in those joints

[nataliyainmotion]

Tokyo can be affordable for sure! It’s just it takes a bit of search effort on your part. I can often find a thing of strawberries for ¥300 or even ¥150 if they will go bad soon at the little produce shop rather than ¥500-900 at my supermarket. It’s just sometimes I’m tired and I default to one-stop convenience.

[Jeldin]

In regards to tipping, its not illegal to not tip in America, but a lot of our servers here don't even make minimum wage (only a handful of places will pay min and even less pay over that). For reference, I served a few years from like 2012-2014, and I started at $3.35/hr and left at $3.75/hr. So its not gonna get you in trouble with the police, but its definitely looked down on since you're basically preventing them from making a living. A good general rule that I go by is 10% for poor service, 15% for average, 20%+ for great or better service. I never refuse to tip even on bad service since, having worked as a server, I totally understand that sometimes you just have a bad/off day. It sucks to have a bad experience, but that shouldn't warrant making it more difficult for that person to live or take care of their family.

[themysterytraveler]

Shinjuku Nakamura was about $8 for lunch when I went there a couple of years ago, and $80+ at dinner from what I understand. It's a 1 Michelin starred restaurant. There's also 3 ramen restaurants that have Michelin stars too, so that's another affordable option.

[silviastanziola]

Tipping is not required in Canada, at least not legally. And Starbucks does have the short sizes here, too, but they don't seem to advertise it a lot either.

[marcoabyss]

i'm moving to japan in the fall semester....just in time for tsukimi burger!

[SirEveryman]

If I've said it before I've said it a thousand times, Ian is a titan. The guy probably shits cultural insight in the morning.

[waltera]

Kinda funny that as the group is discussing prices, I'm reminded of the high costs of finding food items in certain cities in the United States. Cities like Los Angeles, New York, and even surrounding areas that are pretty on-par with those in Tokyo. 800 Yen for 8 strawberries is pretty close to the $10 for 1/4-pound of strawberries in Southern California last summer with the price gouging that goes on.

[notAlbertbtw]

I was just plannig to go to Japan, this vid was uselful because im planning to eat the whole country's food suplyy!
Keep up the good work