My food budget was a disaster for the first fortnight. I was eating dinner out most nights because cooking in a shared kitchen felt like an imposition, and the yen adds up fast when every meal is a decision.
Then one of the second-years took me to a teishoku place near the university gate: a set lunch, one price, rice and soup refilled without asking. It is six hundred yen and it is the single best thing that has happened to my spending.
How I eat now
Set lunch on weekdays, cook properly twice a week, and save going out for the weekend, when there is someone to go with. That rhythm has cut my food spending by something like a third.
Nobody tells you that the cheapest meal of the day here is also the best one.
The other lesson: the places with plastic food in the window and no English menu have been consistently kinder about my terrible Japanese than the ones that cater to visitors.