Where to visit in Japan?

I am thinking about visiting Japan. Japanese culture has always interested me. Yet I know also that it can be extremely expensive (for americans at least). I was wondering if anyone can recommend an itenerary for visiting Japan that would avoid the exhorbitant expenses (i.e. avoiding Tokyo)? Thanks in advance...

Everywhere in Tokyo is expensive - for anyone. It might actually be cheaper to stay in Tokyo because of the costs of travelling - it is expensive to get around. This is why many Japanese go overseas rather than travel in their own country - it's cheaper. Staying at a guest house, weekly mansion or traditional inn (ryokan) will cut costs significantly over a hotel. Eating your big meal at lunch time will as well - many restaurants have great lunch sets for about $10 US. Don't take express trains cuz this adds 30% or more to the cost of the ticket but often doesn't save that much time. Go to museums and stuff without an entrance fee - although I'd say you're looking at an average of $10 per museum or historical site. My parents both came to visit me this year (separately) and both of them commented on how cheap it was to eat here compared to North America (I'm Canadian, but from a border city so eat in the States a lot). The big expense is the hotel. Don't stay at any major chains and you can find nice rooms for $60 to $80 a night. Guest houses / youth hostels are around $40. Depends on what your minimum standard is.

Check out the guest houses or hostels then (also called gaijin houses). You can get them for about 4000 yen for a night if I remember correctly. There are quite a few listed in the Lonely Planet. Other option is called a weekly mansion - they charge about 28,000 yen for the week. You'll need some basic Japanese to set this up though. Mansion = concrete apartment building in Japan. You'll get a room with a bed, a wardrobe, a small bathroom and possilby a desk and TV.

If you look really, really, really hard you can find cheap restaurants. It took me over 3 months of living here before I found places. Unless you know Japanese writing, basically you are illiterate in a country you cannot communicate verbally in. That makes it pretty hard to find things. Lots of fast food places - you can get a combo for about 550 yen. That's a sandwich American med sized fries and American small sized drink (FYI - in Japan both of those sizes are considered Larges). As for sushi, even the kaiten (rotator belt sushi) will only give you two pieces of the cheapest sushi for about 110 yen. Five plates (10 pieces) might fill you up, but you're probably looking at 8 plates worth. (A plate comes with 2 pieces usually). Don't go bargain hunting for sushi - when dealing with raw fish you want to make sure it is fresh. American sushi and Japanese sushi are not the same - in the US sushi tends to be immitation crab, cucumber and mayo. In Japan, it is raw fish, raw fish and raw fish. You can get cooked shrimp, cooked egg and cooked crab. But the crab will be real. Ramen, sometimes you can find cheap places. But most places start at 700 yen. You'll have to really search to find cheap ones. See comments about language. The cheapest I have found for a basic bowl of ramen is about 400 yen. To save money you can go to the convenience store and cook your own meals. You can buy instant noodles starting at about 100 yen. Convenience stores also have 'bento' (meals) that are not too bad. Most of them are about 500 yen. Half of the meal will be white rice. $10 is not expensive for an industrialized country - other than fast food places, where can you eat a meal in North America for that price? I say spend the ten bucks on lunch so you can experience Japanese cuisine, and cook your own dinners and breakfasts.