On track in Japan

Japan's bullet train speeds past Mount Fuji in Fuji city.

We were only a week away from departing for Japan when we heard a horror story that almost made us think again. "We managed to spend $21,000 in about 10 days," an Auckland friend confessed. And that was with no accommodation costs because they stayed with a relative in Tokyo.

All those thousands went mainly on entertainment, nightclubs, drinks and meals, at Western-style clubs and restaurants. How would we survive? Should we extend the limit on our plastic to avoid starvation?

No, actually. Tokyo can be a great place to spend money but a decade's economic slump in Japan means there are now reasonable options for New Zealanders on a budget.

The rise of the New Zealand dollar and the fall of the Japanese currency has helped hugely - $1 now converts to around 75 yen - and most top-class international hotel chains have rooms at rates comparable to those in New Zealand.

And the cost of getting about Japan on its famous and efficient shinkansen (new trunk line) ultra-fast bullet train means a week in the country of cherry blossom and geishas is unlikely to make the eyes water.

But the key to survival is to avoid the fancy Western-style joints where our friends had gaily disposed of their $21,000.

"When in Japan, do what the locals do," advised our savvy Air New Zealand pilot friend. "Eat at the railway stations. The food there is fantastic." Pilot Fred was right. For about $10, a wooden-boxed bento (boxed lunch, often including sushi) can be bought.

Buy the box from one of the many food stall shops along the length of platforms at any Japanese railway station, take the food on board the shinkansen, fold down the tray table at your seat and eat while watching the world go past at more than 200 km/h.

Another budget culinary tip came from New Zealand's former High Commissioner to Japan, Phillip Gibson and his wife Chansuda Gibson, who live at the embassy in the heart of Tokyo's Shibuya area.

Earlier in the night, we had been to the Asia Youth Orchestra's 15th anniversary tour performance in Tokyo Opera City's concert hall, where for two hours, the pick of the region's musicians played Debussy's La Mer and Rachmaninov's Symphony No 2 in E minor, both performed with startling perfection. The seats cost between Y2500 and Y6000 ($33 and $80) each, but the experience was worth it for the up-close look at Tokyo's high-class society - including the big-haired Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

After 10pm, our economy-minded diplomat suggested one of Shibuya's famous kuru kuru zushi (conveyor-belt-styled sushi) restaurants, where with a group of white-shirted, bleary-eyed salarymen, well-dressed office ladies and the funky youth, we watched the meals drift by.

For just $10 to $12 a head, diners can have up to seven dishes. Charges are tallied according to the number of empty plates at your seat when you depart. Half a dozen white-swathed chefs competed to announce their masterpieces in Japanese, although one did yell "entree" once for the benefit of the gaijin (foreigners).

Bamboo containers bulge with pickled ginger. Wasabi is on request. We ate the seven small dishes. It was not until we were rising to leave that a written menu explaining each dish in English was presented to us. Tip: get the menu before you eat. But we did get a taste of the more expensive side of Tokyo. The Imperial Hotel is a grand building near the Imperial Palace (on the site of Frank Lloyd Wright's original Old Imperial hotel, part of which has now been moved to Kyoto), and is horrendously expensive. Because it was handy to the office of The Economist's Tokyo bureau chief, Philadelphia-born Brian Barry, we met in the foyer lounge. Four espresso, iced-coffee and iced-tea orders came to a startling $80.

But we did glimpse a hotel which is often not the first choice of many gaijin but which Japanese regard as one of their country's finest and most historic.

Travelling is much cheaper. Japanese business people get about on the shinkansen, forwarding baggage so they can more easily navigate the crowded undergrounds. To get to our meetings in Chubu prefecture's Nagoya, we took the 5.13pm Nozomi superexpress bullet train (about $68) each.

At the precisely appointed time of 6.56pm, the bullet train pulled into Nagoya where the Marriott Nagoya Associa Hotel is directly above the station in one of the two JR Towers, each more than 50 levels high.

A luxury twin room on level 39 costs $390, complete with two full breakfasts.

Cellphones are also barred from the Marriott's breakfast area.

Travelling from Nagoya to the tourist mecca of Kyoto is $40. Kyoto's railway station, built in 1997, has become one of Japan's most grandiose modern monuments, costing Y150 billion($195 billion), a futuristic glass and steel structure straddling the railway tracks for almost 1km.

Kyoto Century Hotel is next to the station and provides comfortable rooms for about $300 a night including breakfast.

A tour of Kyoto for three was arranged for Y16,000 ($211) with Akira Nakanishi (email kyototour@aol.com), and included entry to all temples and gardens.

Akira-san spent a morning taking us to Gion, the geisha area, where a stream runs between old wooden houses. Next was the temple of Sanjusangendo with its shoulder-to-shoulder life-sized 1001 Buddhist deity statues.

Afterwards was Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle), built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun Ieyasu.

Tourists tread with fascination on Nijo's nightingale wooden floor which squeaks and creaks. The floor was designed to emit a bird-like sound to warn the shogun of approaching enemies.

At the nearby Ryoan-ji temple is an austere garden arranged in the kare-sansui (dry landscape) style, 15 rocks set into a bed of sand, enclosed by an earthen wall which plays its own visual tricks. Further south of Kyoto, this time on a local train departing at exactly 6.01pm and arriving at precisely 6.24pm, the Hilton Osaka is opposite the main railway station. A room with breakfast costs about $300 and Japanese-style paper and wood screens slide across the windows as an authentic alternative to curtains.

A Y14,050 ($185) trip on the shinkansen returned us from Osaka to Tokyo, departing Osaka at 2.53pm.

So the horror predictions about Japan being prohibitively expensive turned out to be largely without foundation.

As for that train, it pulled into Tokyo Central without a hitch, precisely on time at 5.31pm, just as we knew it would.

* Anne Gibson paid her own way to Japan. 
Getting there

Flight Centre has a basic fare to Tokyo starting from $1399 (plus taxes and surcharges)

Getting around

Japan Railways group offers special passes to visiting foreigners, valid for rail, bus and ferry, but these must be purchased prior to before arrival, usually through a travel agent

A limited number of non-smoking carriages are available on the shinkansen (train) and should be reserved in advance. Unreserved carriages are available on all but the super-express Nozomi service

On the web

Japan Tourist Organisation's website is www.jnto.go.jpok. The official gateway for cyber information is http://web-jpn.orgok.