Eating in Japan

There are all kinds of food in Japan. I didn't have enough time to try the full range of food. Of course there is the proverbial ramen. Even the humble ramen has been elevated into some gourmet status but little mom and pop stalls still sell the very basic and can be very cheap. Eating in Japan can be very economical. I was under the impression that its expensive to travel in Japan. Like any other country there are the expensive luxury places to eat and stay and there are the economical places to stay and eat. I ate the ramen at some stall in an alley, away from the tourists, just the locals and a few savvy travelers like me. I think I paid USD7 for this meal. It was too much to eat. I came back the next evening and ate less. I had lunch at a Muji cafe. Muji is a chain store in Japan and is expanding to the the USA. Some of their stores has restaurants. This was a very simple and delicious meal, costs a little more, I think, it was USD13. The little brown bowl had multi grain rice, very nice. There was a bakery in Ginza and I munched on this baguette. I told this French guy seated next to me, 'its as good as in France!' to which he replied in a very French accent, 'impossible!' Unless its very touristy, it was very economical travel, just eat where the locals eat, a beef bowl with rice and cabbage costs USD5 which was what I ate towards the last 3 days of my trip, together with a lot of local men who just finished work.