Experience in Tokyo, Japan by Alexis

How much does it cost to live in Tokyo?

expensive or not is relative, and compared to LA or San Francisco New York London Paris it turns up Tokyo is not "super expensive" as people say.

rent
Spaces are small that is unnegotiable but for rent you can find a nice apartment slightly away from central tokyo (30min subway) for for 600-800 dolars per month.
you will have to sacrifice either space , distance to central tokyo, or price
for private apartment you will find small 25m2 aparments in central tokyo for 1300 dolars, or larger spaces 30min away for literally half price.
many private room in shared houses options, and of course shared rooms as well.

in central tokyo prices are about 500 per month (shared room shared house). or 1000 for private room in shared house, or 1400 for private apartment (small)

food
You can eat for 10 dolars, and supermarket is not particularly expensive either. The only thing very high cost is transport, the monthly pass is about 150 dolars which is the most expensive ive ever seen in comparison to other subway/train networks. On the other hand it is super wide and well conected you can go anywhere in the city by train or subway.

usually student discount in museums, subway pass, etc. so bring a student card if you have

Is it difficult to find accommodation in Tokyo? Is there any advice you can give?

very difficult at the beggining. the best advice is to arrive to tokyo with an accomodation from sakura house or oakhouse where you can stay a month or two and look for something more permanent from there. waiting in a hotel is very expensive, and it WILL take you a week or two to understand the neighbourhoods and prices, another week to understand in what kind of place you want to live in (shared house shared room private apartment big house small, near work but small, further away but larger) and then maybe what you have found is available only in another 2 weeks. so basically try to have at least one month ahead of you in order to find something with calm and peace. youll have enough challenges being in an oriental country with all the language difficulties. so reserve something for 4-5 weeks and search as from there.

another tip is to get a phone number. it will make this easier and quicker. by mail every thing will take longer.
also, accomodations disappear from night to morning, so if you are under email timings, you might lose the place you liked because of timing issues

the system is pretty old school in terms of fees and contracts, most agencies will ask for 1 month comission, another month for guarantor company service, 1 month deposit, 1 month key money (lost money payed to the owner) etc etc so basically you have to pay 4-6 month rent before moving in, 3 of which are lost money.
my adivce is to inmediately avoid these agencies, dont lose time and dont listen to them, fight against this system and you WILL find agencies that dont charge all this, there are the minority, but there are, and they have many properties.

forget craigslist japan, usless, all scam, or most of them.

What is the food like? What are your favourite dishes?

just as everything else in japan, in my experience, its difficult at the beggining, but then you start to find your ways, your places and understand how to move.
food is the same....at the beggingin you will bump into weird plates and probably not like most of what you get.... but little by little youll know what to order and what to avoid.
remember most witress dont speak english and most menus are in japanese so until you learn a word or two of japanese, get your google translator sharp and ready....or in the first weeks prepare to have no idea what youre ordering