Delicious dinner at the onsen hotel in Kusatsu

I occasionally see studies or articles claiming that London is second only to Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world to eat. This is a load of shit. I find it hard to imagine any place in the world where small quantities of ineligant and unexotic food would cost as much as it does in London. The real food afficionado will probably be more excited about the wider range of fresh produce and raw ingredients in London, such things being far less accessible and far more expensive in Tokyo.

A very traditional style izakaya in outer Kyoto

I was constantly amazed at how inexpensive good food was in Tokyo. The range of different foods is amazing, and as long as you're happy eating an Asian style meal you'll get some really decent meals at an Izakaya or Ramen shop (I would say comparable to a western fast-food place, price wise.) You will come unstuck if you insist on eating pizza or hotdogs and the like, as, strangely enough, they are considered exotic foods and go for a mint.

A person looking for a quick bite to eat also has the option of walking into a Kombini (convenience store) for an inexpensive sandwich or small bucket of chicken karage. While not particularly exciting, such food is always fresh and usually surprisingly tasty.

During the awa-odori festivals the street vendors make simple
yet good quality grilled food

As I said earlier though, anyone expecting to make their own fresh meals at home will be disappointed by the prohibitive expenses of vegetables and meat in Tokyo supermarkets.

In travelling around London I was amazed and disgusted when I finally decided to buy a Burger King junior whopper. This tiny little burger cost 2 pounds (5 AUD)! Of course it's not fair to compare the fast food chains in one city with traditional outlets in another, but I've found this representative of all foods in London, raw goods included.

I can therefore assume that whoever goes around saying that food in Tokyo is more expensive than London must prefer to buy western food in Japan, or they are confused by the denominations used in the respective countries (1 pound is equivalent of about 250 yen). Or, I guess, tourists in Tokyo that only go to novelty restaurants and don't realise the value of the izakayas might tend to head towards the brighter facades of shabu-shabu, teppan-yaki or whatever, but we only went to these things on special occasions.

Convenience stores in London do not stock simple, quick meals on par with the Kombini in Japan. Perhaps this is another area the unawares tourist in Japan spends more money than necessary - on numerous occasions when travelling quickly around Japan my group would drop by a Kombini for a quick snack, where perhaps someone else may have gone into a restaurant or something.

A 'traditional' English breakfast

I also read occasionally that British food, although once justly maligned, is no longer deserving of its bad reputation. This is also crap. The only decent food I've found here is in foreign restaurants. As far as prepared meals go, I've not discovered any good British cuisine. Good cheese, certainly. Sausages are good, as are some raw produce. But English-style meals are still expensive crap. 'Traditional' seems to mean 'with mushy peas', 'floating in soup' or 'badly cooked eggs with shitty mushed up baked beans'. (This coming from an Australian, though, is a bit of a laugh.)