A week in Osaka on ¥10,000 a day, with receipts

At 1:05pm on Wednesday 19 August I paid ¥3,400 for six pieces of seafood at Kuromon Market: a grilled scallop, three pieces of tuna belly, an oyster and a skewer of eel. I ate them standing with a paper tray in one hand, and then I did the math on my week. That lunch was 34 percent of the day's cap. It was also the point where the experiment stopped being theoretical.

The idea was simple. Seven days in Osaka, ¥10,000 a day, bed included, with every receipt kept. I wanted to know what that number buys and where it breaks. This is the ledger, with my mistakes left in. If you want the area-by-area version of where to sleep, our Osaka where to stay guide has it.

The cap covered the bed, food and drink, local transport and anything I paid to do, from Monday 17 August to Sunday 23 August. I did not count the ride from Fukuoka to Shin-Osaka and back, because that depends on where you start. I carried the IC card I already own, so there was no deposit to count.

I kept every receipt in an envelope. Thermal paper fades within weeks, so each night I photographed the day's slips on the hostel bunk and typed them into a spreadsheet. Beds were booked at published rates, and the price listed is what I paid on the night listed. The reviewer for this piece, Mei Tanaka, asked for the spreadsheet and re-added the columns.

The week after Obon was my choice. Mid-August is the peak of Japan's summer travel, and the Monday after it is when the pressure drops. I did not check whether prices fell, since I have no earlier week to compare against. I simply booked the 17th, looked at what it cost, and went.

Monday 17 August: Shin-Osaka and Tenma, ¥5,900

I arrived at 12:30 and the hostel could not check me in until 3pm, and the desk held my pack for nothing. I spent the afternoon on the Tenjinbashisuji arcade, which is long enough that you can eat a meal in the middle of it and still have another kilometer to walk. A cheap first day is the easiest one to get right, and I did.

• Bed, dorm bunk in Shin-Osaka, night 1: ¥3,300

• Lunch, standing udon near the station: ¥590

• Dinner, fried chicken set meal on Tenjinbashisuji: ¥980

• Water, tea and a beer from a convenience store: ¥640

• Subway to Tenma and back: ¥390

Day total: ¥5,900.

Tuesday 18 August: Osaka Castle and Kyobashi, ¥7,730

I walked the moat and the park and did not pay to go into the keep. At 33°C I stopped counting steps at 13,400. The shower room at the hostel was clean and the door locked, and the only cost of night 2 was a snorer in bunk 7.

• Bed, dorm bunk in Shin-Osaka, night 2: ¥3,300

• Breakfast, onigiri and coffee: ¥420

• Lunch, katsu curry: ¥1,150

• Dinner, standing bar in Kyobashi, four skewers and two beers: ¥2,300

• JR loop line and subway rides: ¥560

Day total: ¥7,730.

Wednesday 19 August: the move to Namba, ¥12,310

This was my worst day on paper. The Shin-Osaka hostel checked me out at 10am and the Namba one would not take me until 3pm, and Namba would not hold my pack. So I paid ¥600 for a coin locker and then spent ¥3,400 at Kuromon because I was hungry and walking slowly through a market at lunchtime.

• Bed, dorm bunk in Namba, night 3: ¥4,100

• Breakfast, bakery: ¥380

• Subway from Shin-Osaka to Namba, plus one more ride: ¥480

• Coin locker, 10am to 3pm: ¥600

• Lunch at Kuromon, six pieces of seafood: ¥3,400

• Takoyaki, eight pieces, Dotonbori: ¥750

• Dinner, counter in Ura-Namba: ¥2,600

Day total: ¥12,310. That is ¥2,310 over the cap.

Thursday 20 August: Shinsekai and Tennoji, ¥8,860

The Namba dorm had four showers for the floor and a queue of about 12 minutes at 8am. I ate kushikatsu in Shinsekai at 1pm, walked to Tennoji, and then made the mistake of walking about 2.5 km back to Namba at 3pm in the heat to save a subway ride. I lost the rest of the afternoon to a headache and a bench.

• Bed, dorm bunk in Namba, night 4: ¥4,100

• Breakfast, convenience store: ¥450

• Lunch, kushikatsu in Shinsekai, eight skewers and a beer: ¥1,900

• Neighborhood bathhouse and towel rental: ¥900

• Dinner, gyoza and rice at a counter in Namba: ¥1,150

• Subway: ¥360

Day total: ¥8,860.

Friday 21 August: the move to Umeda, ¥9,220

I switched to a capsule pod in Umeda for the weekend. The Umeda capsule held my pack from 10am for nothing, which is the difference between a ¥600 locker and no locker. The pod had a curtain door, a socket and a locker that fit a 40-liter pack. The walls were thin and the lights came on at 7am.

• Bed, capsule pod in Umeda, night 5: ¥5,200

• Breakfast, morning set at a coffee shop: ¥520

• Lunch, okonomiyaki set: ¥1,300

• Laundry, wash and dry: ¥600

• Dinner, ramen: ¥1,050

• Beer from a convenience store: ¥250

• Subway: ¥300

Day total: ¥9,220.

Saturday 22 August: Nara, ¥12,740

Day 6 was my second day over the cap. Nara was cheap, with the train out and back and a bag of deer crackers. The farewell dinner was not cheap. I ordered too much at a standing bar in Umeda because it was my last night and I wanted to see how it felt to spend freely. It felt like ¥2,900.

• Bed, capsule pod in Umeda, night 6: ¥5,800

• Breakfast: ¥440

• Train to Nara and back, plus subway rides: ¥1,900

• Deer crackers: ¥300

• Lunch, persimmon-leaf sushi in Nara: ¥1,400

• Dinner, standing bar in Umeda: ¥2,900

Day total: ¥12,740. That is ¥2,740 over the cap.

Sunday 23 August: leaving, ¥3,160

No bed, a late breakfast and a subway ride to Shin-Osaka. I bought sweets to take back to Fukuoka for the people who water my plants. That was ¥1,500, and the plants are alive.

• Breakfast: ¥480

• Lunch: ¥880

• Sweets: ¥1,500

• Subway to Shin-Osaka: ¥300

Day total: ¥3,160.

The week came to ¥59,920 against a cap of ¥70,000, which leaves ¥10,080 unspent. That is an average of ¥8,560 a day. The middle day, Thursday, cost ¥8,860. Two days went over the cap: Wednesday by ¥2,310 and Saturday by ¥2,740. The other five days came in under by a combined ¥15,130, and that is the only reason the week balanced.

Here is where the ¥59,920 went:

• Beds: ¥25,800, or 43 percent. Six nights, from ¥3,300 to ¥5,800.

• Food and drink: ¥25,930, or 43 percent.

• Transport: ¥4,290, or 7 percent.

• Everything else: ¥3,900, or 7 percent. That is lockers, the bathhouse, laundry, deer crackers and the sweets.

The beds and the food cost about the same. If you want to save money on a trip like this, the lever is the nightly rate and the evening meal, in that order.

Breakfast. I paid for six breakfasts, between ¥380 and ¥520 each, and three of them were onigiri, a bakery item or convenience-store food.

Standing bars and counters. The cheapest good dinner of the week was fried chicken on Tenjinbashisuji at ¥980. The most expensive was the farewell dinner at ¥2,900, which was also the least memorable. Our Dotonbori food guide covers the streets I used and the hours that suit them.

Free sights. The castle park, the Tenjinbashisuji arcade, Shinsekai's streets and the walk around Namba cost nothing. I paid for nothing that required a ticket except the bathhouse and the trip to Nara, and I did not miss the observation decks.

The bed. A dorm with a curtain and a locker is a fair trade for ¥3,300, and a capsule pod is worth the extra ¥1,100 over the Namba bunk, even on a weekend night, because I slept eight hours on the Friday and five on the Tuesday. Cheaper bunks exist. I did not book them. A bad night costs more than the price difference, and it shows up the next day as a short temper and an expensive lunch.

The subway on hot afternoons. On Thursday I saved one ride by walking 2.5 km at 3pm and spent the rest of the afternoon recovering. That is a bad trade even before the ¥900 bathhouse I used to fix myself. At 33°C, ride.

One real meal a day. A week of onigiri and konbini beer is cheap and it is miserable. I never regretted the ¥1,900 kushikatsu lunch, and I did regret the Kuromon one, which cost nearly twice as much and was a tray of bites.

If you are weighing capsule hotels against a dorm, our guide to capsule hotels in Osaka explains how to choose by area and who should skip them.

Plan the week at about ¥8,500 a day and treat ¥10,000 as the ceiling for the week, not each day. Book your first and last nights early and leave the middle open. Ask the hostel desk to hold your pack on moving day before you pay for a locker, and eat the big lunch somewhere that is not a market. Our Osaka in 2 days plan is built on the same cheap parts of the city, and money in Japan covers cash and cards.

If your budget is below this, the next thing to drop is the weekend capsule night, not the meals. If it is above this, spend the difference on a quieter bed before you spend it on lunch.