Breakfast / Western Breakfast

On our trip to japan, we've decided not to get breakfast at the places we're staying at because they're generally 2000 yen more.

How easy is it to get breakfast from shops/cafés?

And do they serve Western style breakfast?

I'm sure I'll try out Japanese cuisine, but I'm guessing after a while i will miss my western food.. will this be hard to find?

It is very easy in large cities, where there are lots of cafes serving Western style breakfast. A little bit more difficult in the countryside. Many hotels serve Western style breakfast, as well, although, at 4 and 5 star places, you will pay over 2000 yen, as you mentioned.

You can also get a variety of bread, yogurt, cheese, etc. at convenience stores across Japan:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2071.html

i was in japan late last year and found quite a few cafes had something simple like buttered toast with a boiled egg etc.

came across a lot of cafes doing waffles too, not something i'd normally eat here at home but a treat on holidays :)

Japan has Starbucks and many similar chains of coffee shops. At family restaurants you can get pancakes, fried eggs, bacon etc. In the cities you will not have any problems finding a western breakfast- they are easier to find than Japanese breakfasts actually.

Then of course there are McDonald's all over the place as well.

oh okay, thankyou for your responses.

This will be my first time overseas so im trying to find out everything before i go =]

. . . be staying at very expensive hotels! Even during the Tanabata Festival in Yamagata, breakfast was 1600 yen at a hotel where prices were inflated by 30%.

Most breakfasts run anywhere from 550-1500 yen at hotels. The business hotels I stay at usually charge 770-1100 yen.

I just came back from a trip to Matsue and Izumo and the Green Hotel at Izumo had one of the best Viking breakfasts I've had - for 550 yen! Scrambled eggs that was closest to American style I've seen and browned sausages (not boiled). Onion soup as well as miso soap. Spaghetti. Two types of broiled fish. Even a kind of fresh clam they eat at New Year's there.

The problem with Viking breakfasts is I eat too much and often don't get hungry till late in the day. Thus I can't sample local cuisine wherever I'm traveling.

well not really..
we've been trying to stay in cheaper places
ryokans and such
and whenever they advertised breakfast on their website
it was 1500-2000 yen extra as part of a deal

:S

Where i satyed, there was a little cafe right around the corner. They specialized in bagel sandwiches and we ate there most mornings. As with many places, it was more of a Japanese take on Western food. It was only about 1,000 yen for both of us, at max maybe 1,200. My favorite was the spinach, bacon, cheese and tomato bagel. my husband got an egg, bacon, spinach and something else. There were other cafes, but we really liked that one. And it was cheaper than getting breakfast through the hotel.

. . . breakfasts aren't very filling anyway. Ryokans go all out for dinner, and breakfast is usually underwhelming. You may not get broiled fish for 15,000 yen per person.

You can't beat the business hotels with Viking breakfasts for a good deal. The New Morioka Hotel in Morioka has a good one. New Otani Hotel in Tottori is another. The bacon at this place was fried rather crisp, not raw as is usual. I don't know how many pieces I ate . . .

In one of the tiny business hotels in remote Nemuro, Hokkaido where I stayed last February, I had a choice of either a traditional Japanese breakfast or western. The latter consists of one fried egg, sausage, salad, piece of toast, a bowl of cream mushroom soup and coffee. I booked the hotel through a local agent in my country and paid about 7,500 yen per night per person with breakfast. I guess it could be cheaper (5,000 yen) should I be able to book online. What surprises me most is you still can find some decent western breakfast in a tiny business hotel.

for business hotels have a look at www.japanhotel.net many of these hotels aren't expensive and are interesting. I usually stay at a Toyoko inn and they have a Japanese breakfast that is basic but filling AND is free!.I love it!
I guess that by Western breakfast you mean British or USA style only of course as in the rest of Western Europe breakfasts are different..in many cases only toasts and/or croissants and cafe.

What about cereal and milk?

This may sound like a stupid question, but i have no idea.

Is cereal and milk able to be bought from conveniance stores?

You really should treat yourself to some Japanese style breakfasts at some of the ryokan you're staying at. A 2000Y breakfast should have more than enough food to get you going. Some of the healthiest breakfasts I've eaten in Japan were low cost and out of take away convenience stores (Lawsons, etc). The refrigerated cases have all kinds of salads, noodle dishes, sushi, etc Train stations are good places to eat also, but you have to throw away the notion that it will be like home. A hot bowl of udon or donburi in the morning is plenty to last til lunch. My impression of western style breakfast in Japan was that it was never really what you'd think it would be. I was once served a soft boiled egg, a walnut and toast and it was called western breakfast. I'm not one to normally eat at fast food places in any country so don't know about McDonalds, etc but never went hungry in the morning on any trips to Japan. I'm sure you can find cereal and milk in grocery stores but you might want to buy a small bowl and a spoon at a dish store to eat it with.

You can buy cereal at supermarkets but not all convenience stores will carry it. Milk, definitely. Will you be taking your own bowl and spoon?

Anyway, you said this is your first trip overseas? My advice (I have travelled to 37 countries) is not to overplan things. It would be much nicer to go to a local cafe for breakfast when in a foreign country than to sit in your room and eat cold cereal and milk. Just go with the flow, don't worry too much about little details like that- things will probably turn out to be quite different from what you imagined anyway.

Haha, yeah i first asked this question trying to validate not getting the hotel breakfast, but then i started thinking i might miss normal breakfast.
i'm sure ill cope with whatevers thrown at me and it will all be part of the experience

thanks to everyone who has contributed =]

. . . . . . of ryokan breakfasts, they often serve local delicacies or cuisine that make them worthwhile. Good examples I've experienced are seaweed/kombu dishes, tofu, ikura, tsukemono, flounder. The rolled omelettes are usually handmade, deep yellow, and huge - you can't compare it to the supermarket stuff.

I just came back from Kochi and the Kochi Ekimae Hotel was 5400 yen plus free breakfast. I've never had breakfast like this before: the veg salad and fruit salad were in plastic containers. They also served rice balls, boiled eggs, toast/rolls, cereal and milk, yogurt in containers. The miso or corn soup were in packets and you added boiled water. Really a good deal since the breakfast was essentially free and it was all you can eat. They had to put up a sign that read: do not take food back to your room.

..the only reason not to have them (unless you've got a problem with fish and seaweed and raw eggs at dawn) is that you've probably had a huge ryokan meal the night before, and you're too stuffed to eat the HUGE breakfast.

I'd make sure to have at least one Japanese ryokan breakfast. It can be a wonderful experience.