As I understand it, you were living on a budget. Do you have any tips on how to survive cheaply in Japan? Or things you would have done differently in hindsight?
The first part is a bit tough to answer at this point because I didn't find it super hard to stay under like 2000¥ most days for food/drink. I honestly did quite simple stuff such as trying to limit how many times I ate, although I couldn't always do that. At my peak, for several weeks in a row I ate either a frozen pizza from 7/11 (less than 500¥), or a コンビニ piece of fish, which 7/11, FamilyMart, and LAWSON all sell. Can't remember which is the cheapest but the price difference is so miniscule it doesn't matter too much. I particularly enjoyed 鯖（サバ）, known as mackerel in English, for around 260¥. Just don't make the mistake of confusing it with horse mackerel, most disgusting piece of fish I've ever eaten, made me wanna vomit (still ate it though...)
If you want to eat for 1000¥ per day, in my opinion, it's entirely possible, but I am someone that enjoyed 100% juice frequently (to make up for the fact that fruit is so expensive, so I bought none), so the cost of my drinks was often nearly as much as my food, or more, because I'd also occasionally go the entire day off just juice and not eat. 10%-20% fruit juice is a lot cheaper but I don't recommend it because it doesn't provide much benefit at that point, just stretched sugar water with flavoring. Speaking of water, I actually never drank from the tap, so that sort of added to my spending for water as well. Out of the four countries I've been to before, Japan has the most expensive water by far, and I'm surprised no one talks about it. You can get a gallon (~4L) of osmosis purified water for the equivalent of about ¥60 in the US, but in Japan, for one, purified water doesn't even exist outside of drug stores (for CPAP machines), only mineral water is sold as drinking water, and to make it worse, 2L is pretty much the largest container of water you can even buy in any physical store. To top it all off, those 2L bottles still cost more than a gallon in the US, averaging around 120¥. Not enough to make me stop buying it, but definitely annoying. I want to see if it's possible to get an osmosis filter in the future and drink from the tap instead. For that time being, however, some stores sell their store brand water much cheaper, at around 60-80¥, such as ハナマサ supermarket. It often tastes better too, so I bought it when I could. Now, despite the fact that I was hard on cash, I still got to enjoy Japanese snacks, like mochi, dango, and so on, even Japanese candy, but I often made up for it by temporary starvation.
Another thing is transportation. I found riding the train to be an easy way to rack up expenses, so I would mainly avoid riding them if the distance was walkable and I had no luggage. If you can get a bike and you're going to be there long term, it's even better because you can see everywhere you go along the way, and get there almost as quick as the train would (if you're speedy). When I did attempt to ride the train, I often ended up overpaying on tickets and swiping my SUICA card at times I wasn't supposed to, causing me to lose more money than necessary simply out of confusion. If
@Buntaro 's theory is right, then maybe due to my Japanese past life I was tuned into the pressuring「迷惑かけたくない」 thought pattern, and also usually didn't have time, so I hardly ever asked about a way to get refunded. In hindsight, I should've just asked as soon as those things occurred.
Regarding coming to/from Japan, I got unlucky, especially going to Japan. I'll explain the whole situation in the journal, but I'll leave it at getting ripped off by JAL, but I could've gotten a less than $800 flight which included two checked bags and two carry ons. If I had known how long it would take for Japan to get cold, and if I had known how much more difficult it was to find homeless people especially on my first month in Japan, I would've left one of the bags, considering it was the heaviest and caused an extra fee... In the end I wore myself out carrying it for many many km one day and knew that if I held onto it I was not going to make it back to the house, so I left it somewhere thinking I'd be able to find it in a day or two, but I can't remember what the place is called, so that bag is gone forever. Pretty sure it also contained a $1,300 (now worth ~$800) computer that I was going to sell and forgot was in there too, so yeah... Then for the trip away from Japan to a close country (so I can return cheaply and easily) I chose India because the cost of living is cheap here. Won't make this post about India but I just recommend choosing a close-by Asian country with a low cost of living and easy visa if anyone's like me and wants to return to Japan every three months or so after leaving. Unfortunately though, choosing VietJet Air, I went over just 5kg and was made to pay a fee of 28,000 yen in cash. Luckily, I only had 20,000 yen in cash so they let me go without paying the last 8,000. Overall it was still just about the cheapest flight I could've gotten, at around $350 + that 20,000¥ fee. Included in that is also an extra leg room seat because a 6+ foot person can't fit in the regular VietJet Air seats, so if you're taller than 6 feet ensure you get the extra leg room or you'll be in a lot of pain trying to contort your body. Almost didn't get it until I saw a video of a 5'9" man in the seat... I thought that there had to be some mistake, like maybe he didn't fully sit back, but after seeing them for myself, I can't warn anyone enough to not get those seats if you're tall, it's just not worth the decreased price. The extra legroom seat on the first plane was so large that I could stretch my legs all the way out forward and not come close to touching anything in front of me
Looks like this, I chose the aisle seat with less legroom than the window seat though. It was still more than enough to stretch my legs completely, a pleasant surprise it was!
Overall, I can definitely say the worst monetary loss came from the process of entering and leaving Japan, not living in Japan. I did a lot of things inefficiently, and unfortunately it may end up happening again in another way when I try to fix one aspect. Feels impossible to keep up with all the different requirements of different airlines and stuff sometimes.
I like how you are looking around and trying to find the best niche for yourself in this world — in a world that, for you, is increasingly a Japanese world. I have a feeling you are actually going to pull this off. I encourage you to give it your best shot, no matter which direction you head in.
Yes, it is a treacherous world out there, but find your niche and I think you will be successful.
Thank you for your kind words, Buntaro. I also have a feeling that I'll pull it off somehow, but I try to see the extent to which I'll be tormented before reaching a stable point in life, and at this time, the extent to which I'll be tormented appears to exceed my entire forward field of view. I just hope there's some kind of change that somehow leaves an opening for someone like me, or maybe if I figure out how to send my consciousness to a different timeline
I'll continue documenting everything as I see fit, and hopefully I'll have a nice read for you guys!
Anyway, I should've captured more talented people on video and given them a high quality video and portraits in return for connecting with me. 
