Japan and Prices

Planning a first time trip to Japan for early 2013.

Wondering how much money people spent on their trips in the past?
What an average day look like - money-wise?

nothing could be more expensive than Australia

Im a backpacker at heart so when i travel i budget a lot. This means cheap street food and backpacker accom (dorms). So really if anyone isnt shy about saying how much they spent during their stay it would be much appreciated? Particularly if you lived very cheaply.

Transport, food, accom and lifts passes? I currently own all my own gear.

thank you in advance!

I think i used $4000 for a 10days trip there, everything from food, flights, accommodation and travel. 
Flight from Gold coast, QLD, landed in Narkita, Tokyo. spent the night there then headed to Hakuba in the Nagano region. Spent 7 days there in a backpackers hostel, boarded for 5 days. Managed to get a season pass for cheap off a guy leaving that day thou. And last 2 days were spent in Tokyo, doing a tour of the city. 
All of it was at backpackers hostels and cheap capsule hotels. Traveled via train and bus. 

I would definitely say EXCLUDING transport, youre looking at a base cost of around 10,000yen per day. It can be higher if youre going out at night as well, and can be lower if youre eating 7/11 cup ramen for lunch and scoring on multiple use passes. But 10k is a decent benchmark to start your plans from. That is contingent on the fact youre a cheapskate for accommodation. This is dorm prices and a lift pass (about 4000+4500 for lift+1500 for food).

i dont think thats entirely accurate there dude. It might be the case that GETTING here has a few more bargains because people were put off coming this season, but when youre here life goes on and prices arent changing at all.  In fact, only really tohoku is doing worse this year and tohoku is primarily a domestic tourist area (hands up if you can name more than 2 resorts in he tohoku area! If you can you probably lived there). School trips have moved from places like alps bandaira to niigata, nagano, or kamakura (not ski related). 

$4000 over 10 days is a little more than i would like to spending while im there. Thanks you all the replies and a big thanks to ippollite and all your other threads. Yeah i love japanese food so food should be pretty cheap while im there. Why go to Japan to eat macdonalds (well maybe once to get something weird).

I feel like I should just book a ticket and maybe have an initial destination and just play it by ear from there. I usually dont book anything when i travel, just play it by ear. I dont know if id like the really touristy areas. Would much prefer a local less crowded scene.

Um fast food in America is much different from their counterpart in other countries especially Japan.  The menu is usually different and the taste is also different.  I don't know what it is and I'm usually a picky eater but when I was in Japan, I was able to eat just about everything even things that I normally dislike eating!  Maybe their food is laced with drugs.  

If you speak basic, even if its a little, it'll probably be enough for you to get around most areas. A lot of signage over there is in english and super easy to read. 
I'm japanese but brought up in Aus so i know how to talk but cannot read or write. Still got through very easy. 

hahaha thats pretty sneaky. yeah i can read hiragana and katakana but i just need a dictionary by my side to decipher everything. Kanji is a whole world i dont want to visit though, i no nothing.

thanks for all the advice.

Do you live and work in Japan?