Yes, as Iga said, you should take a guided tour if this is your first time and you don't know much about Japan or Japanese. It's difficult to find a place to eat as well if you don't know how to read Japanese! :laugh:
Again, teaching yourself Japanese is a bad way to learn it. I highly reccomend a teacher. I mean, people publish books and stuff for reinforcement, and not for learning. If you can, try and get into a class or something that teaches Japanese. It'd help a lot.
As for budgets, my EF Tour all together (with hotels, admission fees, tickets, buses, DINNERS etc) was ~$3,000. I brought $400 for spending, and survived with $70 left over. Keep in mind that EF Tours does a little tweeking and stuff to get cheap prices. Yes, it is for students, but I mean, if you know anyone who's actually a teacher and would like to participate in it, you can get them to rally a few more people and I'm sure you could do it. An English teacher and some old people went with me. I have a friend who doesn't even attend my school, but she lived in Florida and met up with my Japanese teacher and got to go. I don't know how exactly, if you even can, get into an EF Tour unless you know someone who's in it, but I'm just using this as an example.
I do recommend using a few tour books. My friend (that I mentioned above) had a book and on one of our "free days" we were in Kyoto, we actually travelled where no tourists have gone before. We went to a bamboo forest and even that huge torii gate shrine with all those torii gates.
Again, it's very difficult to travel if you don't know a lot of Japanese. I remember one time I asked this one girl who was working at a McDonald's in a mall for directions to the ATM :laugh: . However, I know you could be passible, and the Japanese will try their best with their English. Be sure to ask if they know English before you start talking (say it in English :laugh: ).
In my tour, I seriously visited like 2 castles in one day, and all this other mess. I know if you aren't on a tour and it's your first time, you'd probably end up in a Karaoke bar or something and spending your time aimlessly wandering than doing things.
Oh yes, and if you go to Tokyo, one of the places I really liked was Odaiba. They have malls and everything there. Asakusa too! Tokyo does have everything you would want, like Akihabara. But if you're looking for that "Japanese" experience, Osaka and Kyoto is where you should go, but of course, you're gonna want to go to Tokyo anyways. It has a lot and visiting it breaks a lot of stereotypes. Besides, people are gonna ask if you went to Tokyo anyways. :laugh:
Yes, taking those trains really helps. BUT you need to know where you're going and how you're gonna get there. They do have English, and the officers working there know English. I used the trains non-stop in Tokyo, and spent a few minutes to really cool places. Again, my teacher was very experienced, so he knew places no one else would go, like Nippori. And it takes a lot of appreciation to go to a place like that.
As for more advice: High quality hotels in big cities like Tokyo have internet access and electric outlets made for Americans. (That's also what EF Tours offered, high class hotels).
Yes, convienence stores are really good, and help you make a friend or too, like I did :anime: .
And I'm sure your probably wondering about electricity. Japan uses those 2 prong outlets, sorta like what we have in America, just minus that little hole at the bottom. So, anything with 2 straight prongs SHOULD work in Japan.
Again, if you have questions, feel free to ask. As for a tour, I strongly recommend if it's your first time. I do have a photo album of when I was in Japan, if you would like to see all the places I crammed in 9 days:
http://picasaweb.google.com/exokopaka -Oh yeah, forgot to mention: Security is NOT a problem in Japan. There's virtually no crime rate.
One time, I left my bottle of Calpis (and DON'T have it. It's really disguisting IMO. Bad after taste, like medicine) in a Sanrio store, and one of the girls actually went out and was walking around looking for me to give me back my bottle. I was fortunate I got my drink, but then again, it was Calpis. :laugh:
-Pocari Sweat = GOOD.
-If you see a noodle dish that either some guy is frying at a stand or is inside a plastic clear box, DON'T HESITATE TO BUY IT! As goes for all Japanese food. I missed out on a lot because I was like "eh, I'll get it later."
-And because of the small crime rate, do not hesitate to enter rustic areas and old Japanese streets (like Gion). Trust me, you're not gonna get mugged or jumped. Probably only by foreigners who've been there for a long time. Rustic areas are a great area to find food and stuff for cheap. You're not gonna find a lot of high quality restaurants as you find in America unless you look REALLY hard.