Okles, first of all, there's no better way than to learn Japanese, than by hiring a tutor. Watching anime doesn't teach you the essential Japanese that you need. It only teaches you humourous phrases, which can sometimes get you into a LOT of trouble! (My friend repeated some stuff he'd heard on One Piece and Naruto, and he ended up with a black eye and cut lip)

Second, what's shabu shabu? I never ate anything like that, though I did eat sashimi and ramen, and I absolutely ADORE those! And I ate okonomiyaki, but I didn't like it. I don't really like eggs...They had vending machines EVERYWHERE, and I drunk them all dry of ice cold Royal Milk Tea in cans. ^_^ I miss that stuff like crazy! They had FANTA GRAPE as well, which my friend Ash got himself addicted to. He nearly fainted when he went 12 hours without any.

As for pachinko, I only played once, and it was relatively quiet, so no I didn't faint. I had a good time playing it though. You really should all go to Japan, 'cos it's so interesting. When my families took me to historical places, I didn't have to fake interest, 'cos I was interested! Not to mention the fact that everyone was really nice (Albeit because I was foreign) and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Expensive? For certain things. Clothes, yes. Electronical appliances, yes. Typical Japanese things, yes. Transport, yes. I think the only things that were cheap were food, drink and hotels.