Agreed, it's pretty dead simple and cheap to make some miso soup, some kind of stir fried veggie dish, sear a piece of fish and throw in some tsukemono from the market - which is exactly the kind of easy, healthy meal me and my wife eat at home all the time. Perhaps I got the crash course for eating cheap in Japan on easy mode by having a Japanese wife who already knows how to do it, but there's plenty of simple recipes to follow on Cookpad if you can read some Japanese.

Also are you going to an expensive supermarket? If you can buy vegetables and fruits from a green grocer (yaoya, 八百屋) or from a cheaper supermarket like Gyomu or Big-A or something, it's much cheaper than buying it from a higher-end grocery like Seijo Ishii or Kinokuniya - like several times cheaper sometimes. I didn't know that when I first came to Japan but point is, it's worth it to do your due diligence and find the cheap groceries just like you would in your home country, Americans have complained about Whole Foods being overpriced since the dawn of time.

If I dont make breakfast for my boyfriend he'll make 一汁三菜 for breakfast or miso with a tsukemono and TKG. None of these things take an abundant amount of time to buy or prep for. We both work full-time jobs. Again, this sounds like a lack of knowledge about meal prep rather than a actual time issue.

Huh? Not only is my wife a working engineer, but I do this same kind of meal all the time on my own as a full time working person, and it takes about 5 minutes of bumping around the supermarket and yaoya that are across the street from each other conveniently located next to my station. It really is not hard to put together a nice meal of a hot pot or whatever. Miso soup isn’t literally just miso and water, you can put whatever you want in it, including boiling vegetables, tofu, fish, soy milk, whatever - crazy simple, I some variation almost every day and it’s neither boring nor a meme.

Meta point, you sound very bitter and defensive about this. How about give some of the suggestions people have made a shot? Like I mentioned, can you read some Japanese? Cookpad has tons of simple recipes.

Gyomu for chickpeas, tahini, real peanut butter and all my frozen vegetables, and then Hanamasa for the bulk meats.. my freezer is basically overflowing 24/7 but its so cheap it feels like daylight robbery haha

> I'm interested what dishes you're specifically talking about here? Japanese cooking is not complicated, just different.

That isn't necessarily true, Japanese cuisine (along with Italian which are my two cuisines I cooked professionally) actually relies more on elaboration and skill of seemingly humble ingredients: more than just about any other cuisine in my experience. It's a great equalizer to have something seen as exotic as truffle shaved on a soufflé be outshined by a long way by a Chawanmushi with a proper dashi, seasonal (cheap) vegetables, herbs and seafood.

Sure you can make staples like maze gohan, tamago gohan, takikomi gohan or ocha zuke with whatever you have on hand and rift where needed to keep it from being boring but each and everyone of those dishes that is carefully created and balanced makes it so much more satisfying and I find that to be the trick to Japanese cuisine as it makes you re-evaluate your perceptions/positions, and thus the execution of what is really important in a recipe as a result: I dislike eating in the morning, like really hate it, but I really loved having onsen tamago over slightly seasoned uruchimai rice and some handmade zukemono and miso (with proper dashi) for breakfast. The extra I could just eat as onigiri with toasted nori later in the day with a miso shiro and it was that good and never something I never get tired of despite being prone to 'palate fatigue.'

And all of that is because the elaboration and prep that went into making things that use affordable ingredients but require a great deal of attention to detail--for example a bitter salty dashi, or worst yet that hondashi powder, is repulsive and indicative of improper heat monitoring and regulation with the katsubushi/niboshi. A hastently made zukemono is very disappointing when eating teishoku as you want the sourness and saltiness and crunch to refresh your palate as you go back and forth between dishes. Not having that ruins the meal entirely.