Japan for 3 weeks in Decemeber/Jan?

Its not the best time to visit Japan IMHO,but its certainly possible.

Budget depends a lot on what you want to do.What do you want to do there?

One difficulty you are going to face is that you are travelling during the New Year Holiday period. What that entails you can read about here. But it is certainly possible to visit Japan.

It is not a cheap destination as you probably know; in my experience travel cost is comparable to other developed countries. As a rough estimate, from around 7000 yen/day you can have a reasonably fun trip through Japan. This would assume that you stay in hostels or comparable cheap accommodation, eat normal food, take it easy with longer train rides, etc. No partying, shopping, etc included. You can reduce this budget, by:

• staying longer in one place. thereby saving on transportation. Tokyo/Kyoto are good candidates as they have lots to offer in themselves and are also good as base for day trips.
• visiting fewer paid sights; This does not mean that you have nothing to do, because just observing everyday Japanese life is interesting enough.
  -making use of (night) buses, and other deals on transport. This depends on your itinerary.
• eating lower qualtiy (junk) food, though I would not recommend this.

Winter can be chilly in Japan, and the sun sets early. On the other hand, it's also the quietest season for tourists, which can be nice in places that get too many tourists. Winter is my favourite season for Kyoto, for example.

The New Year's holiday (it lasts for some 3-4 days) is one of the biggest holidays of the year in Japan. Many things shut down during that period, so if you'll be in Japan then, you'll have to plan a little bit around it. Of course, there are many special events on at that time of year as well.

As lucapal says, budgets for travel in Japan can vary enormously...

Thanks for your advice guys. I think I might give Japan a miss till next year and pick a better time to go.

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