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Food
Many
foreigners in Japan pay outrageous amounts of money to eat food
that reminds them of home. Don't try to cure homesickness with
expensive trips to specialty import shops. Besides, you'll lose
weight and be healthier and it is cheaper to be healthy.
Buy
what the natives buy.
You can get good deals on staples that you are familiar with.
You don't have to eat Japanese food though. You can prepare those
staples anyway you like.
Take
an afternoon to go to all the shops in your area to do
some comparison shopping. You will
learn which stores are good for produce, which are good for meats,
etc. You will invariably find one or two with rediculously high
prices for everything. The amazing thing is that people actually
shop at these places.
Buy
produce in season. Don't try to buy brocolli in late winter,
you'll pay 100 yen too much.
Keep
your eyes open for new places to shop.
I always look for new supermarkets in my area. I've found a discount
grocery store where I have gotten bread for 49 yen, one litre
of milk for 118 yen and one litre of 100% orange juice for 99.5
yen (two for 199). Golly! I do have to bring my own shopping bags
though.
Live
out west. If you are living in the
core of Tokyo you are paying for the land with every purchase.
Food gets cheaper the further west you go. There are also many
fields which have small vegetable stands that usually sell produce
very cheaply.
Get
youself to the library! There are always english cookbooks in
the library. By improving your cooking skills, you will cut
down on the need for pre-made foods. This will cut down your
bills. My average dinner runs around 150 to 200 yen per person.
If you are broke and buying cup ramen, you are being foolish.
Lose
weight. Sounds really stupid right? Thin people don't need that
much to eat. I've taken some flack for this trite truism but I
stand by it. It works for me.
Convenience
stores ain't that convenient. Everything
there is about twice the price that it should be. Yes, they are
everywhere but you are the one that pays for their over-expansion.
I
rarely eat out and when I do, it is for a special occasion. I
get much more enjoyment this way. Also, if I eat out once every
six months and spend 4000 yen instead of eating out every week
and spending 1000 yen, I'm saving 44,000 yen a year. My wife drives
me nuts. She spends an average of 900 a day to eat lunch out instead
of bringing a bento to work. That works out to over CDN$2000 a
year! But it's her money.
Most
wards have land availalbe for the residents to garden. Ask your
friendly ward office human for information. You could grow enough
to preserve, which would slash your food bill year round.
You
paid for your vegetable scraps, so don't throw them out. Freeze
'em and when you have enough, make vegetable broth. Composting
is another way to use them. There are lots of good sites out there
that can tell you better than I about composting. If that fails,
you can throw the scraps at wailing alley cats.
Wash
and reuse those resealable bags, just
don't try to sue me if you get sick from bacteria because you
were too lazy to wash them properly. I've never had any problem
but... (Besides, being sick is just nature's way of telling you
that your aren't healthy :^P )
Aluminum
foil is a reusable product.
I
have been know to buy up all of a supermarket's desperately reduced,
dangerously old sashimi then freeze it and grill it when in the
mood to do so. In my region of Canada, we call such old fish "fresh"
(we just don't try to eat it raw).
Don't
stop off for a coffee on the way to the office.
"Saint-Germain's
Toyoko Bakery (located near Futako-Shinchi) offers day-old bread
from approximately 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays.
(Bring your own bag.) Specialties such as currant bread and Miracle
Bread can be bought at half price. Day-old bread keeps very well
in the freezer and is great for toasting." -from John
B. Melby, March 1999
Okara
is interesting crud that is a by product of the tofu making process.
It is very edible and extremely healthy as it has pseudo-estrogens
to block out all those nasty dioxins and biphenol A. The problem
is when it is made by genetically modified soy. Genetically
modifies soy has MUCH higher resides of 'Round Up' (Monsanto's
herbicide: alachlor) as the soy is immune to it so farmers use
more (about four times as much according the resent Round Up sales).
Monsanto is pushing world govenrments to increase the acceptable
limit of Alachlor (Round Up) residues by 20 times. Yummy.
"Okara can be obtained very reasonably from the neighborhood
tofu shop. To keep it from spoiling, put it in the freezer until
used. It's a perfect addition to baked goods such as buckwheat
cupcakes! For more ideas, see the Book of Tofu (by Shurtleff and
Aoyagi)." -from John B. Melby, March 1999
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