You hear all the time about how expensive Japan is and in some regards that is true.  Traveling around within Japan is pretty expensive.  The trains are great and everything–clean, safe, punctual etc– but it comes at a cost.  You can buy plane tickets to most places in Japan for around $100 each way if you buy it 28 days before but this isn’t always the case.  There are really only 2 airlines in Japan (JAL, and ANA) and they control everything, even the “budget” airlines (although I think there is only one left).  

Hotels can be expensive and confusing since the charge is per person not per room.  Good food is expensive here but there are cheaper options (ramen, soba, Y100 kaiten sushi (depending on how hungry you are), some chain take-out bento places and the ubiquitous convenience stores [whose food by the way is much better than in the States]).  Produce can be expensive though, especially fruit.  People (ie housewives) don’t often cook with fruit here the way we do in the States (cobblers, crisps, pies, etc) partly because it is more expensive and partly because the fruit is such good quality it would be a shame to mar its beauty by chemically changing it.  

Nanae is known for its apples (at least locally).  In the summer and fall apple farmers line the ground under the trees with white plastic to reflect the sun back up onto the underside of the fruit so that the color is evenly distributed and no area is neglected.  They are also wrapped in newspapers and tape at some point to ensure a nice round shape(?).  And often they’re huge.  I’ve seen apples here the size of a newborn’s head– no joke.  They put a lot of care into the appearance of the produce here. (but I still like New England apples best– the apples here tend to lack that tart, sweetness that a good Macintosh or Macoun has).

One of the farmers who came to Concord with me in October grows flowers (I think carnations may be the number one crop here) and some vegetables like negi (sort of a cross between a leek and a scallion but usually about the thickness of my thumb or a little bigger). He grows the vegetables and then this organization called JA comes and picks up the produce and sells it at their grocery stores or distributes it to other stores so that the farmers don’t have to waste their time selling and finding buyers.  It is kind of a collective of farmers or something that was started maybe 10 years ago.  Anyway, this farmer, Hisayuki, said once that it was kind of a pain because they are required to bunch the negi in groups of 3 and they have to line up the part where the color changes from white to green.  This is all done so it looks more attractive in the grocery store but Hisayuki said it is kind of a pain.

On the other hand rent (at least in Hokkaido) is pretty cheap.  I have a one bedroom in a new apartment building (I think I may be the first tenant in my apt) and my rent is Y43,000 a month (about $430).  Lee lives in a city of 300,000 and has an apartment minutes from the densha (streetcar) line in an older building but better made than mine (i.e. it has as real hardwood floors and a tatami room compared to my laminate flooring) that is a 2 bedroom and only pays Y50,000 a month.  My understanding is that houses here depreciate in value.  In general houses don’t seem that well made and people don’t seem to care as much about them as in the US.  At home your house is your number one asset usually and there are countless magazines and books about making your house look the best you can afford.  I don’t really see that here– could be because I’m in Hokkaido, or because of ‘quakes people don’t want to risk putting that much money into something that may not last, or because of all the transfers (you may not be in your house for too long so why bother sprucing it up), or because people tend to be more frugal here. I don’t really know.

This was really all just lead up to say that I just read an ad for my local grocery store selling suika (watermelon) for Y1,580 — and that is in yellow print with a red comic-book-style-pow thing behind it to indicate that this is a good deal!  I’ve even seen good quality watermelons sell for over 30 bucks a pop in the summer and even square ones, too.  And there not even ginormous.

I just thought you’d like to know