The Land of Secrets

Okay okay, I'll do another blog post...

It's been quite a stretch since the last one simply because, well... it's the middle of the week, and nothing has really been happening. Me, Ben, and Max went to this gorgeous Buddhist temple, but sadly, I didn't have my camera. I'll return to it before long and chronicle the event with pictures. I figured I'd take this blog post to discuss life, the universe, and everything, minus the last two. Things are finally starting to level out. I'm finally on Japan time, my classes are going smoothly, and oh yeah...

This city is BALLS expensive. It's literally my only qualm with living here. It has many great things, people, sites, experiences, food, but prices aren't among them. I've spent more money than I'd like to mention and it's only my second week in Tokyo. I've been thrown into what I'd like to call budget bootcamp. It's a game like Starcraft, only if I run out of resources I starve and become a burden to my family. So it's basically live cheap or die trying. Wasn't that a movie? Oh well...

100 Yen shops have been my savior. I can by pasta, Tupperware, towels, measuring cups, and all kinds of things at a price that won't break the bank. Tonight I made a ridiculous amount of fried rice. It's enough for the next couple days at least. It will be good for lunch on the go tomorrow. I may be in a dorm, but being in a strange place, and having no school meal plan, It's as if I have to learn to live on my own all over again. I've begun to perfect the art of making a lot of food, so that the preparation time for other dishes to follow becomes shorter. I'm trying to do things when they need to be done, instead of putting them off. It's very much an exercise in self-discipline. Tomorrow I will clean my room.

While I'm on this subject I'd like to take a minute and talk about the Food Markets. Grocery stores are similar to how they are back home, aside from the fact that they're normally several stories high. They are different in one major way. I have never bought a single food item here that wasn't perfectly fresh and outstanding in quality. From the green vegetables, to the onions, to the mushrooms, to the chicken and scallops, everything I've bought so far has been fresh and delicious. One thing that is affordable here is the seafood. I can get a cut of fresh salmon for under 100 yen. (About a buck) A tray of 6 or 8 fresh Scallops will run me maybe 3-5 dollars. Beef is unusually expensive, as it tops the list in prices of meat over here. Anyway, I'm starting to figure this whole budgeting thing out. I want to leave enough room to by the occasional piece of geek memorabilia (there's this Eva model I've had my eye on) or trips like Fuji-Q or the worlds largest aquarium. Money is my single anxiety here. That and maybe offending people or embarrassing myself. I'm still catching on to many of the customs that are very normal here in Japan. Like Eating while walking is considered rude, also on the train. Eating on the go is not something the Japanese take too kindly to. Another example would be surgical masks. I see them everywhere. Apparently, it's polite to wear one if you are sick, therefore keeping your illness to yourself. I find myself in the awkward state of self awareness. Back home, I wouldn't have given a damn. I think it's because the American social barriers are so ingrained in my head that I don't give them a second thought. Here I find I must be much more mindful of my surroundings. I don't want to be just another ignorant Gaijin. I'm putting forth effort to adapt my lifestyle to respect the people of this wonderful country, and I hope that to some extent, that effort is being sensed and appreciated. Every time I say something in Japanese and receive a knowing smile, it's like a leap of progress. Learning which side of the escalator to stand on and which side to walk on, where to eat and where not to eat, these are all rules that are so common sense to so many, the concept of having to learn them must seem alien to them. It's just something they've always known. It's like I'm in a land of secrets, and everything is written in a code everyone but me understands. It's absolutely positively....

Exhilarating.

~Zach