Why Japanese cooking? Well, for one very good reason – we’re in Japan. In most cases, it’s almost always cheaper to cook in the local cuisine using ingredients that can be bought at the neighborhood supermarket. However, this isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Language difficulties, a lack of experience, and a different set of taste buds can making cooking Japanese food a real headache.What’s a Frugalite to do?

Well, the Oct. 21 Nikkei Shimbun had a few very useful tips that I thought I would share with you. Their “Nandemo Ranking” Saturday column lists weekly results of surveys of readers, and this week’s was the Top 5 Effective Cooking Tips and Top Five Basic Cooking Techniques for Japanese cooking. Interested? Here they are.

Part I: Top Five Effective Cooking Tips

1) When grilling fish, coat the grill tray with cooking oil, and the fish with Japanese vinegar (su).
The oil keeps the fish from sticking to the tray, while a light coat of vinegar reduces the “fishy” smell.

2) When simmering fish, layer a ‘cooking sheet’ (usually thick paper, but a paper towel will do) *under* the fish.
The fish won’t stick to the pan, and won’t fall apart.

3) Adding a few drops of vinegar to grated daikon can help reduce the bitter taste.
Particularly effective for the skinny end of the daikon.

4) When boiling potatoes, leave the skins on.
Helps prevent watery potatoes when cooking for croquettes and other dishes.

5) Chill onions for 15 minutes in the fridge before cutting.
This, and cutting with a well-sharpened knife, can help reduce ‘onion tears.’

Part II: Top Five Basic Cooking Techniques

1) When making miso soup, dissolve the miso paste in LAST!
Boiling the miso base too long reduces the flavor.

2) Use a drop lid when simmering fish.
Using a smaller lid (or square of alunimum foil) when boiling fish makes for a richer, moister taste.

3) Chill green vegetables rapidly after boiling.
Rapidly chilling green vegetables (like spinach) after boiling in ice water helps retain freshness.

4) Break up konyaku used in simmered dishes with your hands.
This method makes it easier for the flavor to seep in vs. cutting w/a knife.

5) After slicing gobo (burdock root), let it soak in water with a few tablespoons of vinegar.
Helps maintain freshness, also works with lotus root (renkon).

Hopefully the tips above provided you with a few gems of Japanese cooking wisdom. 633 Japanese readers (most of them veteran housewives, I’m sure) can’t be wrong. Enjoy!

© 2006 Wendy J. Imura.

However, in Japan this does not appear to be the case. Legions of young mothers still turn their nose up at “BF” (beebi fuudo in katakana) to prepare homemade concoctions artfully arranged in lovely cermaic dishes. (At least, that’s what the pictures in the Japanese parenting magazines I read tell me!) Truthfully, Japanese baby food (“rinyushoku,” or weaning foods) appears as varied and palate-tempting as a kaiseki meal.

Initially, I was very turned off by what I though was an excessive attention to detail and preparation. Japanese parenting websites, books, and magazines feature elaborate menus and recipes for dishes your little darling will probably only consume a teaspoon-full of. However, after scouring my English sources for concrete advice, I was discouraged by the lack of the detailed instructions. As my son approached the age of starting solids, I thought: why not give this Japanese method a whirl. Here’s what I learned:

Japanese weaning foods are divided into five basic stages: the early (5-6 months), middle (7-8 months), and late stage (9-11 months), the “finishing” stage (12-15 months), and toddler stage (16 months and on). It is an earlier start than recommended by many Western books, but as with anything, your child’s development should be your guide, not his/her age. The Japanese also recommend “practicing” feeding your baby with a spoon (either watered-down fruit juice or vegetable broth) from about four months on – the goal not being to feed your child, but get them used to tastes other than breastmilk or formula and used to a spoon.

So, what do you feed your baby, and how? Well, the basic staple is rice – in the form of okayu, or rice cereal (some translate it as gruel). You can of course buy prepackaged packs at drugstores, but it’s also very easy to make. They recommend starting out with 10X diluted rice cereal, and then moving down to 7X, 5X, and 3X. I use a special “baby rice cooker” that fits inside our regular rice cooker: the Dream Collection “Okayu Cup” for Y839 from BabiesRUs online. Very handy, and cooks while your family rice is cooking.

Once your baby gets used to eating about 1-2 teaspoons of okayu, then you can move on the vegetables and protien sources. For vegetables, carrots, kabocha (pumpkin), spinach, and others are good starters. For protien sources, either tofu (mashed) or very finely mashed white fish is recommended. Worried about assembling all the right tools (strainers, mortar/pestle, juicers, slicers)? Then I heartily recommend this set of rinyushoku cooking implements from Pigeon: it’s reasonable priced, compact, and just the right size for baby food. The Pigeon “Chori Set” is Y2099 at BabysRUs online. It has everything you need!

The above advice is suitable for a baby just getting started on solids, but what about older babies? In these cases, I recommend looking either online or in books for ideas and recipes. The basic book I use is “Hajimete no Rinyushoku” (First Baby Foods) by Shufu no Tomo. The full-color pictures and great descriptions make it easy to understand even with limited Japanese skills. The step-by-step instructions are also very helpful, and there are hundreds of recipes. You can buy it here from Amazon.co.jp for about Y1400. Another great, and free, resource is the Wakodo Rinyushoku homepage: http://www.wakodo.co.jp/world/babyfood/. Tons of recipes here as well, all divided by age group and ingredient with photos (note: these recipes include promotions for Wakodo baby food products, but you can easily substitute with homemade).

So, finally… is it worth the time and effort? Well, after only two months of practice, I can say it has been fun, and we’ve made good progress. It takes about 20 minutes a day (usually less) to prepare two meals. Instead of cooking completely seperate menus, we simply use ingredients from our family dinners for our son’s meals. Judicious use of the freezer (freezing individual okayu servings in ice cube trays, portion-size servings of fish or bananas) also helps cut down on the time. And it is cheap: other than the initial outlay for the items mentioned above, it’s practically free. And the food tastes pretty good too (I definitely sample!).

So, if you’ve got a young baby, or are expecting one soon – why not give homemade baby food (Japanese style) a try? You mind find it (like I did) both frugal and fun.

© 2006 Wendy J. Imura.

Your supermarket article reminded me that Yamaya has moved their Shibuya shop closer to the station and expanded it greatly (here’s a map).

These guys stock booze and some import foodstuffs, and they’re dirt cheap. For example, Friexnet Cava (a Spanish sparkling wine) is 1,300-1,500 yen almost everywhere, but only 1,050 yen there. This is also one of the very, very few cheap places to buy food in the Shibuya station area. We don’t seem to have any real supermarkets here, only very expensive depa-chika.

Of course, if you buy your booze at Bic camera, you can get 10% or more back in points. Or the other way around: you can use your points to buy booze. A laptop purchase will get you drunk as a skunk.

© 2006 Wendy J. Imura.

Interestingly enough, Japan has developed a wide variety of long-established food delivery services to make shopping more convenient. Many urban grocery stores, especially those struggling to compete against larger suburban chains, now offer reasonably priced “takuhai,” or delivery services. Any purchases made by a certain time (usually morning) can be delivered to your door about 3 – 5 hours later, for a fee, of course. Ask your supermarket service counter if they offer “takuhai saabisu” and how much it costs.

A second type of service is the well-known seikyo or home grocery-delivery service. Local “seikyo” or farmers’ cooperatives (usually one per prefecture or large city) offer home delivery services in addition to retail stores. The basis for ordering is a set of catalogs delivered weekly to your home. Using the catalogs, you fill out a specialized order sheet, and your groceries and supplies are delivered via a special route truck on a certain day of the week. Sealed Styrofoam containers (for cold or frozen items) and cardboard boxes (each recycled and collected weekly) hold the items outside your doorstep, and you don’t have to be home to receive deliveries. Each week you fill our the form for your groceries for the next week, making meal planning relatively easy. While most seikyo used to require group orders, almost all services deal with individual families now.

The Tokyo metropolitan region PAL System (Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Saitama, see the following Japanese website for info: http://www.pal-system.co.jp) supplies a whopping 640,000 homes, allows Internet/phone/and fax-based ordering, and offers a wide range of specialized catalogs and services. Shipping for most Coop services is free when there is a new baby or elderly person in the house. Other regions have very similar groups: ask your neighbors about the “seikyo takuhai” or do an Internet search with your city/region name and “seikyo takuhai” in Japanese.

Another booming sub-market of home grocery delivery service is organic food home delivery. Our family uses Radish Boya, a long-standing nationwide service that contracts with local farmers to produce organic vegetables, fruits, meat, and even processed foods. The system (catalogs/order sheets/home delivery) is similar to Seikyo, except that every week a large box of fresh vegetables and fruits is sent to your home. The box is filled with what’s in season and what’s available, meaning that you could end up with three consecutive weeks of gobo (burdock root), or a large watermelon one week and two cantaloupes the next. The service also ships relatively rare but traditional vegetables difficult to find in supermarkets. You can order additional weekly and/or one-off products as well. Check out http://www.radishbo-ya.co.jp for more information. Other organic food delivery services are popping up all over: it might be worth it to compare prices. (Organic vegetables are “yuuki yasai” in Japanese.)

Finally, a new subset of the market that caters to the truly busy or those on special diets is worth mentioning: “menu-specific” meal shipping services. Essentially, these services send you both the ingredients and recipes as a packaged set of menus for each week, eliminating the question “what’s for dinner?” and shopping. While I’ve never tried these services myself, they do seem convenient, and certainly less expensive than eating out. Some recommended sites include: Benesse EF (http://www.benesse-ef.jp), Watashi no Kondate (http://www.shokubun.co.jp), and Yoshikei (http://www.yoshikei-dvlp.co.jp). Note that you can, of course, cancel for days or weeks if you don’t like the menu or won’t be at home to cook.

So, finally, the real question is: are these services frugal? There is no question that a dedicated comparison shopper with lots of time to visit many stores would find cheaper per-unit prices on many of the items sold through these services. Plus, shipping can get expensive if you live too far off route for one of the weekly truck deliveries. That said, I’ve found that using our service actually lowered our grocery bill for three reasons:

1) We don’t go shopping as much (maybe once a week to get meat or fish), thus cutting down drastically on unneeded or impulse buys.

2) Groceries become more of a fixed cost (you are typically billed for your monthly purchases at the end of the month through direct withdrawal from your bank account).

3) “Inventory control” becomes easier (you order based on a catalog, allowing you to check your ’stock’ of groceries as you go).

Whatever grocery delivery service type you choose, realize that the catalogs you receive will be in Japanese, and most customer service too. While extensive pictures are used, it can take a month or two to get used to how the service works. That said, a number of friends I know with limited Japanese manage to use the services quite successfully. If your spoken Japanese is better than your reading, ask for a sales person to visit your home to explain things to you – many will do just that. Happy Ordering!

PS: Note that many services (including mine) have dropped their joining and membership renewal fees altogether (used to be 5,000 yen), and that many have “trial membership” campaigns for a month or so. Radish Boya, and some Seikyo, will also send you a free pack of vegetables or basic products so you can try out the merchandise.

© 2005 Wendy J. Imura.

Of course, shopping can be a daunting experience in Japan to begin with – reading the labels, or even determining just WHAT IS the product, can be a real challenge. So I thought I’d introduce my basic four steps for frugal grocery shopping in Japan – though, really, they could apply anywhere.

1. Scout out your ’shopping terrain’ ahead of time.

In Japan, this most often means scoping out all possible supermarkets, green grocers (yaoyasan in Japanese – the small Mom & Pop fruit/veggie shops), and 100/99-yen food shops within walking or biking distance. Consider your strength (how far can you walk laden with 3 or 4 plastic bags of groceries digging into your arms) and cleanliness/taste standards. 100/99-yen food stores are cheap, but frequently sell merchandise close to or past its expiration date. Convenience stores in principle are overpriced, and should not be in a Frugalite’s grocery shopping terrain.

2. Begin tracking price trends on items you buy most frequently.

Most people buy/stock the same 15-20 food items (fresh and prepared) every week or two. The best way to save money on food is, of course, to determine which store within your shopping terrain offers the best price consistently on these items. Keeping a “price book” (just a small pocket-size notebook or stack of cards) listing the unit price for these items by location per date will help you keep track of your “best price.” If, for example, you buy 200 ML of lowfat milk each week, your research after a few weeks could tell you whether you should buy that milk at Maruetsu, Ito Yokado, or Aeon. What’s more, it will also tell you if that “sale” on milk at Aeon is actually a good deal or not. Want to learn more about keeping a price book? See: http://www.thefrugalshopper.com/articles/pricebook.shtml

3. Be on alert for sales and specials.

Japanese supermarkets (with the exception of Walmart subsidiary Seiyu) don’t have an “everyday low price” policy. Instead, they rely on daily and/or weekly specials to draw customers. Tuesdays, for example, might be 40% off frozen foods day, while Mondays are 10% off fish day. Newspaper “chirashi” or other advertisements are also a major source of information, though watch out for time limits, item purchase limits, and other conditions. Also, consulting your price book can tell you if the so-called “special deal” is really worth traveling to that particular supermarket for.

4. Shop strategically at two or three locations for your needs.

Now, just put steps 1), 2), and 3) together, and plan your shopping expedition around which store has the best prices on which items. Be sure to remember to bring several large, reusable grocery bags to make transporting your purchases home easier.

Finally, a word of caution: try not to be a “menu-controlled shopper.” What I mean is, don’t go always shop in search of ingredients for a particular meal or menu. (Ex. “I want to make cream stew today, so I need chicken, potatoes, etc…) Instead, buy your basics (meat, vegetables, fish, fruit, and dairy), and plan your meals AROUND what food is in season and is reasonably priced.(Ex. “Ooh, today eggplant, canned tomatoes, and ground pork are on sale: I’ll make spaghetti!) Of course, everyone deserves a treat now and again, but making a habit of shopping to your menu, instead of shopping to the season/prices, will end up costing more in the long run.

© 2005 Wendy J. Imura.

So, in honor of all those new to Japan, or those who will be arriving soon (be you fresh-faced English teachers , backpackers, Expo tourists, or exchange students), here are my Top Five Frugal Things I’d Wish I’d Done.

1) I wish I’d brought more cash.

Japan is certainly more overseas credit-card/ATM friendly than it was in 1995, but regardless – it is still the land of cash. I had no idea how expensive things would be, and when I couldn’t read or write Japanese, I really couldn’t find out. I used my credit cards at hotels, train stations, and … wherever I could. Anyone familiar with the US credit card system knows that, well, … it takes forever to pay those things off. In terms of total payment, taking more cash (or using a debit card) for my travels would have been a lot smarter.

2) I wish I’d been a more adventurous eater.

Japanese food grows on you. The longer you are here, generally, the more of the stranger foods you can eat. In all respects, eating like a local is probably cheaper than eating foreign foods. In particular, I wish I’d had the courage to try the great lunch/dinner specials available at restaurants, strange Japanese ingredients at supermarkets on specials, and unfamiliar vegetables. Would have saved me a fortune! (I once, embarrassingly, spent 3,000 yen ordering 12 frozen bagels from Hokkaido!)

3) I wish I’d started an automatic withdrawal savings plan.

If you’re in Japan on a year-long work contract or longer, chances are you draw a monthly salary. Chances also are you are hoping to pay back some of your school loans or save money while you are here. Starting a “teiki yokin” or automatic withdrawal savings plan is the idiot-proof way to make sure that happens. Banks, post office savings, and other financial institutions offer this service, which simply “adds” a special savings account that automatically withdraws a specific amount of money from your main account on a certain day of the month. Start with 1/10th of your monthly salary at first, and build up if you like. Personally, I could have saved at least $15,000 over my three years of low- cost/reasonably paid single lifestyle if I’d known about this. DO IT!

4) I wish I’d not bought so much *stuff*.

If you’re in Japan “temporarily” (less than a year or two), there really is no reason to fill your apartment with stuff. You’ll just have to sell it, give it away, or trash it when you leave. The market for used electronics, furniture, clothes, and other items in Japan (even among other foreigners)is not great: you should probably expect to get maybe 10-20% of your initial investment back. If it’s not absolutely necessary, why buy it? You’ll not only save some money, you’ll save yourself a headache as you pack up to move.

5) I wish I’d traveled smarter.

Unlike many young intrepid foreigners in Japan, I limited most of my travels to within Japan (very expensive), trips back home (also expensive), and only one trip to a third country. I also traveled mostly at peak times. If I had to do it again, I’d make a special “travel fund” that I contributed to each month. I’d also try and travel off season as much as possible. Travel (where to go and how to do it) is such a personal choice, but I do wish I’d done it smarter.

“20-20 hindsight” frequently makes us wiser about our past than our future, but I hoped some of my recent thoughts on the matter might be helpful for budding Frugalites in Japan out there too.

© 2005 Wendy J. Imura.

One great way to enjoy a meal out without breaking the bank is to use one of the many online ‘gourmet’ websites available. These websites provide restaurant information such as maps, menus, and recommendations by area/cuisine. What’s more, they often offer incredible coupons and deals available only online. There are even, believe it or not, a few English- language sites available too, such as http://pc.tabemo.com! (Ed’s note: Link no longer valid.)

Smart Ways to Save

There are two smart ways to use these websites: 1) to search for a bargain at a restaurant of a particular cuisine in a particular area, or 2) to find coupons to use at a restaurant you already frequent. The coupons offer surprisingly good deals – such as 10% off the entire bill at checkout, a free beer for all the members of the party, or a special free desert for the birthday boy/girl. In some cases, special event or limited time coupons offering up to 30-50% off may be available at certain restaurants, with the coupons often sent and used through your mobile phone.

Tabemo

(Ed’s note: This site does not seem to exist anymore.)

The English-language site with the largest database seems to be Tabemo. The service is best accessed through a mobile phone (can also be accessed through the PC), and requires registration. Once registered, you can search for restaurants on a PC/mobile phone and also search for coupons. Say, for example, that you have arranged to meet friends for an early dinner and you want to eat Indian. A search by location and cuisine in English for “Today’s Coupons” through either the mobile or PC site tells you that a special 20% off coupon for parties of two or more is available until tonight (3:00-8:00 PM) at the Indian restaurant Taj Mahal. Check out the site for a great explanation of the Tabemo ‘Mobile Dining Club’ service in English. Very cool, and very frugal!

Gourmet Navigator (Gurunabi)

Another PC-based option is the foreign-language edition of Gurunabi, the major Japanese-language site in this genre, with 44,000 restaurants listed! The English-language site (http://www.gnavi.co.jp/en/) is surprisingly easy to navigate (if charmingly translated), and features search and listing services for Tokyo-Yokohama, Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe, Kyushu, Nagoya, and Tokyo. Hundreds of restaurants, menus, and maps are listed, and a large number of establishments also offer coupons (look for the blue ‘Coupon’ listing to the right of the restaurant in the search results). The site is also available in Chinese and Korean. The Japanese site, of course, features a much larger selection of restaurants and coupons (http://www.gnavi.co.jp).

I’ve used these coupons on a number of occasions, and always been pleasantly surprised by the results – be they a free desert or bottle of wine, or a significant chunk off the tab. Make sure that the English- and Japanese-language sites don’t contain discrepancies in conditions, however – nothing like walking up to the cash register and getting a ‘rude surprise’. Also, it’s best to present your coupon BEFORE you order. Hope this helps you save a little money while enjoying dining out!

© 2005 Wendy J. Imura.

The Freezer

Most freezers are frost-free but that doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate being cleaned out. Take everything out of the freezer and wipe it down with a damp cloth. Placing a metal sheet (a cookie tray works well) on the bottom of the freezer helps freeze foods fast as the metal transmits cold better than plastic. Place foods on this tray to freeze and then put them elsewhere in the freezer to free up the tray for next time. Most people know that an overfull freezer is not energy efficient but it is not so well known that neither is an empty freezer. If you don’t have a lot in your freezer, fill some small plastic bags with water and tie them off. These freeze quickly, can be discarded when the freezer is fuller, and are great for first aid emergencies too.

Packaging

Proper packaging is the key to freezing food. Contact with air, and moisture loss, are the two biggest problems when freezing. They cause freezer burn (discoloration and drying of frozen food), and loss of flavour. Both can be avoided by packaging food carefully.

The white polystyrene trays from the supermarket are NOT suitable for freezing. The plastic film is made to allow air to flow through as this ensures the meet stays an appealing colour in the supermarket fridge. Before freezing you need to repackage the meat into an airtight container. This can be a Tupperware (R) type container, zip lock bag or even heavy-duty tinfoil. Square or rectangular containers reduce wasted space in the freezer.

Bigger Isn’t Better

Choose a container that will just fit the product you wish to freeze to minimize the amount of air in the container. Freezing in small quantities shortens freezing time, decreasing the risk of bacteria breeding. Freezing in one-meal quantities also makes for easy meal planning. The exception to the smaller is better rule is when freezing liquids. When freezing juice, milk, soup or other liquids allow at least 5cm of space at the top of the container as liquids expand when they freeze.

Labeling each container with the contents, quantity and date frozen helps ensure you use each item when it’s at its best and prevents UFOs (unidentifiable frozen objects).

Freezing Homemade Food

When freezing homemade food it is important to allow it to cool completely before freezing. Putting still warm foods in the freezer not only slows the freezing time of the warm item but warms the freezer, putting other foodstuffs at risk of spoilage as well.

When making lasagna, gratin, tuna casserole or other baked dishes you can make a double batch and freeze the extra in the baking dish. Wrap the cooled dish tightly with plastic wrap and put the entire dish in an airtight container or bag and then straight into the freezer. When it comes time to eat the dish it can go straight from the freezer to the microwave to the table.

What and For How Long

Not all foods are created equal. Some freeze well, some lose flavour or change texture when frozen. The following is a guide to the length of time that foods can be frozen without losing their nutritional value, flavour or appearance. There are many such tables available on the Internet with very little variation in content.

Source: http://www.bhg.com.au/food.nsf/Content/bhg_article_june01_freezing

The No Go List

Some foods don’t freeze well even for a short time. These include mayonnaise (it will separate), raw vegetables with a high water content (they will become limp and discoloured), cooked egg whites (they will become tough and rubbery) and soft cheeses (they may separate). Foods with a high fat or salt content should be frozen for as short a time as possible as the salt and fat content of foods causes it to go rancid. Removing excess fat from meat before freezing will help alleviate this problem.

Tofu

The consistency of tofu changes quite dramatically when frozen. It becomes chewy and holey- a little like a sponge. Many people find this new texture unappealing, however, cooking with tofu that has been frozen increases the amount of flavour that is imbedded in the tofu so it can actually be an improvement. It’s one of those things you just have to try and see if it suits you. www.vegsource.com/talk/soy/messages/15258.html has some hints for cooking with frozen tofu.

The “Freezing Is Better” List

Some items keep their quality better when frozen than in the fridge or on the bench. These include nuts, coffee beans and ground coffee (not instant), bread, yeast and bread mixes.

Defrosting

The quickest way to defrost food is in the microwave but this substantially eats into the frugality of freezing so when possible it’s best to choose an alternative method.

In the Fridge
The safest way to defrost food without damaging it is to move it from the freezer to the fridge the night before you want to use it. This allows the food to defrost slowly while remaining at a safe temperature. The amount of time necessary to defrost this way depends on the quantity and density of the frozen item but most items will take at least 12 hours so some planning is necessary.

In Cold Water
For quicker defrosting or very large items (such as turkeys at this time of year) a cold water bath can be used to defrost. Make sure the item is in a watertight container though or you may end up with soup!

On the Kitchen Counter
This method of defrosting is not recommended for meat and raw goods and not the preferable option for baked goods as raising the temperature of food to room temperature creates an ideal environment for bacteria growth. If you are out during the day and your uninsulated Japanese apartment/ house is left unheated though, you may find it’s colder on the counter than in the fridge over the coming months!

The Next Step

Once you’ve caught the freezing bug you might want to try a very frugal practice – the once a month cook up. You buy in bulk, cook solidly for a day, and eat the results for a month. This saves you on food, utilities, last minute takeaways and time as well. In most Japanese kitchens a once a week cookup might be more realistic though! There are plenty of websites with freezing tips, recipe ideas and discussion forums. It’s quite a movement, complete with its own acronym- OAMC. Try http://busycooks.about.com/library/lessons/blOAMC.htm for a start.

References

• Martha Stewart
• http://www.cafecreosote.com/Reference/FreezingTips.php3 (Ed’s note: Link no longer valid.)
• http://www.bhg.com.au/food.nsf/Content/bhg_article_june01_freezing
• http://asiarecipe.com/freezing.html
• http://www.busycooks.about.com/od/freezingfood
• http://www.vegsource.com/talk/soy/messages/15258.html
• http://busycooks.about.com/library/lessons/blOAMC.htm

© 2004 H. Fukase.

1. If you like European-tasting water, with high calcium content, try the Kirin-Danone 2-liter bottles. Tastes great, and sells for just JPY880 for 6 x 2ltr bottles (12 liters). This is way cheaper than Volvic, etc.

2. Cheapest place to get a semi-Western meal in Shibuya is Rakeru. There are several restaurants with really yummy omelettes, potatoes and salad for around JPY700.

3. The 99-yen stores around town are quite good for certain foreign alcohol and for fresh but marked fruit. The one just around the corner from us has foreign (Australian) beer that I never heard of before for 99 yen a can. Tastes great. Apples and avocados are also 99 yen each.

(Thank you Terry!)

© 2004 Wendy J. Imura.