Movies or Cheese? September 3, 2008

We’d always heard that Tokyo was an expensive city, in fact, maybe the most expensive city in the world. This fact was repeated to us many times when we would tell others of our plans to move to Japan. Since we are only on one salary, due to the imminent arrival of our bundle of joy in November, we had concerns about this as well. How much would groceries be compared to Berlin (where they are uber-cheap!)? What about utilities? Internet? Mobile phones? It was enough to keep us up at night – that, and my increasingly restless sleeping pattern (as a stomach sleeper, I am struggling a bit with the belly).

Here’s the rundown:

Groceries: a bit more expensive, especially if you are looking to buy favorite items from the Western world (cereal is approx $4.98 for a teeny weeny box!!!). The fruit is different, but still yummy, and a bit pricier, yes…about 2 bucks for one big juicy peach. We’re now on these pear-apple hybrid things, which are also very tasty – but come at $5.80 for about 8 of them. And then there is the cheese. In the grocery store, the cheese stands alone. It seems to be an impossiblity for the two or so years we are here. One tiny package of Emmenthaler, Cheddar, or Mozzarella is about $7.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we eat, or rather, ate, a lot of cheese. Sadness.

Utilities: no idea yet…get back to you on that. But, it is SO hot here, that we are continuously running the air conditioners (which are very cool and quiet, and work more as a thermostat than those giant window units I am accustomed to).

Internet: about $45.00 a month for wireless – and we will get it on SATURDAY!!!! Yay!!!!! What did housewives do before Internet? Seriously.

Mobile Phones: we have attempted to get these twice, but are not having any luck until we get our Gaijin cards – foreigner’s registration card. But it looks like it should run about $50.00 a month.

All pretty doable. We were feeling pretty good…until we decided to go to the movies.

We managed to find the cinema, get in line, and decipher which movies were to be shown in the original language. In the case of our chosen flick “Hancock,” English! But as we stood in line, we saw something that looked like a price list…and it appeared to us that our tickets would cost approximately 1,800 yen apiece. Which is about $18 – per ticket. Or $36!!! We didn’t believe this could be, but true enough, when we asked for our tickets, the price was 3,600 yen. Of course, we paid, because we wanted to have the Japanese cinema experience…and also because it was really hot outside, and it meant 2 hours of good AC.

The movie was pretty decent, and had some really funny laugh-out-loud moments – except that my husband and I were really the only ones laughing out loud…guess that Will Smith’s humor doesn’t really translate into subtitles. In general, it is probably best to dub funny movies, and subtitle the serious ones.

So, two things that my husband and I love – movies and cheese. Not part of our new life here in Tokyo. But I bet with some creative thinking we can come up with reasonable substitutes…

Internet pirated movies will do for the cinema experience. They do have popcorn here, so that won’t be a problem.

But the cheese…there really is no substitute for that.

My birthday is in a month…maybe I will get a hunk of Gouda with a candle in it…

Tokyo, Red Lobster, and Sushi Markdown August 24, 2008

We are here, after a long 14 hour flight.  Service has REALLY gone down in the International Long Haul market, or maybe United just sucks.  Dunno.  Anyway, we barely had anything to eat during this marathon in the air: one hot meal (teeny), a cup of ramen noodles (seriously, styrofoam cup with dehydrated peas, seafood chewies, and noodles – the flight attendants added hot water, and you had to wait 4 minutes before eating), and a hot turkey and cheese sandwich.  As a seven-month pregnant lady, I was not pleased.  I ate the entire box of wheat thins I had brought aboard, and some trail mix…you need to bring a full load of snacks to survive this flight, be warned potential visitors!!!

Once we arrived, we were picked up by the school (and school bus!) and transported the hour-and-a-half ride into central Tokyo.  We were taken straight to our new apartment, which is quite tiny (Sushi Papa can’t stand up fully in the doorframe, picture to come later!), but still bigger than our studio in Berlin, so we’re happy.  The tatami mats (woven reed mats in one room) smell a little funny, so we’re going to have to do something about that.  Our biggest surprise was that there are many, many American chains here: 7-Eleven, Costco, and…RED LOBSTER!!!  I took Sushi Papa to Red Lobster once when we were in Indiana, and he was a big fan…asking me daily if we could go back before we left for Japan.  We never quite made it a second time, so you can imagine his excitement when we saw the glowing red sign as we turned onto our new apartment’s street.  Not only do we have this seafood chain in Tokyo, but it is literally a 5 minute walk!  Serendipity.

Hungry as we were, we decided to take a pass on the Lobster last night, and opted to walk about our neighborhood in search of some food.  The Japanese restaurants were a bit intimidating (being full of Japanese people, and all menus being in Japanese with no food choice pictures in sight), so we wandered into the local grocery to find some chow.  And at the perfect time…because at 8pm, a magical thing happens at the grocery in Japan – Sushi markdown!  This lady comes out with her markdown sticker gun and puts 20% off on all of the fresh and yummy sushi in the land.  A beautiful thing, it was.  So we feasted on sushi (cooked, due to the baby belly), big fat peaches, and rice balls. 

More on our new life later, but for now…we are really loving it here.  Yay!

-Sushi Mama

Two years later… August 22, 2008

The first blog I wrote detailed my adventures and misadventures as I made my first overseas move to Berlin, Germany.  Now, two years later, I am happily married with a baby on the way, and off to Tokyo.  Life can change up really quickly sometimes!

Our baby is due in early November, so until then I will spend my days trying to figure out Japanese life, while my husband teaches during the day.  I was also supposed to teach this year, but due to our little bundle of joy, will be staying home instead.  I’m not exactly sure how it will feel to stay at home, both pre-baby and post-baby, but I am sure to find many things in the city of Tokyo to keep me/us busy!  And we scored an apartment across the street from a giant park, so I have no excuse not to take lots of walks…

We just finished packing our bags, which all pretty much reach the 50 pound limit, and we have two extra bags each besides.  Of course, one bag is filled with all things baby, and another bag is half taken up with this weird pregnancy pillow I found to help me out as my belly reaches unforeseen proportions…I think it is actually called a Snoodle or something.  Anyway, I have grown increasingly dependent on this pillow, which is why we are paying extra to bring it with us!

So, we are out of here at 5am tomorrow…Tokyo bound!  Will update as soon as we can…xxxxx

-Sushi Mama

Time to move on… August 15, 2008

We’re off to Tokyo in one week. All three of us, although we only require two seats on the airplane for this journey…the third member of our family is due in early November!