Maybe they import them from Eden

It's been staring at me from its place in the produce aisle for almost a month now. Tempting me buy it. Come on, it says, you'll never get this chance back in Canada. I may eventually take the plunge and buy it just so that I can say that I did. I am of course talking about the $5 apple.

I can't remember what apples cost back in Canada but I think you could usually get a bag of apples for about five dollars. I worked in an apple orchard for a couple months and it just blows my mind to think what one of those gigantic bins full of apples would be worth if each apple was worth five dollars. Now I will admit, they do look like five dollar apples. They are enourmous, perfectly round and totally without imperfection. They even come with their own individual styrofoam protection. But five dollars? I'll stick with apple juice thanks.

It's a similar story for almost all the other fruits and vegetables too. Maybe not quite as outrageous but still fairly pricey. I think it's not so much because of Japan's lack of agricultural potential but rather because the Japanese demand perfection of their fresh produce. Everything is humongous and perfect-and expensive. But you get what you pay for I guess. The grapes are practically the size of golf balls and the carrots are so big that they are sold 3 in a pack.

Groceries have probably been my biggest expense so far. I don't think I've ever spent $30-$40 on groceries and only filled 2 bags. Beef is quite expensive here which makes sense since they've banned all the beef from Canada so they're probably experiencing a bit of a shortage. Fortunately though chicken is as ridiculously cheap as beef is ridiculously expensive. I can buy 3 or 4 dinners worth of chicken for about 5 dollars-and we're talkin boneless chicken breast here not those stupid wings or legs.

Bread is kind of funny here because the largest loaf I can find is only 8 slices and it's almost always white bread. Wholewheat is nowhere to be found and you can forget about your 8 grains or flax bread or whatever it is you normally buy. You can buy all the alcohol you want right in the grocery store and you can drink it right outside the store if you want - you can drink anywhere.

What I miss the most so far is our large and varied choice of cereals and our frozen vegetables. I could eat cereal 3 times a day and people here just don't seem to eat it. We have a tiny section in our supermarket for cereal but the boxes are small and expensive. And cooking frozen vegetables sure was convenient back home but you dont see them too often here. You can find some at the 99yen store but the bags are small and certainly not like the ones we have back in Canada that might last a person a month almost.

The supermarkets here do have some cool stuff though. I mentioned the alcohol which might be a bigger advantage if I was a bigger drinker, but they also have tons of different cold drinks. I've started drinking this cold coffee which is pretty addictive. Everyone here seems to drink ice coffee. It's not like Ice Caps or anything-it's literally cold coffee. In McDonalds they'll put ice cubes in it for you.

Japan is a good place to be if you are a smoker because you can smoke almost everywhere and a pack of smokes will only set you back 3 bucks. If you run out you don't have to worry because you'll probably come up upon a vending machine that sells 20 different kinds on almost every block. Vending machines are everywhere in Japan. There's one place in Ikebukuro that I wish I had gotten a picture of - up against a building there is one long line of vending machines that stretch off into the horizon (ok there is some exageration involved there.) The odd thing is that although I've seen more vending machines here than I have seen in my entire life, I've yet to see one that sells food. I'm talking chips, chocolate bars, gum, candy etc etc. I have yet to see a single one. However if you need smokes or drinks (including beer) then you're in luck.

Speaking of beer, the Asahi beer company (which seems to be the largest in Japan,) even designed their head office after a mug of beer.

Only in Japan.

let me get to sleep