Money To Burn

A lot of people were watching the World Series recently because it's the first time in history that two American teams competing for the title had Japanese players--and do Americans give half a rip about what their players do overseas? Very interesting. However, this recent diversion doesn't change the entrenched fact that the national pasttime over here is clearly shopping!

So let's say you are visiting me and want to spend some of your tourist cash. Where would I take you? Answer: I would probably make you buy me a fancy meal and train ticket to someplace I haven't been yet.

'No, no, no,' you say, 'I want to spend where you spend, experience the life of an exchange student for a day.' I would laugh at you, because you must not understand that I am a closet ascetic, a cheapskate who gets a secret thrill out of buying random, expiring vegetables and using them in some improvised way at my next home-made meal. I get much more satisfaction out of using what I already have well and living frugally than in securing a lot of new things.

However, if you were to beg and plead, I would probably realize that I was being selfish in imposing my own opinions on you, as well as not much fun. So we would go together down to the local bakery, or in Japanese pan-ya ["pan" comes from Portugese, I believe, and means bread, while the character for "ya" simply means shop or establishment].

There is almost always a pretty saleswoman out front trying to draw new customers to try the latest seasonal recipe. Please let me digress for a minute on the apparent fascination with/promotion of Halloween this year. Next to the jack-o-lantern there are a few shelves of pumpkin-shaped cookies, and two weeks ago many of the trains had advertisements for Tokyo Disneyland's "spook-tacular" shows. Why? Well for one thing it's from America and thus exotic or worthy of imitation. For another, it accords well with the ingrained Japanese habit of taking a few days in the year to dress up and throw off societal restraint; back in the old days this meant festivals, while now it means "cosplay" at anime conventions. Either way, I think it's pretty silly to have all this top-down promotion of an age-old harvest ritual in any society where the average person isn't farming for their sustenance.

Where were we? Right--buying bread. There are a lot of delicious varities here, as the rule seems to be 'any flavor that the customers like is worth selling.' I was a bit concerned in my initial months because most bread seemed to be of the soft, bleached-bland sort and I very much appreciate European-style seeded wheat bread--hard on the teeth, but good for fiber and very tasty once you stop relying on pure-sugar spreads for flavor. (I get preachy too easily, don't I? Please be patient with me.) However my first purchase at this shop, a crusty wheat loaf chock full of dried figs and walnuts, countered this trend in a delicious manner. I am not a big fan of the artificially flavored 'melon bread' that so many foreigners rave about, but maybe I haven't loosened up my sweet tooth enough yet.

OK, so you want something besides food? First stop is Daiso, where basically everything is 105 yen (currently 91¢), the Japanese answer to dollar stores. Some of the stuff is cheap junk, but much of their inventory was purchased in bulk and can thus be sold for cut-rate prices. The pink sign on the far-left window says "Night help wanted," though I think neither homework nor my current skill in the respectful language required to do business without offense would allow me a spot on the payroll, and the circle around each logo on the double doors says "Welcome" in both English and Japanese (please see my "Tongues" post below if this seems strange).

What's that? You still want to keep spending? Fine; the window shopping district is over that way. I've had enough for the day and will see you back at the dorm, OK? Some quickly perishing spinach is begging to be tossed into a makeshift salad.