Tokyo Cost of Living

Today I'm going to share with you a little fun called "How Much Could One Raspberry Really Cost?"

Here's my grocery list for "just a couple things" I picked up today:

Orange juice, 1 liter -- $1.50
6 liters of milk, (i.e. about 3 half-gallons) -- $8.50 total
8 yogurts -- $8.50 total
2 tiny yogurt 4-packs -- $4.00
1/2 loaf of graham bread -- $2.20
4 bananas -- $2.20
6 bagels -- $7.20

Okay, expensive, but not crazy, right? Here comes the kicker:

Bing Cherries, 1 pint -- $11.00
Raspberries, 1/2 pint -- $10.00

I counted the cherries in that container -- 60 of them. After you add the tax of 5% on everything, EACH cherry costs 19 cents. Raspberries are a slightly better bargain -- there's about 70 of them, and that makes EACH raspberry 15 cents. Of course, if you go by weight the cherries are the better deal, even after pitting them.

So, my little trip to get just fruit, bread, and milk for 3 days is over $55.00 US. (Insert gasp here.) The berries will last through breakfast, the cherries through to the end of the day. Then back to the store for more fresh fruit. (Peaches are 2 for $18.00 right now. We're passing on those for a while.)

By the way?? This is the regular grocery store. Not the high-falutin'-gotta-wear-your-diamond-tiara-to-go-shopping one. Not the "we supply fruit to the emperor" one. Not the one that stocks the square melons for $80 - 200 US ("that's just wrong," as my brother would say), it's Just a Grocery Store.

Don't ask about the time I bought a mango without looking at the price tag -- there was a basket of $8.00 mangos, and a basket of $9.00 mangos, and a basket of mangos that looked the BEST, but did not have a price tag on the basket. Reason: each single mango had a price tag, a whopping $28.00 US. I found out when I got home. It *was* an exceptionally good mango. (The other, less expensive mangos were from Mexico and the Philippines, and the super expensive little one was from the southern islands in Japan.)

I'm a lot more careful about reaching into the fruit basket now.