Tilting at Windmills

I stopped by the Don Quijote store in Roppongi to see why it's popular among expats. One reason is the food section: lots of staples, some Western, for less money. I picked up a couple quarts of orange juice for 105 yen each — the normal price for a pint in other stores. They had 300 gram blocks of tofu for 39 yen, bean sprouts for 39 yen per bag, and good prices on canned tomatoes, coffee, tea, and lots of other items. I'm still bewildered by all the Japanese foodstuffs, so I have some experimentation ahead. They didn't stock too many fruits, vegetables, or meats. I enjoyed the Engrish store jingle that plays over their loudspeakers every ten minutes. I'm sure I'll have it memorized after my second visit.

I found several battery powered alarm clocks at Quijote, but with such big numbers (980 yen and up) I had to ponder the purchase a little more, so I left them all on the shelf. Then I realized that I live in an apartment that costs more to keep than an airplane, so why don't I take the one broken item I inherited in this apartment (the alarm clock) to the front desk to see if they'd replace it? Surely they can afford the luxury ~1900 yen model.

I received my first complaint about this blog: an expat in Norway (paying bills in Kroner) finds it difficult to decipher the yen prices I post. After considering this complaint for many seconds hours I believe it has merit even if this particular expat is a little annoying. (Just kidding, Mark.) So I will try to put a little currency converter on every page with today's exchange rate. For now, just chop off the last two digits of any yen price to arrive at something close to the U.S. dollar price.

Sorry, no Tokyo nightlife reports yet except second hand ones. No, I really can't post what I overheard those two blokes saying too loudly. In the meantime, check out blogs here and here if you want stories. See if you can find the single sheet "language guide" at the second blog. I laughed.