Just another random thought 11/26/09: Buy American!

There comes a time in (almost) every young man or woman's life when he sets out on his own and assumes responsibility for himself: bills, food, housing - all of that good stuff. It was an interesting experience to jump to this stage of life and simultaneously into a foreign country. Although to be fair, I have had help with things like my apartment lease.

One characteristic of growing up and becoming responsible is learning how to manage your money. You start to notice things you never really gave much thought to in the past, like how much different brands of milk cost and which pack has more cherry tomatoes in it. As such, I've tended to inadvertently buy a lot of American produce. Often imported American (or Australian) meat is cheaper than domestic Japanese stock. The same is true of some fruits and vegetables. Today I bought a head of American broccoli for 68 yen. The Japanese ones were almost 100 yen more! Fine by me - I like buying stuff from home. Suckers...!