Boi 4 - Fruit rambles of a humble boi

Hi hello! It's ya boi 4, Lucia, back at it again with the scoop on fruits in Japan.

Well, actually, my last blog post was pretty informative, I thought, and I haven't really hit the fruit books since then. As such, a lot of today's blog will be derived from personal experience. I hope that's okay. ^~^ I mentioned at the end of my last blog that some of my former perceptions about fruits needed to be adjusted. Let's start with that, shall we?

Before exploring the actual state of fruits in Japan, I had the image that all fruits in Japan were expensive. I knew this sounded extreme, but sometimes it feels like anything can be the case in Japan. Japan is just so... different from what I'm used to that even things that sound odd still seem plausible in Japan. For example, we went to a bookstore that held so many books that the store itself had several floors and even a part of a nearby building. Or, for another example, the 100円 store actually sells items for 100円, haha.

Anyway, back to fruits. I realised pretty soon after I started paying attention that fruits are actually quite accessible and that the prices for lower quality fruits (ie. fruits that aren't raised like royalty) are relatively reasonable. While the prices for normal fruit in Japan may be higher than what I might find back home in Canada, it's not all that terrible. I see my friends eating fruits all the time, precut and packaged into containers or used in desserts and stuff like that.

I don't think it is in Japanese culture to eat fruits very recreationally, but as a foreigner, I find that I can still maintain the fruit eating habits I had back home. Last time I was in Japan, while I had the assumption that all fruit were expensive in Japan, going out and buying fruits was never a high priority. I suppose that's why my misconception on fruit prices in Japan persisted throughout the entirety of my last time here.

This time, however, I've been going out and exploring a lot with new friends that I've made on this program. Starting this week, I started using the dorm kitchen to help make dinner. In preparation for dinner, we go out the a nearby grocery store called Life (ライフ). Since I've been tasked with researching fruits, I've been a lot more attentive to fruits as I walk through the grocery aisles. Sometimes the arrangement of fruits and such remind me of grocery stores at home. Perhaps the fruit supply is noticeably less, but vegetables and other ingrediants seem plentiful.

Overall, I think there was a little bit of truth in my former perceptions of fruits in Japan. They do seem to tend to be more expensive than their Canadian counnterparts but not too unreasonably so. A fruit-lover going to Japan would not find themselves in much strife, I think.

Well, anyway, that was a fun little spiel. I'm gonna get back to work now. There's a fourth blog in the works, so I guess I'll catch y'all then. Boi 4, out.