Dinner at the Shimbashi Market & What Japanese and Canadians have in Common
I am probably one of the few, if not the only, knucklehead living on an expense account who gets his dinner at a grocery store. I have raved about the prepared meals available in the grocery stores in London in the past and Tokyo is not quite in that league but the fresh produce here is phenomenal. The strawberries, recently in season, where obscenely good. The grapefruit, kiwis, apples and bananas are superb and the mango is also a must try. My typical dinner is conveyor belt sushi and then a trip to the Shimbashi market for fruit and vegetables to eat back at the room. I have made a habit of buying extra fruit, snacks and biscuits for the staff at the hotel.
I cannot deny there is also a convenience factor in purchasing dinner at the market. The Shimbashi market is open until 11 PM which lends itself to a late evening meal after long hours in the office and as much time as I can squeeze in at the temple before it closes at 10 PM. There is also the fact that I can see what I am buying in advance and do not need to speak Japanese to take it off the shelf in addition to the fact that I can assure my meal is all relatively healthy.
The check out procedure is painless as well and the cashiers even want to help me reduce the number of coins I receive back by inspecting what I already have in hand. I typically do this on my own but they don't seem to trust my familiarity with Japanese coins or perhaps have accepted the stereotype that I must have inadequate math skills as a westerner. Rest assured dear reader, I have the requisite math skills in addition to a feverish desire to have nothing in my pockets! So believe me I try like heck to reduce the number of coins I carry.
It didn't take me long to figure out that the first question the cashier will ask is something akin to "Do you have a member or point card?" to which I simply nod my head no. The next thing I learned was how to explain that I have my own grocery bags, which is not entirely rare in this market. The reaction to this is always a gracious thank you. You do have to be vigilant though because if you are not paying attention the innate Japanese instinct takes over and the cashier inserts certain fruit and refrigerated items into small plastic bags so they will not contaminate (?) the rest of the items once they are all collectively gathered in a larger sack.
It is obscene how much packaging the Japanese use on a daily basis but I have to admit when it comes to small gifts, the wrapping is sometimes the most interesting and beautiful part. Still, I don't need my apples in protective sleeves similar to those that might be placed around a wine bottles to prevent them from breaking if they knocked together when you have many of them in one container.
The other thing I noticed, is that some Japanese have a character trait that I have only observed in Canadians until now. That is, some Japanese always want to make you aware that something is originally Japanese or came from Japan just like Canadians always want to make you aware something is originally Canadian or came from Canada. (Seriously, type 'famous Canadians" into a search engine [Google] and see how many sites pop up. A lot of those folks on top of North America must have the a little sibling complex. I always thought Canadians liked it on top...)
And so it is, I get the same experience with quite a few Japanese people. One guy in the office is always asking me why fruit in Japan is so much better than the USA or asking if I have heard of one major league baseball player or another to which I usually reply "no". He will pause for a moment but then tell me the player is from Japan even though I might have at least guest his ancestry from a last name like Suzuki. I'm all for being proud of your heritage and even possessing a little national pride but for cripes sake of course I know sushi is a Japanese food, and really, where the hell else would origami have come from?
By the way, Pamela Anderson, she's Canadian.
