Food Prices

I was watching the NBC nightly news podcast this afternoon when they mentioned the price of food going up. So I decided to take a look at prices online from one of the stores I used to shop at in Vegas, and compare to what I spend here in Tokyo. Though the current exchange rate is somewhere around 108 yen to the dollar, I’ll use 100 yen to a dollar for simplicity’s sake.

Item: Vegas Price, Tokyo Price
• Eggs: $4.49 (12), $1.89 (10) or $0.37/egg, $0.19/egg
• Milk: $3.19 (.5 gal), $1.60 (1 litre) or $6.38/gal, $6.06/gal
• Bread: $2.00 (20 slices), $0.99 (8 slices) or $0.10/slice, $0.12/slice
• Yellow Bell Peppers: $2.00 ea, $0.75 ea

And it continues on in this manner with meats and veggies etc. For instance, I buy packages of 2 large chicken breasts for around $3.15. I’m shocked. When I came to Japan, I felt like everything was so expensive. Have prices gone up that much in the States in the last 6 months? Or was my initial perception of prices in Japan just misguided?

What happened to winter?

It almost seems unfair; while a good portion of the US is being battered by snow storms and tornadoes, the plum trees are in full bloom here in Vegas. The temperature has been hovering around the 60s for a month or two. What a beautiful spring! But wait, it’s still winter, right? It’s as if April came a few months early this year. But just as I was about to embark on a tirade about global warming and above average temperatures, I realized that we’re right in line with the average for this time of year. In fact, today it’s about ten degrees cooler than average.

(The picture is not mine, but that’s exactly what it looks like all around town where these trees are planted)

EDIT March 13 - Avg for today: 69F. Current temp: 86F. I guess i spoke too soon.