Will Miss #469 - everything is priced

It may be overpriced for consumer grade boozy chocolate bon bons, but at least it is priced.

Having been away from America for so long, there are some things I never would have imagined I'd miss about Japan because I didn't think or remember that they were absent here. I'm sure that's an assertion I've made before and will make again, but one of those things is stores that have a price on every item. Since coming back home, I've been in two different states and many different stores and one thing which seems to happen nearly everyday is that prices for various items are missing or extremely hard to find in U.S. shops. I find it incredibly frustrating when I am interested in some item and have to hunt down an employee to get the cost and then said employee wanders off for 5 minutes to find the information. I just give up when that happens because it's not worth the hassle.

I don't know what it is with American shops, but it was extremely rare for me to go into a Japanese store and find no price marked on an item and it seems to happen every time I shop here. I miss having all prices clearly marked on goods. 

Will Miss #149 - cheap cable

My cable television provider's local office.

Cable television in Japan varies in price, but the longer your building has cable, the cheaper it becomes. My monthly rate is now 2600 yen ($28) a month. I've heard various rates from friends and family in various areas in the U.S. and that price is quite cheap compared to what they pay. It's especially good for an urban area. Mind you, if your building has been newly hooked up, the rates might be around 3600 yen ($39), but it's rather nice to know that the prices will drop, and not because service gets worse (it actually has gotten better with more channels being added in). It gets cheaper because once the cable company gets back some of their investment in hooking up a building, they cut the price.

I'll miss getting such cheap cable television service.

Won't Miss #77 - ridiculous butter prices

I'm not a big butter eater, but I do like to bake and cook. I particularly like to make things like peanut butter cookies as gifts for friends and students and to cook pork and chicken in a little butter. Starting a few years ago, butter prices, which hovered around 270 yen (about $2.70 USD) for 200 grams (2 sticks/1 cup) leaped up to around 400 yen ($4) for the same quantity. At that time, there was a butter shortage. Since then, the price has hung around 370 yen (about $3.70) even though there has been ample time to recover from the world-wide conglomerates buying up all of the dairy supplies. The Japanese dairy farmers are crying that they are going to start planting rice because they can't make a profit, but the prices are so high that I can't understand how someone isn't making money.

I'm won't miss the super high price of butter and having to substitute canola oil in so many recipes because I'm not wealthy enough to use better tasting butter.

Won't Miss #6 - overpriced imports

There are actually a lot of imports in Tokyo these days. From fabric softener to food to paper products, you can get a vast array of items from abroad. Unfortunately, most of the treats and trinkets from home are two to three times (or more) as expensive in Japan as they would be back home. I understand that importing costs more, but there is a huge mark-up on such goods, particularly when you consider that they are cheaper in their country of origin than similar products made in Japan.

I won't miss the high cost of getting stuff which reminds me of home.