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[Hasemo]

You don't have to cook to eat fairly cheap, you can always reheat frozen food or bento at a convenience store/supermarket.

Most supermarket are also selling premade (and sometimes still warm) katsu etc. Grab that, a pack of a microwave rice, premade salad and you're good.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

One thing I'm really worried about is food and eating. I'm used to eat every 3-4 hours but I don't know how to cook and I'll be all by myself in Japan. My mom and my grandma won't be there to cook for me. A mess.

Lol, I don't even know how to react.

To answer you seriously; this is nothing to be anxious about. Relax. While Japan can be expensive, the food is certainly cheaper than in the US and EU (as is food everywhere in East Asia). There's a 7/11 and FamilyMart around every corner, and they all sell prepared food. You can walk up to the counter and ask for a delicious kurokke, some fried chicken or Nikuman (steamed bun, aka baozi (Chinese)). Or you can walk over to the refrigerated part and buy Onigiri or some prepared food. The even have microwaves at department stores so if you'd like they can heat it up. It's all really cheap, really convenient, really fast and rather good tasting.

Tbh, oddly enough, it's sometimes cheaper to buy prepared food than it is cooking food for yourself in Japan. In Tokyo, anyway.

But seriously, dude. I'm just a stranger on the internet, but honestly it's time to become an adult and learn basic cooking.

EDIT:

You'll find something like this in pretty much every department store. Give it a try

 

[sprsk]

Tsukuba is fucking dope man congrats.

 

[Porcile]

7-11 definitely has the best pre-made microwaveable dinners tho. Come at me, bros.

 

[Hasemo]

7-11 definitely has the best pre-made microwaveable dinners tho. Come at me, bros.

Most supermarkets have much better stuff imo.

 

[Aizo]

7-11 definitely has the best pre-made microwaveable dinners tho. Come at me, bros.

No.

Most supermarkets have much better stuff imo.

Yes.

 

[Porcile]

Supermarkets round my place are pretty dire. Used to have Ito Yokado near my old place which was okay I suppose Still preferred the 7-11 convenience store stuff even though its owned by the same parent company- haha

Anyways, these days I don't eat ready made food at all. I just cook big batches of food from scratch at the weekend, freeze it and then eat that throughout the week. Roughly costs me about 300 yen a meal, since all I need to buy each time is whatever meat and veg I need because I have a supply of spices and ingredients on hand. So much time and money saved and I get a homemade meal every day.

 

[Aizo]

I've been typically cooking three meals per day for two years. I don't even like cooking. I totally understanding making the big batch and freezing it, though.

 

[Fisico]

On the 3rd floor of the Nakano Broadway there is a game shop called Game Station, they had quite a few foreign games there in their foreign game corner last time I looked. But I don't really look for import games so I don't know about PAL games.

Yeah I see which one, what I'm interested first and foremost are latest releases though and I don't think it provides that.

Regarding food I've been keeping track of every yen I spent to eat these past two months (both to keep my budget in check and ... for fun I guess?) it is indeed not that expansive and there are some easy things to do to save money

- Konbini are honestly not a so good offer in most cases, it's convenient because it's always the closest thing to your home but that's all mostly, don't expect to find any good price for vegetables/fruits; don't expect any bargain price either, I only buy something there when I'm in a hurry

- Go do your purchases between 7-8PM as often as possible, that's when they put 10-20-30-40-50% ticket on many fresh food products, from meat to fish, to cooked foods and even vegetables sometimes

- If you want to go cheap, Lawson 100 at these times might give you some good deals (10 gyoza for 50yens is a steal) or any other 100yens shop that sell food

- It's hard to find a big quantity of anything it's always convient when you want to buy little in term of quantity (for 1/2 meal), vegetables/fruits are sold /piece which ends up as very costful often

- For some western imported products (nuts; oats) I ended up buying from... Amazon as the prices where outrageous everywhere I checked

I have a few supermarkets near my address (less than 30m walk), Aeon, Inageya, Olympic, Y's Mart, Life... Don Quihotte
The cheapest overall is Life and I found some great deals there (10 kiwi for 430yens, 6 big apples for 324yens for example) but in the end there's always a few products where one is cheaper than the other (I can only find 8 yogurts pack at Aeon, though they're only 70g yogurt...) so the best thing is to mix between them depending on the products you want and deal with a little random as you never know what will be discounted when you check.

As for restaurants it's muuuch cheaper than in western countries, very easy to eat for less than <1000yens, even doable for <500 yens if you don't need to eat to much (me I do ), so yeah don't worry about cost and try to do some cooking, it's not that hard to cut vegetables and put some meat/fish in a fry pan!

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

Do you guys use voltage converters for your foreign electronics or just basic adapters? For items like hair dryers, voltage converters are usually needed for European stuff, but for chargers for phones and laptops, basic adapters should be fine, right? My chargers are made for 230v, but they don't break due to voltage differences, correct?

 

[Fisico]

Do you guys use voltage converters for your foreign electronics or just basic adapters? For items like hair dryers, voltage converters are usually needed for European stuff, but for chargers for phones and laptops, basic adapters should be fine, right? My chargers are made for 230v, but they don't break due to voltage differences, correct?

Basic adaptator, nothing broke so far for me.
On the opposite I destroyed a (cheap) japanese takoyaki cooker on a single try by plugging it with a simple adaptator in Europe.

 

[Valkerionseven]

Speaking to plugs in general for NA products with the whole three prong thing.

You can simply rip out the ground plug and use it in any Japanese outlet. Had no idea til the first day I got here and a friend took some pliers and yanked it out lol.

As for the eating thing. I don't mind cooking in general but I make simple things. I'm sure overall it would be cheaper to cook everyday but just don't have the will power. Sometimes I buy some of the premade parts of something I wanna eat that night and make the rest. Like katsu or something, make the rice, eggs, and what not myself. Cause I simply can't be bothered lol. Salad though is a real wallet killer. The ingredients for a basic salad in this country is a freaking crime and the combini ones are just as bad.

The real issue is over eating. I always make extra and put the rest in the fridge but the portion size is always more filling that I intended haha.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

Another question: where do you guys go for Japanese news in English (or in particular news centering around Tokyo)? I know of a lot of sites but interested in your favorites.

 

[Aizo]

I've honestly never looked into that. Beyond just turning on the news on TV or checking NHK or &#26397;&#26085;&#26032;&#32862; sites, the only one I've ever been to is The Japan Times. I only really read articles there that cover music and pop culture stuff, though.

What Japanese news site to people use anyway? Any of you subscribe to a paid Japanese newspaper?

Edit:

I dunno, though. I'm skeptical about Japanese news outlets anyway. Because of Abe's reforms with things like government designated secrets and bullshit with &#35352;&#32773;&#12463;&#12521;&#12502;, the information you're getting is more heavily censored than what you might be used to in many Western nations. In the 2017 press freedom index, Japan is 72nd in the world. That's... not great. It's not on the level of reporters being killed, like in some countries, but many have lost their jobs, been harassed by government workers, or kicked out of the &#35352;&#32773;&#12463;&#12521;&#12502; so they can't even report on many important events with all the other journalists. Maybe you're better off reading the Asia portion of the New York Times.

 

[Dandte]

7-11 definitely has the best pre-made microwaveable dinners tho. Come at me, bros.

Their frozen spaghetti carbonara is so good <3

As for supermarkets. While traveling through the different citys i mostly got my stuff from konbinis. In Osaka i had a Japan Kyobashi &#12472;&#12515;&#12497;&#12531;&#20140;&#27211;&#24215; right next to my metro station. You can get good prices over there. In Tokyo i mostly visited normal supermarkets and went out for eating.

 

[Aizo]

Their frozen spaghetti carbonara is so good <3

Out of the &#12467;&#12531;&#12499;&#12491;, 7/11 surely has the best food. Double wiener, baybee! I actually don't really like pork, but one of the discontinued burritos they had was very good.

 

[Dartastic]

I guess this could go in Japan Travel GAF but whatever. Arrived in Nagoya today. Flight from Oregon wasn't too bad! I'm amazed I'm still up though. Gonna crash in the next couple minutes though. Gonna go see the castle tomorrow and hit up critical hit!

 

[Dandte]

I guess this could go in Japan Travel GAF but whatever. Arrived in Nagoya today. Flight from Oregon wasn't too bad! I'm amazed I'm still up though. Gonna crash in the next couple minutes though. Gonna go see the castle tomorrow and hit up critical hit!

I highly recommend to visit the science museum and afterwards get yourself a cold oolong tea(should be kinda hot there atm haha) and watch the the dancers in shirakawa park. They have impressing skills.

 

[Dartastic]

I highly recommend to visit the science museum and afterwards get yourself a cold oolong tea(should be kinda hot there atm haha) and watch the the dancers in shirakawa park. They have impressing skills.

I think I actually walked past that place last night.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I'm trying to eat healthy in Japan and have little to no cooking skill. Is living off of eggs, natto, kimchi/peas/veggies, fruit, and Wheatabix (other than going out or grabbing an onigiri on occasion) healthy?

I know it's not possible to reconcile being lazy or not cooking with being TRULY healthy... but does that sound... ok? I avoid fried food and (gasp) white rice, for the most part.

Also, are konbini onigiris bad for you? I honestly have no idea. They seem relatively low in caloric content, but kind of oily.

 

[Dandte]

I'm trying to eat healthy in Japan and have little to no cooking skill. Is living off of eggs, natto, kimchi/peas/veggies, fruit, and Wheatabix (other than going out or grabbing an onigiri on occasion) healthy?

I know it's not possible to reconcile being lazy or not cooking with being TRULY healthy... but does that sound... ok? I avoid fried food and (gasp) white rice, for the most part.

Also, are konbini onigiris bad for you? I honestly have no idea. They seem relatively low in caloric content, but kind of oily.

I'm not in the Nutritional Sciences field, but would get enough iron without red meat?

 

[Aizo]

I'm not in the Nutritional Sciences field, but would get enough iron without red meat?

Just eat Goethite.

Really, though, I hardly eat read meat. Eating spinach (or swiss chard!), salmon/tuna, or mollusks would be fine. You don't need red meat.

I'm trying to eat healthy in Japan and have little to no cooking skill. Is living off of eggs, natto, kimchi/peas/veggies, fruit, and Wheatabix (other than going out or grabbing an onigiri on occasion) healthy?

I know it's not possible to reconcile being lazy or not cooking with being TRULY healthy... but does that sound... ok? I avoid fried food and (gasp) white rice, for the most part.

Also, are konbini onigiris bad for you? I honestly have no idea. They seem relatively low in caloric content, but kind of oily.

Oatmeal is really cheap and easy. Natto, eggs, kimchi, daizu, and tofu are simple and great, too!

 

[Fisico]

Eggs are not very healthy unless you only eat the white part to begin with

What's important is to manage a good balance of carbs, proteins and fat (avoiding saturated fat as much as you can => avoiding egg) and eat as many vegetables and fruits as you can.
I'm rather amazed by how casually you can find dietary supplement here, if you lack anything there's always this way.

By the way before coming to Japan I was pretty much a flexitarian for the last few months, as I wasn't really experienced with that I did end up being slightly anemic (nothing too bad though), arriving here I just dropped it altogether because of how inconvenient it was as veganism is barely a thing there.

I'm not in the Nutritional Sciences field, but would get enough iron without red meat?

There are various other ways to eat food with iron other than red meat, red meat is the one everyone knows but it's easily manageable to do without it.

What I wonder is how to get fiber in japanese food, back in Europe I mostly had them with wheat related products, but here there's not so much of that, I still eat oats every morning as well as fruits and vegetables every day but I don't think that's enough yet.

 

[Aizo]

Eggs are not very healthy unless you only eat the white part to begin with

Eggs are great in a lot of ways. Are you just talking about avoiding dietary cholesterol? If that's a huge concern, then sure. Still, they're low in saturated fat, and that's the one that has a bigger impact on your blood cholesterol level (which could lead to heart problems).

In what way are you saying the yolks are bad?

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Lol, I don't even know how to react.

To answer you seriously; this is nothing to be anxious about. Relax. While Japan can be expensive, the food is certainly cheaper than in the US and EU (as is food everywhere in East Asia). There's a 7/11 and FamilyMart around every corner, and they all sell prepared food. You can walk up to the counter and ask for a delicious kurokke, some fried chicken or Nikuman (steamed bun, aka baozi (Chinese)). Or you can walk over to the refrigerated part and buy Onigiri or some prepared food. The even have microwaves at department stores so if you'd like they can heat it up. It's all really cheap, really convenient, really fast and rather good tasting.

Tbh, oddly enough, it's sometimes cheaper to buy prepared food than it is cooking food for yourself in Japan. In Tokyo, anyway.

But seriously, dude. I'm just a stranger on the internet, but honestly it's time to become an adult and learn basic cooking.

EDIT:

You'll find something like this in pretty much every department store. Give it a try

Thank you!

Good to know I won't starve. I do know how to cook rice and eggs but that's about it. I have cooked other stuff while living in the US (my friends who were living with me would help me), but it's just so boring and time consuming. I'm willing to pay for frozen meals, even if they are not really healthy. Are restaurants expensive?

Tsukuba is fucking dope man congrats.

Thanks!

I actually had to choose between Tokyo and Tsukuba, but ultimately went for Tsukuba because the people over there were so much more friendly, and the courses they offered were more interesting to me. They also seemed more prepared to receive foreign students. Oh and on top of that, Tsukuba shouldn't be as expensive as Tokyo, and I can always catch a quick train to Tokyo anyway.

Only two weeks left. T___T

 

[Japanmanx3]

Quick question guys

What's written on this shirt??

 

[KtSlime]

Quick question guys

http://i.imgur.com/gE4TJZf.jpg[IMG]

What's written on this shirt??[/QUOTE]

&#31109;, zen, meaning zen.

 

[Japanmanx3]

&#31109;, zen, meaning zen.

Thanks!

 

[Fisico]

Eggs are great in a lot of ways. Are you just talking about avoiding dietary cholesterol? If that's a huge concern, then sure. Still, they're low in saturated fat, and that's the one that has a bigger impact on your blood cholesterol level (which could lead to heart problems).

In what way are you saying the yolks are bad?

Uh I mixed a few things in my head, seems like an hyperbole on my end.
But yolks have too much saturated fat (10g/100g) unless I read something wrong and cholesterol.

On an unrelated note did someone got an haircut at QB house?
I want to go for something cheap but I'm clearly not confident at all on my japanese skill to be able to properly convey what I want ("just make it shorter don't change anything!") , not like language matters anyway since I always ended up dissapointed when I went in my native country too.

 

[Aizo]

Uh I mixed a few things in my head, seems like an hyperbole on my end.
But yolks have too much saturated fat (10g/100g) unless I read something wrong and cholesterol.

???
3.3g of saturated fat per 100 grams. That's the whole egg with the yolk.
You read something wrong or outdated.

 

[Hasemo]

Uh I mixed a few things in my head, seems like an hyperbole on my end.
But yolks have too much saturated fat (10g/100g) unless I read something wrong and cholesterol.

On an unrelated note did someone got an haircut at QB house?
I want to go for something cheap but I'm clearly not confident at all on my japanese skill to be able to properly convey what I want ("just make it shorter don't change anything!") , not like language matters anyway since I always ended up dissapointed when I went in my native country too.

For the last few years I got the vast majority of my haircuts at QB house. Good enough if you just want to get a shorter haircut, but I have no idea about anything more fancy, never felt the need to try it.

 

[Aizo]

I never had problems with Japanese haircuts, and I had curly hair. It should be a nightmare, but they always understood what I wanted. Best experiences were going to a nice pro salon (because my friend worked there and I got a free cut) and going to the super traditional old man barber (very cheap, and they shaved my face with a straight razor, too).

Those 1000 yen cuts are fine if you don't have a connection for a nice cut for cheap. I'd seek out the old man traditional barber. Those are great.

 

[Ayumi]

I cut my own bangs, but I reckon it would be quite hard to do a male haircut on yourself. Most of my friends that I've talked to about this seem to use QB like Hasemo does btw.

 

[Fisico]

???
3.3g of saturated fat per 100 grams. That's the whole egg with the yolk.
You read something wrong or outdated.

I'm only talking about the yolk, not the whole egg.

Thanks for the replies, I'll go with QB first then as fancy clearly doesn't define what I want to do with my hair, there are a lot of barbers around so I will definitely try later on (and as usual I can't wait to see their confused face when they see a white man coming inside)

 

[Aizo]

I'm only talking about the yolk, not the whole egg.

Okay. So it's only high in saturated fat if you cut out egg whites and eat a ton of yolks. Haha

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

Are restaurants expensive?

They come in all price ranges, but nah, compared to US and Europe they're cheap. Still pretty expensive by east Asian standards, but the quality of the food is also phenomenal.

 

[Hasemo]

I'm only talking about the yolk, not the whole egg.

Thanks for the replies, I'll go with QB first then as fancy clearly doesn't define what I want to do with my hair, there are a lot of barbers around so I will definitely try later on (and as usual I can't wait to see their confused face when they see a white man coming inside)

I just remembered that QB recently introduced an app where you can set all the details of your haircut beforehand, so if it works like advertised, showing them what you came up with should be good enough.
I never installed it, because adding 20 minutes to something where the "10 minutes and it's done" is the main appeal seems very counterproductive, but it might be useful for you.

 

[Porcile]

You get what you pay for with a ten minute, 1000 yen haircut lol.

 

[Dartastic]

Any Gamba Osaka fans here? I'm thinking of traveling from Kyoto to see the game tomorrow, and I'm visiting from the USA. It'd be fun to get some drinks and see the game with a fan.

 

[Aizo]

Beck loves baseball, but I don't think he lives in Japan. I don't know anybody else on here that's super into J baseball... jaseball.

 

[Dartastic]

Beck loves baseball, but I don't think he lives in Japan. I don't know anybody else on here that's super into J baseball... jaseball.

Ah, Gamba Osaka is a soccer/football team. I don't like baseball.

 

[KtSlime]

Ah, Gamba Osaka is a soccer/football team. I don't like baseball.

Wish I could leave Tokyo to see them with a fellow Timbers fan, but can't get the time off work right now.

 

[Porcile]

Marinos 4 life.

 

[Fisico]

I just remembered that QB recently introduced an app where you can set all the details of your haircut beforehand, so if it works like advertised, showing them what you came up with should be good enough.
I never installed it, because adding 20 minutes to something where the "10 minutes and it's done" is the main appeal seems very counterproductive, but it might be useful for you.

Oh the app sounds nice but I can't access the japanese play store since I'm still locked to my home country for some reason (I have a japanese SIM, a japanese IP but it's not enough apparently <_<)
I tried to look for a way to get it to no avail so far, will look a bit further but I'm not too optimistic.

 

[Porcile]

Change the language of your phone to Japanese.

 

[Dartastic]

Wish I could leave Tokyo to see them with a fellow Timbers fan, but can't get the time off work right now.

Damn! That would have been cool. Too bad I'm not in Tokyo for the upcoming game against NYCFC so I could try and meet up to watch. Are you from Oregon? How did you wind up supporting the Timbers? I'm just on vacation from Portland.

 

[Aizo]

Ah, Gamba Osaka is a soccer/football team. I don't like baseball.

Oops! Sorry. I only assume people talk about J baseball. My bad. Doesn't make sense because I know Osaka's team. I just wasn't thinking.

 

[Porcile]

I was pissed I missed out on the Real Madrid vs Kashima Antlers match. It was played in Yokohama. Had no idea.

 

[KtSlime]

Damn! That would have been cool. Too bad I'm not in Tokyo for the upcoming game against NYCFC so I could try and meet up to watch. Are you from Oregon? How did you wind up supporting the Timbers? I'm just on vacation from Portland.

I'm a native Oregonian but have been living off and on in Tokyo for the past 11 years. I try to catch the Timbers whenever I am back in Portland with my friends, but haven't been able to make it back this year yet. Glad they are doing well.

Enjoy your stay in Japan!

 

[Dartastic]

I'm a native Oregonian but have been living off and on in Tokyo for the past 11 years. I try to catch the Timbers whenever I am back in Portland with my friends, but haven't been able to make it back this year yet. Glad they are doing well.

Enjoy your stay in Japan!

Thanks! In Kyoto now. Going to Osaka tomorrow. Kyoto is incredible.