Daily Budget and Food
久しぶりだね！After a week or so of living in an international dorm with several Japanese living with us, as we sit there on the tables of the commons, we experience the daily lives of a Japanese university student as they walk by us everyday. They cook, eat, bathe, do homework, the usual things that an everyday normal university student who live in apart from their family does. But a thought came about, and then curiosity bloomed from that. There are various types of students in various types of situations. Different countries have different ways of doing things. Combining those facts, what do the Japanese students do that is different to the students outside of Japan?
Budget
One of the usual things that we see in the dorm in both morning and night are the meals of the Japanese students. So we narrowed it down to one area for now, what does a student in Japan do for meals? There are many factors that contribute to that decision, budget, interest, and convenience being the most common factors among students across the world. Those three factors differ from person to person, some are biased on a certain factor more. So what does the average student in Japan lean more on? From our experience from just looking, most cook, some eat out, and some just heat up food. But of course that is just observing and not delving any deeper, and that won't fill our curiosity! So we went and interviewed certain individuals in and out of the international dormitory to find out!
The most common question asked to those individuals were their meal budgets. They ranged from 500 - 1000 yen. Of course, as said before, certain individuals have certain circumstances. One individual doesn't eat breakfast, one has a mother helping with her finance by sending rice, some live in a dorm, some live with their family, etc. The more help a person gets with their finance the bigger their budget gets. That could also depend on whether the person is a money saver or not. But there is one thing in common in most of their answers, they eat bread for breakfast. One of the things that we noticed after staying in Japan for a while, is that convenience is everywhere. Vending machines are everywhere, transit brings you nearly everywhere in Japan, and the quick is food is really cheap! I mean 100 yen (about $1) for a onigiri (rice ball) that could fill you up for breakfast, sign me up!
One of our interviewees had even told us that for the Japanese, the faster the better. Of course, this is only one interviewee, but from what we experienced, we are confident to say that this could be true.
For lunch, there are various amounts of what the individuals would spend. Some are willing to cook their lunches, bringing it to school with them, while others would just buy lunches at school. The lunches in school, although pretty cheap compared to most school's cafeteria, price being around 500 yen, is the more expensive option, as the ingredients are relatively cheaper than most places. Making your own lunch can cost around 150 yen, as they usually is considering that nothing expensive is put together.
Food
Japan is popular for its busy life - and university life is not excluded. Because of that, Japan came out with all sorts of ideas to make cooking easier and "doable" in a short time. When we first go to the スーパー (supermarket), we were impressed at how much "curry blocks" there are. Japanese curry is a very popular dish and to make from scratch will take a significant amount of time. These curry blocks can produce the same thing but in shorter time - which you probably won't find anywhere else in the world.
Guess what? Japanese university students use these almost everyday because it's quick and filling when combined with other ingredients such as meat, fish, vegetables, etc. That being said, most university students actually cook their own, especially those living in dorms or renting at apartments. This might not be the case for most university students in Canada for instance especially those living away from family. At U of C, students are segregated by years and availability of kitchen varies with rooms. Therefore, being able to cook is sometimes not doable. All in all, you just simply throw the ingredients into a pot, bowl them and there you go, and you just made yourself a full meal!
Speaking about cooking, cooking ingredients sold here in Japan is way cheaper than those sold in Calgary, for instance seafood (which makes sense because Japan is an island surrounded by sea and Calgary is in the middle of the American continent. Anyway, a package of shrimp that is enough for two servings is 500 yen at maximum, which is equivalent to $5.00 in Canada. Another example is, fish that costs 100 yen ($1.00) each. Not to mention, these are all fresh fish. Instant ramen is also a popular food but it is not as healthy. Although, a lot of students opt for instant ramen because it's easy to make. Compared to Canada, there are a lot more options to choose from in terms of flavors, for example, curry.
Eating out can be a slightly more expensive, but when compared to that in Canada, food in Japan is prevalent and cheaper. For examples, you can get a huge bowl of soba for 500 yen (CAD$5.00), or a full bento box meal for just 400 yen (CAD$4.00). Another interesting one is that, if you can wake up early enough, there is a １００円朝食 (100 yen breakfast) and it filling enough to start your day.
One of our roommates told us that he prefers getting the 100 yen breakfast because it is faster, cheaper and no hassle cleaning up the dishes. We had also gotten ourselves the 100 yen breakfast and it's worth it!
And again, getting food that is cheap and within an average university student's budget is not a problem and food that is cheap is not junk food either. Last but not least, there is always discounts for certain food at night that wouldn't last till the next day. That is probably the best time for you to buy some food for 夜食、midnight snack!
(Xian-Meng and Muhamad)
Share story
0 comments: