Whats the Eco Point?

ECO POINTS

If you have bought an electrical appliance for your home recently there’s a strong probability that you would have received Eco Points. For those who don’t know, Eco Points are an initiative of the Japanese Government to encourage consumers to purchase products with low environmental impact. Points are awarded to consumers based on the price of the product as well as the products environmental friendliness. It was recently announced that these points can be exchanged for credit on Suica or Pasmo cards as well as used towards the purchase of flights with JAL and ANA airlines.

While the idea behind the Eco Points scheme seems honourable, I cant help but feel that the initiative is simply a broad gesture intended to persuaded the public that the government is actively working towards implementing strong environmentally focused policies. I recently received some Eco points with the purchase of a household appliance and was amused by the hypocrisy of it all as I was handed numerous sheets of environmentally damaging bleached paper explaining the Eco Points system.

Cynicism aside, I’m sure that the Eco points system will go some way to convincing consumers to purchase Environmentally friendly products in the future and therefore should definitely not be considered a useless initiative.

Is Food in Japan Expensive?

Is food in Japan Expensive?

Hello! This is my first post on the Global Communications Blog and today I’d like to talk about the cost of food in Japan.

If I ask my friends in Australia what they think of Japan, most people will say “expensive”. I’m not sure where this image comes from but before coming to Japan I also thought that Japan was a very expensive country. However, I was surprised to discover that eating in restaurants as well as grocery shopping in Japan is actually quite a fair bit cheaper than Australia.

It is usual to pay around $30 (2500yen) for dinner in a restaurant in Australia whereas in Japan you can eat a decent meal for around 1000yen. This is less than half of what you would pay in Australia!

Shopping in supermarkets is also, in general, cheaper in Japan than in Australia. Products such as packaged drinks (juice, soft drinks etc), tofu, fresh and dried noodles, fish, chicken and pork are much cheaper in Japan. However, fresh fruit and dairy products are more expensive in Japan.

I have found that if I steer clear of western style restaurants and cook Japanese style meals at home, eating out and grocery shopping is much cheaper in Japan than in Australia.

I also recently moved to a new apartment that is very close to a 100yen supermarket, which also helps keep my shopping expenses low!

Well, all this talk about food has made me hungry, time for my Onigiri!

thoughts

I have now been in Japan for over 8 months, mainly going to school, studying and spending time with friends.
It has been an exciting time for me, even if I have spent mainly all of my time in Tokyo, except for one time around Christmas when I went with a friend to Yokohama, which was very fun, even if my friend wanted me to speak japanese at a time when I only knew very basic grammar and could not form a good sentence, and did not understand anything that people said to me. But still, I am glad she brought me along! The view we had of Mt. Fuji from the Ferriswheel was just lovely!

Being in Tokyo, and meeting so many people from different cultures has really made me even more aware of the big differences there are between people. For example, in Iran, apparently, paying for other people when you leave a restaurant is something normal, even if the bill can be pretty high. This is something I experienced myself a couple of weeks ago when we were celebrating a friends birthday. It actually surprised me quite a bit, since that is not a normal thing to do in Norway; we do not split the bill or anything, we just pay for what we ordered ourselves.

Since coming to Japan, I have started to like the country even more, and I hope that I will get the chance to come back as quickly as posible!
Even if I have been learning quite a bit about japanese society and way of thinking in school, I have also learned quite a bit from working at Global Communications! It has really been an interesting time for me, and I am very glad that I was given the opportunity!
I hope everybody continues working hard on acchieving what they want, I will definately do the same!

Sandra