Shopping in Tokyo, and probably in most large cities, isn't just a matter of hopping in one's car and going to the store. I was planning to roast a pork loin the other night and had some rutabaga on hand (for some unknown reason a favorite of the Watts) and I started to crave sauerkraut to go with dinner.
So I took about 600 Yen in small change (the change that Bill keeps emptying from his pocket and dropping in a dish each night) and went out in pursuit of sauerkraut. There's a nice Japanese market a couple of blocks away, but no sauerkraut there. So I started my hike to the international supermarket - about a mile each way - up a hill and along the perimeter of the heavily policed Russian Embassy, (an interesting aside here is that the Tokyo American Club is directly behind the Russian Embassy) and back down the other side of the hill to the market, wondering all the way if my 600 Yen would buy a jar of sauerkraut, and if I didn't have enough would they let me take the sauerkraut and pay them the difference next time? If not, well then, at least I had a 2-mile briskly-paced walk.
No need to worry. Even though the cost of living here is super high, the sauerkraut only cost 263 Yen, about $2.50 (I'm sure still very expensive compared to US stores). So, there I was counting out all my 1 Yens, less than a penny, and 10 Yens to get rid of the pocketful of change I had.
I returned home via my other favorite route, through an inviting metal archway named Azuba, similar to the gateway to Chinatown in SF, and on to a small lane of tiny Japanese shops and restaurants that leads right to the foot of Tokyo Tower.
Dinner was good that night - especially the sauerkraut!
