Job Discussion Forums

[haopengyou]

If there are any readers out there that live in Japan I am wondering if you can answer the following questions for me.

How much is one pound (or half kilo) of:

ground beef?
boneless chicken thighs?
tomatoes?
potatoes?
cabbage (round)?
rice?
wheat flour?
1 qt (liter) of milk?


I keep hearing people say that the cost of living in Japan is expensive - I am trying to quantify the cost. If you know of a webpage where I can find this info please feel free to post the url as your answer

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Here in Osaka, 1L of milk is about 150-350 yen. The other items I can`t give a definite price range for. Sorry.

[haopengyou]

Yikes! Even on the low end that is more than $5 per gallon.

[Ryu Hayabusa]

Yeah, produce and other stuff at grocery stores is kind of expensive. Public transit is cheaper/equal in price to Toronto (where I`m from.) Most things are more expensive here, but I`ve been pleasantly surprised a few times when stuff has been cheaper.

It`s important to start thinking of costs in yen once you start living here--unless you`re sending a large portion of your salary back home every month.

[David W]

[cornishmuppet]

I'd say not expensive or cheap enough to base a decision over whether to come here or not on.

In general more expensive than America, cheaper than England. Other than buying some expensive imported stuff like Italian Pesto the cost of food is not something I think about too much.

[Glenski]

Some items can be found here.
http://www.pricechecktokyo.com/foods.html

Bear in mind that these prices do not take into account sales or the lowering of perishables near the end of the work day.

there is more than one type of tomato
potatoes are various sizes and types
ground beef can be pure beef or a mix w pork
rice comes in a plethora of types

and veggies differ in price according to season

2 kg rice ~2000 yen
4-5 potatoes ~158-198 yen
ground beef (450 gm) ~398 yen
chicken 38-88 yen per 100 gm
cabbage (1/2 head) 105 yen
flour (1 kg) 300-400 yen

[JL]

I don't live in Japan right now, but I can chip in with the discussion.

Glenski referenced the "sales." Just about all supermarkets have them going on each week. From a store we used to use, I post below the link to their most recent flyer, which is valid through to today.　Not every item you asked for is on sale, but many were. You can frequently find much of what you want, on sale at any given time. Just to give you an idea of what to expect, this one has:

Boneless chicken thigh meat......79 yen/100gm

High-quality boneless
chicken breast meat...............65 yen/100gm

(and today only)
High-quality boneless
chicken breast meat
from Brazil............................59 yen/100gm

(Saturday only)
One bag of tomatos.....................199 yen

(today only)
Cabbage head.............................99 yen

(3 different grades of rice)
.........1580, 1880, 2280yen/5 kg


There's also a kind of flour mix on sale for 'okonomiyaki," but it's not an all-purpose flour for which you may have been asking. Anyway, since I brought it up, this one is 289 yen for a 600 gm bag.

http://townmarket.jp/CSP/CSP01/CSP0100110/0/SNW900009/

[Apsara]

Low fat milk is 129 yen per litre in my local discount store. Since you would be earning yen if you lived here, there's not much point constantly translating everything back into US dollars (or whichever currency you usually think in). You may find that some things are cheaper here- boneless chicken would probably be one.

[JL]

Hi Apsara.
I'm guessing that the OP is from the US. I wanted to warn that US-like "all-purpose" flour isn't readily available in Japan, but then I realized that I can't really say that for sure, anymore. It used to be that depending on your baking/cooking purposes, you had to select the appropriate protein-level flour from the Japanese store shelf. Do you know if all-purpose flour is now available in Japanese stores?

[Hoser]

Boneless chicken breast is awesome here. I can often get ti for 55 yen /100g. Back home it would be ￥160/100g

[Apsara]

[fhsieh]

You should be able to find all-purpose flour in the larger supermarkets. At least when I was living in Kyoto, I had no trouble finding it. On the other hand, instead of flour variations common to the west (such as corn flour or graham flour), you'll find more variations akin to Japanese cuisine, such as rice flour and flour for Tempura breading and such.

Of course, you have a larger problem of finding an oven. If you're lucky, you might have a gas stove with a built-in mini oven compartment. If not, you can buy a counter-top toaster oven (provided you have a counter-top to place it on). Either way it's certainly not a full-size oven, so you'll have to adjust your cooking methods if you're used to generously-sized light/dark sheets and cake tins.

[Apsara]

Graham flour? I don't know what that is- perhaps not common to all of the countries in "the west".

[mc]

It looks like PriceCheckTokyo hasn't been updated since 2006....