Food and Health

September 22, 2007

Last week I felt really genki (energetic and healthy), and I think it’s because I’ve been exercising more and eating fresh fruits and vegetables. As you may know, I really hate to exercise, but not having access to a car has really forced me to get moving. I must walk or ride my bike for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, just to get to work. And I exercise more when I need to go to the store and do errands. If you really want to start exercising, there’s no better way of starting than by forsaking your car. Necessity will force you to move.

So, exercising has been easy, but eating my fruits and vegetables has been harder. The problem is that certain fresh vegetables are a little expensive in Japan, and fresh fruits are really expensive. Dragon fruit is in season and you can buy them at the store: for 500 yen ($5) a piece. I won’t even go into melons—there’s a reason melon-favored products are popular in Japan. Moreover, you won’t be able to find you want. I, for instance, can’t find Spinach, fresh or frozen, and there’s no cilantro in my store either.

This twin combination of price and selection sent me into shock, and for the first week, I avoided fresh fruits and vegetables altogether. But I soon became tired of canned fruits and started going in the other direction: grabbing every fresh item that looked good and seemed cheap. Consequently, I couldn’t figure out to do with these items once I got them. I tried an unsuccessful stir-fry and threw most of my meal away. The rest of the vegetables went to rot.

Since then, I’ve become more balanced about buying fruits and vegetables. Realizing that my old recipes were useless, I began collecting new ones, especially recipes that incorporate fresh vegetables, such as stir-fry. The breakthrough came when I found a book on Japanese cooking—in English! In planning these recipes, I pre-mediate which vegetables to buy and if no such vegetable is around, I look for substitutes. With fruits (and to a lesser degree some vegetables) I bargain shop for what’s on sale. One week I found large nashi (Asian pears) on sale for 100 yen ($1) each. I was so happy that week. But when the price went up to nearly 200 yen per head, it was back to bananas.

Now, I’ve got my vegetables, but one problem yet remains. I can’t find a decent salad dressing. (No, ranch isn’t available.) I guess I’ll have to keep on looking.