Frugality in Japan or Romancing the Wallet and Picking up Tips

Today, it’s all about a few little hints I’ve picked up along the way. After living in Japan for about five months, it would be heinous to even think I’m in any way savvy, but I’ve survived this long on some basic common sense and a ton of luck. But again, as I’ve only been here for a short time, and my great ideas are usually leaps and bounds ahead of my initiative, we’re starting small. And by small, I mean miniscule. 

#1 Newspaper is an amazing(-ly cheap) deodorizer! 

Now before you go stuffing your armpits with the classifieds, let’s start at the stinky source. When it first started getting warmer, I quickly adjusted. I’ve worked summers sans AC at a summer camp on the muggy Eastern Shore of Maryland so I’m no stranger to humidity. I’m even disturbingly ok with sweat dripping down the back of my knees. That’s not usually a place you think gets hot but once a blessed cool wind finds its way down there: oh. Heaven! But as time passed and the centigrade climbed, I found I had a little problem. Two, actually: my feet. In this job, open toed shoes are a no-go and it’s unthinkable to wear sandals without socks while you’re teaching. (They said this in training and I thought, “Really? Who wears socks with sandals?” Japanese teachers, that’s who.) 

But anyway, I was leaving one school for the week and taking my inside shoes with me as I am a woman and I need all my shoes near me at all times. As I cradled my books with my shoes stacked on top, I became suddenly aware of a putrid stench radiating from my shoes. They weren’t merely smelly: they were borderline nuclear. I was reminded of Theon Greyjoy and sobbed to my steering wheel on the drive home, “Reek. My name is Reek!”

Here is where the Helpful Hint comes in. I remembered reading that newspaper is good for drying car windows after you wash them because the paper is very absorbent. I thought, if it works on that kind of moisture, why not its evil twin? I sometimes buy flowers for myself and the store clerks always wrap them in newspaper, old school style. I also get weekly Sunday ads, so I have no shortage of newsprint. When I got home, I store off some squares, crumpled them up and molded them loosely into all my shoes. Then we played the waiting game.

A couple days later, my shoes were cured! I’m not going to go and sip champagne out of the toes but they’re a lot better! 

#2 Member Cards

I can’t stress this enough: Member Cards are lovely little items. No matter where you live, no matter when you use it, no matter what you buy, they benefit you. The trick, however, is getting a hold of one when you don’t speak the language. I’ve tried a few times to get a member card at Family Mart, my local convenience store. I’m in there enough, I wish I had a card. I’ve tried asking for one, but my Japanese still stinks or something because I am still cardless. The cards I do get plenty of use out of are my Nitori point card (like Ikea, I go there for all my home amenity needs…and I’m just racking up the points until I can get something nice!), my Mister Donut (free coffee and all kinds of other benefits) and Honey’s Cinema Club Fashion gives you a discount on your total purchase after you much so much yen’s worth of product. 

I actually got a new card today too: a gas card! As a foreigner in a rural Japanese town, I stick out quite a bit. And since there are only so many affordable gas stations, I frequent either the Shell or Cosmo. Finally, today, after not being asked since I got here, when the guy came back to my car with my receipt, he had a card for me! I guess he just remembered how many times I’d been there and realized it was time he did me a favor. Sweet!

#3 Schools Are Willing to Take Pity on You 

Generally, the teachers at my schools want to be hospitable. They want to be nice. Some of them will go out of their way to talk to me, even if it’s in Japanese and I can only understand the odd word. At today’s school, the geography teacher who sits next to me always makes small talk with me. Once in a while, she’ll pull out her electronic dictionary, but most of the time, we stick to weather. Today, we talked about Hanamaki Matsuri which is the big event of the upcoming weekend. We  determined that it’s like a “chisai Nebuta:” a little portable lantern float parade, as compared to the giant floats of Aomori and Akita. 

The groundskeeper is also very nice. He always makes sure I know when he’s made fresh coffee, like a good enabler. At Japanese schools, students plant a school vegetable garden along with summer flower beds. It’s wonderful to see these impressive little gardens cultivated by tweens! These are skills they carry with them for the rest of their lives: everyone in Japan has some kind of garden or houseplant! I think more schools in America should embark on this kind of endeavor. Like school cleaning time, it gives the students something to take pride in and it builds a lasting sense of community cooperation.

 

And where do these veggies go? Why to the NS, naturally! Ok, not all the vegetables find their way to me, but when I come to this school, the groundskeeper runs outside and picks a grocery bag of produce. This gesture has also been regular enough that now I’m able to say “Totemo yasashii desu. Domo arigato gozaimasu” (That’s very nice. Thank you very much!) like the fastest gunslinger in the far east.    

    

And there you have it. Use at your discretion.