I miss the dumpster. They throw all sorts of great stuff out here, but you can't get to it, because they lock up their dumpsters. THe amount of produce should be just awesome, but it's really hard to get at because it's behind closed walls or they keep it inside. Also the level of fish consumed in this country sometimes makes it pretty ripe around the rubbish bins. We just got a letter from Doug describing one of the better hauls at the ol' dumpsterama near Whole Foods, i presume. It sounded blissful. Food here is so damn expensive, it's like shopping in Switzerland. Lots of selection, if you like miso and if you can afford it. The fruit is really the killer. I've seen $100 melons in the grocery stores. Apples can be pretty pricey too, like 300 yen a pop. I think it's because of all the manual labor that goes into the production of food here. A rice farm can be like 2 acres and the guy is out there with his little roto-tiller and rice picker. Apple orchards are ridiculous, they put little pieces of paper over the apples to keep them from ripening too early. THat's probably why you can get apples the size of your head in the grocery stores. Everything is smaller here except for the produce.