Of Japan : Fresh Milk and Fish Head

I bought a huge half fish head for 500yen a few days ago, and four liters of fresh milk for 165yen per liter excluding tax. My youngest still drinks from bottle (at 2.5yo, not a very Japanese thing to do I know) and we had trouble finding halal formula here so I've been resorting to giving him fresh milk since day 1 we were here. So in total it had costed me about 1200yen in total, which if I were to convert to ringgit, it'll be around RM45. A huge amount for fish head and fresh milk, right? So I told hubsy

"If we don't convert our purchases to RM, food around here is relatively cheaper than Malaysia, right sayang? I mean, where do we get fresh milk in Malaysia for RM1.65?"

It's this thing we Malaysians do here, we don't convert yen to literal ringgit (100 yen would be equivalent to about RM3.70 real time), but we always 'assume' 100yen is equivalent to RM1.00, so that everything make sense. I mean, canned drinks from vending machine is around 120yen each, in RM it would be what, RM4.50? That didn't make sense, right? 😅

Anywayssss. Back to our fresh milk. So my husband started comparing

If you work part time in McDonalds Malaysia, you will receive about RM6 per hour. Say you work 8 hours, that means you will get RM48 per day. A liter of Farm Fresh fresh milk is RM7.40 (from Tesco website).

Here in Japan, part timers in Saizeriya (a fast food chain store) are paid around 800yen per hour. Ok lets say for argument sake, they receive 600yen per hour (remember that we assumed 100yen is equivalent to RM1 earlier). After 8 hours they will be paid 4800yen in total. A liter of fresh milk is around 180yen (including 8% tax).

In Malaysia, you have to work at least two hours (RM12) to afford one liter of fresh milk (RM7.40).

In Japan, working just one hour (600yen) will allow you to buy three liters of fresh milk (540yen).

100g of medium sized prawn is 177yen. RM2.90 in Malaysia (based on Tesco website)
10pcs of L sized eggs is 190yen. RM3.00 in Malaysia (assuming RM0.30 per egg)
Boneless chicken is about 400yen/kg. RM12.90/kg in Malaysia.
Cheapest 10kg rice in Japan is about 2900yen. RM22.90 in Malaysia.
Frozen french fries 190yen/kg. RM5.99/kg in Malaysia (Tesco brand)
Chicken nuggets is about 600yen/kg. First Pride Chicken Nugget is RM11.99/kg (I was gonna compare with Tesco brand but it tasted horrible so it will not be fair)

And everything is taxed 8% here. No exception. Even sometimes if you buy fresh fishes and vegetables in wet markets, you will also be charged that tax.

Now compare what you can buy with 8 hours of working part time in Malaysia vs in Japan.

Can't you see the difference?

Lets see from another perspective. Say.... luxury.

Fresh graduates teachers' starting salary : RM2300 vs 200,000yen.

Iphone X : RM5149 vs 112,800 yen --> 2.23 vs 0.564 (price:salary ratio)
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (128GB) : RM3399 vs 107,800 -->1.48 vs 0.539
Adidas Deerupt Runner : RM500 vs 14,040yen --> 0.217 vs 0.070
XBox One X 1TB : Rm2399 vs 53,978yen -->1.04 vs 0.2698

Japan's cost of living doesn't really look like it differs that far from Malaysia now, isn't it? At some aspect I think it is way cheaper here.


BUT. A big fat humongous but there.

While the vehicle prices are relatively cheap here, maintaining a vehicle is a. whole. other. different. story. I've blogged about it roughly in previous entry but I'm gonna blog about it in details after I understand them fully hahah when I have mood to do detail research again 😆


P/s: But this is only applicable to residents here, because we receive allowance and salary in yen. If you're a tourist, this 'assuming' thing will never work out for you, because you converted RM to come and spend here and 100yen really means RM3.70 😅

P/p/s: this entry is a lot of hard work hahah. I don't think I'm gonna write any informational entries like this again after this. At least not anytime soon. Expect more random, pointless rants after this 😁