Food Buying Etiquette

The upside of being one of the very few foreigners in town (wherever I am in Tohoku) is that people stop me on the street.  We chat.  They share stories.  Dates are set for tea.  The downside of sticking out is that my actions are noted, observed, scrutinized.  A recent dinner invitation is proof.

"Where shall I meet you?"  I'm given the name of a restaurant.
"Where you had lunch yesterday," my friend says.  Just like that I want to ask, "And, how did you know?" but I already have the answer.  I said hello to the chef.  He said "Welcome back."  Word spreads.

So, I'm being watched.  This isn't anything new.  Growing up in Japan, there was a long stretch of time where I could count the foreigners in our town of 150,000.  I knew all of them, because there were less than twenty.

I'm not bothered by the fact I need to watch my step.  Most of the time, that is.  Oddly enough, buying groceries is when I find the eyes following me most troubling.  Take today for example.  There's no supermarket within walking distance to my friend's apartment where I stay.  There is, however, a convenience store.  They sell pretty much everything.  I walked down to buy lunch, and was thrilled (!) to find they had cucumbers in stock today.

I should point out here while there's nothing wrong with American cucumbers, there is something beautiful about Japanese cukes.  Crunchy and sweet, they are the perfect afternoon snack.  They are even better dipped in sesame dressing.  Life is perfect if I can smother them in sesame dressing made by Onizaki.  Truly.

I see cucumbers.  I grin.  I put them in my cart.  They come two to a bag.  This will be my snack today.  Then I see another packet.  Do I buy these, too?  I can surely eat two more cucumbers, say, tomorrow.  Yes?  Yes.  I put those in my cart, too.  There's one remaining bag.

Herein lies my dilemma.  It's not as if food is scarce.  People pretty much have access to transportation now, although maybe not consistently if they don't have a car or can't drive.  The supermarkets are stocked.  It's a very different scene from when I arrived back in Japan after the tsunami, last March.  Shelves in Tokyo even were sparse.  They weren't empty, but they certainly weren't filled with the usual merchandise I was accustomed to seeing.  Coming up north, the scene was even more stark.  The frozen food section had no ice cream.  The fish counter had more ice than fish.  The produce isle didn't shine with the colors of vegetables and fruit usually seen.

Throughout this time, the general sentiment in Japan was "don't hoard."  People didn't stock up on toilet paper or buy out the bottles of water.  The expectation was to "leave something behind for the next family."  Certainly, there were exceptions.  Japan's equivalent to FedEx drivers stealing relief supplies, people selling relief goods meant for others are only some of the stories I've heard.  This is not the norm, however.  Bad behavior, especially in a time of crisis, is a violation of the most basic of courtesy and manners.  People known to have done this are not well received, and that's putting it mildly.

Back to my cucumbers, then.  Surely, I'm allowed to take the last bag, right?  Or, am I?  The store hasn't had cucumbers in stock since Monday.  I've looked.  I bought carrots to dip into my sesame dressing (not Onizaki, alas), but it's just not the same.  They're carrots.  They're still uneaten.

On a totally different note, on Saturday when I was shopping for dinner in Fukushima I found a huge pile of cucumbers.  "¥45 each" the sign read.  That's cheap!  I then read on further.  "Grown in Fukushima."  Produce labels now show where the food was grown.  Anything grown or raised in Fukushima doesn't sell.  This explains why they were so cheap.  I didn't buy cucumbers on Saturday.

I didn't buy the last bag of cucumbers.  I wanted to.  I really did.  If they're there tomorrow, I might.  Then again, maybe I won't.  Or, maybe this a dilemma I no longer need wrestle with?  Am I too sensitive to the fact my every move seems to be noted?  I will mull this over while I eat my cucumbers.  Perhaps this will provide me with clarify.