Chapter 207: Fruit is a Luxury

The next morning, Masayoshi Kishimoto and Makoto Natsui each brought their suitcases and appeared at the front desk of a two-hundred-year-old inn in Hakone and asked for the best room.

This is a relatively independent suite located in the backyard, not only the classical Japanese and Japanese style is rich, but also equipped with a separate hot spring pool.

As for the price, it wasn’t cheap. However, for the rich, it wasn’t a big deal at all. Not to mention the fact that the store was originally a tailor-made service for the upper-middle class group of society.

A middle-aged woman wearing a kimono in the store, with small steps on her feet, her head slightly lowered and bent over, walked in front of Masayoshi Kishimoto and Makoto Natsui to guide them.

Behind them, an older man dressed in traditional Japanese clothing was holding a suitcase for the guests, following silently along the way.

The four of them passed through the curved corridors inside and outside the house before arriving at the door of their destination. The middle-aged woman sat down on her knees and took the initiative to open the door for her guest with both hands.

Masayoshi Kishimoto and Makoto Natsui walked straight in first, followed by the older man who had carried their luggage, who put it down and retreated without a word.

After a while, two young women also dressed in kimono each carried a fruit platter to the room. After setting it down on the rectangular table in the room, they also silently retreated.

“If the guests need anything, they can call me at any time.” The middle-aged woman sat on her knees outside the room and smiled as she turned sideways towards the interior.

Natsui Makoto bowed slightly at her in response and said, “Okay.”

Without further interruption, the middle-aged woman took the initiative to close the fan door for them. Then, she stood up again and walked away almost without a sound.

Natsui Makoto turned one hundred and eighty degrees and ran over with her face towards the small courtyard set outside the house. Without walking down, she looked at the tranquil surroundings and smiled as she lamented, “This place is really nice! If I were to live here for the rest of my life, I would be willing to do so.”

Masayoshi Kishimoto sat cross-legged on top of the tatami mats inside the house and laughed, “Normally, the first week will make you feel like this place is a paradise.

The first two weeks will make you feel average, I guess! By the third week, you’ll realize that it’s boring and remote, the countryside really isn’t as good as the city, I’d better go back!”

Natsui Makoto walked back towards him and sat down on her knees next to the four-sided table, snapping, “You just know how to mock me and bully me.”

“You’re obviously just talking nonsense.” Masayoshi Kishimoto drooped his head, crossed his feet in front of his chest, and put on an appearance of reasoning with her, saying.

“Whether or not, you know best in your heart.” With her hands, Natsui Makoto began to eat the fruit. She smiled with every bite and couldn’t help but close her eyes to do a good job of savoring it.

Masayoshi Kishimoto looked at the smile and happiness she showed as she ate the fruit, but expressed a feeling of complete understanding.

Before I was born again and came here, my own understanding of Japan had been skewed by the mainstream media or textbook education in the past.

Japanese people did not have the traditional habit of eating fruits. In the kaiseki cuisine (high-end Japanese cuisine) of the Edo period, they called fruit fruit, which is one of the desserts, fruit dessert.

In fact, he felt that the Chinese originally did not have the traditional habit of eating fruit, after all, that time in a long period of time is not even enough to eat.

Little Japan, little Japan is not small, in fact, than Germany is a little bigger, equivalent to the area of China’s Yunnan Province. The main thing is that China is really too big.

The shape of Japan’s land is mainly mountainous and hilly taking up most of the land, and agricultural land is only 12%. Any country will be the first to consider the security of its own food self-sufficiency.

Japan is not able to use large-scale mechanized farming operations like some capitalist developed countries in Europe and the United States because of its geographical constraints.

Twenty years later, as Japan’s ageing population intensifies, its food exports are on the contrary increasing year after year. From this we can see that there is no problem at all with its self-sufficiency in food.

Why does it still import foreign food? On the one hand, it is used as animal feed, and on the other hand, it is given to the grassroots for consumption by its nationals. After all, in Japan, domestically-produced things are often more expensive than imported things, which happens to be the exact opposite of China.

The reason why Japan’s agricultural products are expensive is not only to protect the country’s agricultural production, but also because it is branded precision farming agriculture and the cost of cultivation is high.

The Chinese often laugh at the Japanese for eating watermelon and sprinkling salt on it, when all they want to do is make it taste sweeter.

Watermelons are sold in supermarkets in pieces, unlike in China where they are sold individually. A watermelon costs several thousand yen, or several hundred dollars.

Not to mention the flavor, it is usually a branded fruit. Not to mention the bottom of the Japanese people will not consume, can not afford to eat, even the ordinary middle class can not afford to eat. Fruit in Japan is not considered a necessity, but a luxury.

In Japan, 98% of branded fruits are used as gifts. Not only Chinese people will send gifts to their superiors from their subordinates, but Japanese people will also send gifts to their clients.

An apple is one hundred dollars (Nagano Prefecture), a strawberry is 30 dollars (Kumamoto Prefecture), a mango is 200 dollars (Miyazaki Prefecture). ……

There will definitely be people saying that Japanese people in general have high incomes or something. When Justice Kishimoto thought of this, he could only heckle at it.

The truth was, it wasn’t at all what that one Japanese official media propaganda was like. Governments all over the world were the same, often only saying the good side of things and not the bad side.

In his own previous life, he knew that, according to the 2018 data released by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the average salary in the Tokyo metropolitan area was 6,120,000 yen, which was equivalent to 370,000 soft dollars, before taxes, not after taxes.

The reason why the average income of the Tokyo metropolitan area is so high is that it concentrates the vast majority of rich people in the whole of Japan, as well as some rich people from overseas countries. As usual, Japan appears to be averaged out.

In 2018, the average annual income in Japan as a whole was at 4,320,000 yen, or almost 260,000 soft dollars. Young Japanese women in their twenties want their significant others to have an annual income of over 4 million yen.

However, only 11.7% of young Japanese men in their twenties are able to reach this level. Will the remaining 88.3% not be able to find a wife?

In order to earn 6 million yen per year, an average young man would have to work from the time he graduates from undergraduate school until he is 50 years old.

During this time, the company must also have steadfastly implemented the annual merit system, as well as the company’s performance does not plummet, no layoffs, no closure ……

The average income for a young Japanese man graduating from undergraduate school is 2.92 million yen per year, which is about 240,000 yen per month. This is before taxes.

As for after tax, it’s about 190,000 yen, which is equivalent to over 10,000 soft dollars. Rent is 70,000 yen, three meals are 50,000 yen, transportation costs are 20,000 yen, utilities are 10,000 yen, cell phone costs are 4,000 yen, internet costs are 4,000 yen, daily miscellaneous expenses are 12,000 yen, and dinner costs are 20,000 yen, which adds up to 190,000 yen.

This is the standard of living in a relatively frugal situation, resulting in a lot of Japanese companies, the bottom of the social animal every day at noon only eat a rice ball or drink the company’s free coffee.

Otherwise, they don’t even have money for a date. Thirty thousand yen pocket money for the average Japanese man, really is such a harsh reality.