culture shock

The other day I went to the market and saw all these people crowded around something in the produce section. When you see a crowd or line in Japan, you know something good is happening (usually anyway).

I went closer and realized that they were stuffing mikan (mandarin oranges) into plastic bags. I looked at the sign and it said tsumehoudai (all you can pack) 300 yen (about US$2.50).

I've seen this on television at many Tokyo supermarkets. The store puts an item on special and gives you a really low price for what you can stuff into the bag they give you. Some of those people on the television stuffed 60 weiners into their bags or 20 carrots. Sometimes it is a timed event, like a half hour or 10 minutes, so most people are in a frenzy trying to get the most of the items into their bags.

So I grabbed a bag and tried getting into the crowd. Those older women and men are brutal! They were blocking the boxes of mikan and really stuffing their bags. I thought the mikan would smash the way they were stuffing them in. You could hear chatter amongst them and one woman was saying how someone had stuffed 19 into their bag so she wanted at least that much.

The produce guy felt sorry for me and let me take my mikan from his cart, I felt each one as I put it into my bag and took 12. (6 days worth of mikan for our breakfasts.)

When I went to the check-out, the lady at the register said, "you can fit about 6 more into your bag". (If you look at the photo, there is still some room at the top. The top of the bag also had a "handle", so there are two holes near the top.)

I told her I didn't want to buy too many and have them spoil before we could eat them.

Then the lady in back of me put in her 2 cents..."yeah, you should get more and put more in"

After paying, I could hear the cashier and the lady that was in back of me continuing on their conversation as to how I could have put more into my bag.

It was a great way to get a lot of mikan for a low price, but I don't think I want to go through that again.