Month: October 2024

Is it a coincidence? Since SUCHITOO ordered home delivery (CO-OP, posted on August 20th) in August, I have seen advertisements about discounts (discounts) in newspapers (flyers), on TV, and in Yahoo ads. CO-OP (Coop Mirai) delivery vehicles can be seen in residential areas, but I have never been interested in them until now.

One day, I compared two companies that were included in the Asahi Shimbun insert at the same time. I added other companies as much as I could and commented on them in comparison with Coop and Watami.

• Coop is cheaper with the similar Mainai bento at 570 yen [680 yen], Mainai side dish at 620 yen [690 yen], and Mainai gozen at 740 yen [790 yen]. However, I have not eaten Watami’s bento when comparing the contents.
• Watami is running a half-price campaign in early September, and Setagaya Natural Foods is also having a half-price sale on 15 meals during September (660 yen per meal), which seems to be a response to Coop.
• All three companies are making full use of 0120-free phone calls to advertise.
  *In [ ] are Watami’s prices.

・Watami uses disposable plastic plates for its containers, while Coop’s boxes (pictured) are impressive, with each meal packed in cellophane to emphasize safety and hygiene.
・Coop uses double covers and a box with ice packs for deliveries when the recipient is not at home, while Watami seems to lend out boxes with locks.

*I’m worried about the future of food in Japanese society!

・The taste of home-cooked meals (handmade) and cooking (i.e. the joy of making and eating) will be lost. It will become the same as school lunches and eating out.
・We will see an increase in “eating alone” without sitting around a table.
・There will be changes in plates, chopsticks, and seasonings. The concern is that more unnecessary and discarded items will be used; home delivery meals come with containers.
・While Japan has a self-sufficiency rate of 39%, and while the menu is well-balanced, it raises questions about the poverty rates of children and the rest of the world.
・In 1993, when Japan had a poor harvest (rice shortage), the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries purchased rice cheaply from Thailand sold it at a high price, and used the profit from this to subsidize Japanese farmers. In 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries took a negative stance on ​​releasing stockpiled rice. ~See the “Thai Culture Handbook” published in 1995.

*What are the benefits?

-If the tableware used for delivery is collected, there will be no waste of resources.

-The bento work area will start early in the morning, and home delivery will be mainly for dinner, so there will be a separation in residential and urban environments. SUCHITOO is for the next day’s lunch.

-Convenience store bento contains preservatives! I’ve heard people say that supermarket bento is cheaper than convenience store chain Seven-Eleven (AEON). However, some stores have a corner for eating.

-There are good points to cooking your food and combining it with other items, but on the oher side, it seems possible to order additional “raw vegetables,” but it will be hard to preserve and maintain the flavor.

@I want to try more bento and compare them. Of course, I would like to compare and study the advantages of eating out (dining halls, restaurants, coffee shops, etc.) and home delivery (bento). There are more than 10 companies introduced on the web, including home delivery food companies for the elderly.
That’s all about the situation with home-delivered meals in Japan, but in Thailand, there are plenty of food stalls (for take-out, including Saitoon) and food delivery bikes on a par with those in the US (McDonald’s and others with contracts with Uber), and it’s a convenient country where meals are cheap. However, there are different conditions, such as not having time to cook at home and the climate being hot all year round (even the kitchen is hot!), so what do you think?

@@Aside: Mr. H stopped bringing food to the front door from the back gate. There seems to have been a “spider” in the garden! He said was a problem with returning to the (food distribution center) on his infected clothes. The nuance of what Mr. H says may be from an awareness of ! Is it wonderful or excessive? From a safety perspective, it’s good that there is no longer an entry from the back gate.

On the way there, the domestic flight was delayed by 3.5 hours at the transit airport of Chicago, which took about twice as long. On the way back, the transit was 51 minutes in Houston, so the connection notice was shorter than that and made me anxious (when I booked a few months ago).

A side note: The flight time to Thailand in February was about 7 hours, so the connection and other things only added 5 to 7 hours – but the connection between BKK and CEI (due to the reduction in the number of flights) was bad.

In a word, I felt that my trip to America is a vast country, a country rich in resources, a country with an immigrant culture, a developed IT industry, a country with an individualistic society, a country that emphasis on the military, and a society that values ​​children and family.

From here on, I will add some harsh opinions. It is a society with rough taste, a consumer culture, and a lot of waste, and a society where it is difficult to live without a car, and as a result, “money is important and the gap is increasing.” Values ​​are often quite different from those in Japan. And using an airplane is the same as using a bus. There are major and regional airlines, but they are operated rationally and efficiently (I went to the Civil Aviation Bureau to interview them a few years after the liberalization of air competition in 1978, and it seems that they have been stable after a turbulent period. (Impressions of the three airports). There are a lot of hubs and spokes, and I was surprised that I could connect domestic and international flights in just 5 minutes at the UA terminal at IAD.

*Due to concerns about a hurricane on the day of my return, I was notified the day before (Sunday) that my return flight would be changed to a UA flight from ANA. All my reservations were originally for ANA flights, but they were changed to United Airlines (UA)! In terms of the flight back to Japan, the change was only a few hours, but my reserved seat was also changed without my permission! As someone who frequently goes to the toilet, this is inconvenient. It’s great! I paid 300,930 yen for a round trip based on those conditions, so I sent my complaint and opinion. It would be the worst if they thought it was “customer harassment”! I already paid 2,500 yen for an aisle seat when I purchased it with ANA… I can’t accept that I ended up paying 160 dollars (25,827 yen) at Raleigh Durham Airport (RDU) in North Carolina! UA is the largest airline in the world, and ANA is the second largest airline among Star Alliance members, but this is my opinion and complaint after trying to see how much of their systems, commonality, and service there are. ANA responded… “We follow the rules of our partner airlines, so we cannot refund you. We will refund the 2,500 yen seat reservation fee for ANA flights, so please contact the relevant department,” which was an arrogant response… I will post “Problems with ANA’s current service” [I sent a six-item questionnaire on July 15th – I received a second response on the 17th, so I will post the details on July 20th].

Even on my trip to Thailand in February 2024, I stumbled with ANA → TG (unilateral reduction in flights), and there was a case where the daytime flight I booked was changed to a night flight. ANA, the company I booked with, ran away, saying it was a matter of another company. They were adamant that I could cancel for free if I didn’t like it. They didn’t even say a word of greeting (they notified me of the flight change without my permission), and they are a company that does not explain things before or after the fact. This time, I was on my way back from a business trip to the United States, so I was unable to communicate with the local ANA office at all. I also had circumstances where I was not able to use my smartphone properly.

**I was able to spend a lot of fun time with my family for the first time in a year, but we didn’t have a car and were completely unable to do anything on our own, so we could only take an early morning walk. I was surprised that my grandchildren were only playing games in the car or in the living room. It is a culture to have BBQs and eat out on weekends, but the prices are quite high and the portions are large, so it was easy to find a good restaurant, but difficult. The ramen restaurant “Mitsukaku” had a unique and strong flavor, and it seems to be aimed at Americans. According to the Japanese owner of Mitsukaku, this is the only good restaurant in N/C and they are planning to open a second store.

＊＊＊I want to write a comment on American Japanese culture, etc. [Summary of July 4th-2]. When comparing Japan and the US, the difference is the land area (about 25 times that of Japan) and the population (about 340 million, three times that of Japan), and the basic capital is young and energetic people. As America’s Independence Day (July 4th) came around, I once again thought about the short history of the USA. It is amazing how the country has developed into a melting pot of various races in a country that lasted only 248 years (1776). In other words, it is a society full of possibilities and comfort, while Japan is a closed society and has a strong feeling of laziness! However, the education level is high, and there is a culture of attentive consideration in the narrow Japanese society. I was surprised by the challenging spirit of a man who came from Puerto Rico and has been living in America for ten years. His hard work and hard work were dazzling. On the other hand, there was a young man who only pursued his dream, that was money.

＊＊＊＊: In addition to (＊1). I felt unwell during the 14-hour flight from IAD to HND in air conditioning. I had poor circulation due to economy class syndrome, and cramps developed a few hours after returning home. The intense pain was like a stick from my hip joint to my feet, and I couldn’t walk at all. Even after it subsided, I had muscle pain, so the next day I went to a nearby massage parlor to get a massage and also warmed my legs and hips in the bath. I don’t know when I will be completely cured.
Preventive guidance from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare website:

1. Do light exercises and stretching exercises occasionally.
2. Drink plenty of water frequently.
3. Limit alcohol consumption. Quit smoking if possible.
4. Wear loose clothing and don’t wear a tight belt.
5. Raise and lower your heels and massage your calves.
6. Raise your legs when you sleep.