When you can’t sleep and it’s 4 in the morning, sometimes wandering the streets of Nishi-kawa fits the bill. And me being me, perhaps a carbonated beverage is in order.
I don’t know if there’s a direct Poor Richard’s Almanack [sic] equivalent in the I Ching (I know it’s a Chinese origin “book of changes” but it exerted a great influence on neighboring cultures including Japan back in the day). So I can’t say for sure what it might be in Japan, but surely the concept translates – a yen saved is a yen earned. Yes, I could have gone to the corner Family Mart, or the opposite Lawsons, or the other corner’s 7-11 to buy a soda in a store. With tax, the bottle comes out to 151 yen… and sure that’s cheaper than the neighboring vending machines offering the same product for 160 yen.
But just down the road, near the intersection with the breaching whales building (!!), there’s a vending machine that has Coke Zero for 150 yen. And so, any way you slice it I was saving some yen.
Thus, while Ben Franklin may have been tempted to write the wisle advice that a 0.88 penny saved is a 0.88 penny earned, it’s especially important to mind one’s yen when one’s ATM card isn’t working.
Lessons from the road.
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For the record – here’s a not very good shot of the whales building from yesterday’s walkabout. Mom and I both said the first thing we think of when we see a humpback whale is Star Trek IV.
