Hi everyone! It’s Pentleman (@pentleman_blog) here!
Sloth-san
I knew this is cheap and low quality though.
That will save your money, efforts and time after all.
Zebra-san
We tend to buy cheaper things without thinking deeply.
However, we should consider total performance of the products.
Especially, things for everyday should be nice quality.
This will bring you comfortable life in the end.
b) Men who easily destroy things not on purpose; and
c) Women who want to improve their quality of life.
What you choose for everyday is what your life itself.
The concept of this series:
88 Japanese Tips for Getting Along with People: Reading series 1, The Conclusion of Life
Let’s see the tips of today!
~Tip#17 To Experience Good Quality
There are no high quality things that are cheap.
There are just nice products for affordability.
Good things are surely expensive.
However, there are expensive things that are substandard.Book Review: The Conclusion of Life, by Kazuo Koike
(人生の結論, 小池一夫 )
Japanese proverb: Penny wise and pound foolish.
Old Japanese card game: Hyakunin-isshu (百人一首）
Mom as a card dealer
“Karuta (カルタ)” is one of the popular card games for kindergartens and lower elementary students.
This game was originated from an old card game: Hyakunin-isshu.
Playing Karuta is an enjoyable and engaging way for children to memorize vocabulary.
We use two different decks of karuta cards for playing –Yomi-Fuda and Tori-Fuda.
The cards are spread on the floor.
Players make a circle around them to enable the children to have a look at them.
There are two types of cards.
One is the reading cards called the Yomi-Fuda for the dealer.
They are usually printed with proverbs.
The other playing cards are called the Tori-Fuda.
Players try to get the Tori-Fuda card which is called by the dealer.
The player who gets the most Tori-Fuda cards wins.
Parents play the Karuta card game with their children, especially during the New Year Holiday season.
Mom
As explanation to the called card, mothers try to get their children learn life lessons.
Learning proverbs through this game is easier for parents to accept rather than allowing their children to play Pokemon.
A car of $5,000 would be more expensive than a car of $20,000.
Penny wise and pound foolish.
Even if Japanese children already learned this proverb with Karuta, it seems like they would forget it easily.
It often happens that when we buy new stuffs soon after buying a cheap thing temporarily.
Dollar stores are such representative shops to get disposable materials.
Usually, cars are not included in such stopgap category, unlike chopsticks or forks at convenience stores.
But in the following story, my colleague bought a “cheap” vehicle.
my colleague
One of my colleagues looked for his own car.
Because he was just starting his job, his budget was very tight.
By the way, we can buy a Japanese car as the costs below:
Relatively Expensive Level: $30,000 ~ 50,000
General Level: $20,000 ~ 30,000
Compact Level: ~ $20,000
[Second hand] More than $2,000
my colleague
You might be right and know what the next event is about the car (10-year -old, $5,000).
There are reasons behind cheap things even if you buy products in Japan.
Even high quality Japanese cars can’t have the same performance until the year 3,000.
As a result, just after getting the car, additional costs for fixing and changing the battery run up totaling to more than $15,000 over 2 years.
That’s almost the same as the new car costs, not including the time and dealing costs, because your time and efforts are not actually free.
Is one-third of your life less expensive than $5,000?
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy (Amazon)
Like the car story, there are no “cheap” things.
There are just nice things that cost less.
The book, The Millionaire Next Door, said millionaires tend to buy good and nice quality products for a long duration, not to use low quality ones in short term.
I know some smart people who have few nice products which were used for many years.
Here is a question.
What do you think about $5,000 total price of bedding?
My answer is absolutely, “not expensive”, even the average price of bedding sets is about $500 in all ages (2016).
Let me summarize the logic.
◾️Logic◾️
a) You sleep on the bedding everyday.
b) You spend about 6-8 hours for sleeping. That’s one-third of your life.
c) Your body is your biggest asset. It performs and produces output.
When you use the bedding, the cost is calculated this way:
After 1 year: $ 13.7/ day
After 8 years: $ 1.7 /day
I wonder if your real performance is beyond two cups of coffee a day.
There are people who spend $7 for a cup of coffee and stay at the shop only for 15 minutes.
In addition, such kind of people don’t want to use $1.7 for one-third of their life on their bed.
You need less things but good quality.
The idea of “minimum-rich” is getting more popular in Japan.
This concept can also be used for not only buying things but eating.
When it comes to a trip to Japan, dining SUSHI is one of the must activity.
At last, I would like to introduce how to choose sushi restaurants.
In conclusion, I would suggest you to have $200 sushi only one time rather than $20 five times.
What is the difference between expensive and ordinary sushi restaurants?
Of course, the quality of sushi topping is completely different. However, the difference is more in experience in the restaurant.
However, we can find reasonable conveyor belt sushi restaurants, such as Sushiro and Kappa Zushi.
Even in such competitive situation, expensive sushi restaurants are still popular.
One of the reasons must be special experience in the restaurants.
You will find out how they cook raw food which spoil quickly.
You will hear the sounds of cooking.
You will see how they communicate with customers over the counter.
Every experience will be special.
The most valuable experience is to know the reason for being first-class.
That’s not having first-class and just expensive cuisine itself.
By exploring good quality things, a door of new business and life career opens.
The rare and precious experience in a high class restaurant becomes good investment to your life.
Your story in such restaurants will be priceless.
Less is more.
The wave of “minimum-rich” tells us we don’t need a lot of things, but memorable experiences that make our life truly “enriched”.
That’s why I recommend you an experience at high class Japanese restaurants when you visit Japan.
Pentleman
Pentleman’s Photo Travel
@ 一乗谷 朝倉氏 遺跡
Ichijoudani Asakura-shi Castle Ruins, Fukui in November
Home: http://fukuisan.jp/en/asakura/index.html
