[spacehunt]

I just came back from Tokyo. Everything seems cheap right now, especially food, but prices are starting to rise. For example Uniqlo has announced they will raise prices by quite a bit next year.

Imported goods have been adjusted already. Regular unleaded petrol is around 170 yen per litre around Tokyo.

[DemocracyFTW2]

Gas prices are the last thing I worry about when travelling around in a foreign country, especially in Japan which has a great train network. Gas prices also have a bad correlation story with overall prices of living (accommodation and food, mainly), especially so when comparing across countries.

[than3]

> Gas prices also have a bad correlation story ...

Perhaps only subjectively, depending on where you go.

Energy is typically the backbone of any modern country, and the price level being fixed by OPEC allows several comparisons that are accurate.

[spacehunt]

Apologies. It was the only "foreign" / "imported" thing I paid for while in Japan (I was road-tripping around the Fuji Five Lakes which does not have a train network at all.)

Accommodation and food prices seemed to be roughly around the same as before, but I did note some bottled soft drinks seemed to come in smaller sizes than before (450ml vs 500ml).

Checking my notes again just now, I did see the Nest Mini 2nd Gen for ¥2980, but that seems to be part of a Christmas promotion going on, so not a useful data point.

[DemocracyFTW2]

Yeah I see so that explains that. In my experience consumer electronics are also a bad indicator for overall expenses, at least in my country and in Japan they have been so. The majority of my expenses really goes into accommodation / rent, food and drinks, and public transport. And also books, which have become sort of cheap now especially when you order via amazon.jp (i.e. from the comfort and price level of your home) due to the devalued Yen.

[tomjakubowski]

for american context that's around $4.54/gallon at current exchange rate

[fomine3]

Gas price isn't good metric for overall commodity price comparison because it's taxed and now subsidized by each country.