I read today that Tokyo was once again rated the most expensive city in the world. That’s obviously not much of a surprise, of course, seeing as it costs an arm and a leg just for the bare necessities here, which doesn’t leave many other body parts to pay for much of anything else. I try to cope by maintaining the illusion that once I leave Japan everything will seem ridiculously cheap by comparision for the rest of my life, but even self-delusion has its limits.