Zo

I haven't talked about masking in Korea. Not a ton of data yet. But when I took the subway from first to second Airbnb, my availability sample of passengers was like 3-5% masked, one tenth of what you'd seen in Japan. And yesterday I'd have said that bus drivers, as seen through their windows, were one maybe to several unmasked. But today I saw five masked drivers, and maybe another maybe or two; I wasn't counting the unmasked ones, but not a ton. Today's sample might have been a third masked, if not close to a half. So I dunno!

As for people outside, it's mostly unmasked, but frequent enough that you'll see multiples in 10 minutes. Including two bicycle riders together on the river trail today. ( Read more... )

I forgot to say -- the Emart supermarket had unit price by weight for everything except the bananas. Per 100 grams usually, but per 10 grams for cannned fish and pupae. Much better than Japan. Though, bread nutrition per 100 grams is useful, but per slice would be nice too.

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Good news: I obtained cash and found groceries.

I did some research last night, and found advice on using Global ATMs, plus warnings that they still don't work randomly. Today I first hit Shinsan bank -- Global ATM, but no English menu. Moved on to Woori, and their first ATM was great. I got cash from one card, successful inquiry on another, and... not sure about the other two, one of which may simply not work. Anyway, progress!( Read more... )

This has been a day.

Last night I realized that my 10:30 flight could mean leaving at 7:30, given dire warnings about Peach Air being strict about deadlines. I decided to spent 1200 yen and move to a 14:20 flight, yeah that meant 3.5 hours in the airport, but it also meant not rushing out in the morning, and a bigger chance to get sleep.

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Extending from the fast food burger emulation... someone online had disputed cooking being cheaper than eating out, and specifically mentioned Taco Bell value menu, Little Caesars, and unspecified hole-in-the-wall places. Well, I can evaluate the first two. Instead of my prior approach of trying to build an exact match for a burger, I'll try something more holistic.

(And yeah, this whole thing feels like belaboring the obvious to me. But apparently it's not actually obvious to many people.)

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Getting 2000 calories via Taco Bell burritos in Philly would take $11.45; doing it via burrito ingredients would take less than $6.97 (the price of living on canned black beans.) If you had been spending $11.45/day, you could switch to making your own, and use the savings to buy some actual vegetables as well.

Which leads to another argument I've repeatedly seen people make[1], that "eating healthy" is more expensive than fast food, because vegetables are so expensive, as if you're supposed to jump from burgers and pizza to living on spinach and eggplant. But humans can't live on non-starchy vegetables! Fast food is some mix of protein, carbs, and fat, and so is the bulk of homemade food; healthiness comes from using better ingredients and knowing what's going into the mix, not from jumping ship entirely to vegetables that are mostly water, fiber, and micronutrients. A burger diet is competing with whole grains and legumes plus some vegetables, or something like that, rather than competing with a salad diet.

[1] I guess proving by self-example that some adults don't know the first thing about nutrition or cooking.