Healthy Birthday!

It’s been a while since I wrote! I’ve been on a bit of a holiday mood (from the blog heh) but I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things, so here I am!

It was Fu’s birthday the past week and when I asked him how he wanted to celebrate it, he replied, “Simple and healthy. I don’t want to spend too much money.”

In accordance with the birthday boy’s wishes, this was how our day went:

We started off we breakfast at a lovely park!

We had breakfast standing.
In a dirt patch under some trees, because none of the benches were in the shade -_-

But look at the above picture again and let’s pretend we were sprawled out on a picnic mat on the lush grass, basking in the glorious sun as the breeze gently ruffled our hair and our laughter echoed across the park, ok?

Next, we headed to the supermarket and spent it on a whole bunch of healthy food!

Our budget was what we would have spent had we gone to a restaurant, so we’re essentially spending the same amount, except it’s on food that is infinitely healthier! Lots of fruits, chicken breast meat, tofu, veggies, to name some :)

Our latest addictions are acai juice and fresh fruits!

Previously, we didn’t eat a lot of fresh fruits because while groceries in Japan are pretty affordable (cheaper than Singapore!) fruits are one of the few things where it’s rather expensive.

For example, a watermelon (the usual size in Singapore) are upwards of $10. And those are the cheaper ones. By the way, I’m referring to normal watermelons. None of those fancy square or heart or whatever else shapes you see viral on the net. You guys know that normal supermarkets don’t actually sell those… right?

This year (in fact, this week!) was the first time in all our time living in Japan when we actually bought a watermelon, and Fu commented how he feels rich because we’re buying watermelons now LOL.

Oh, in case you’re wondering why fruits are so expensive in Japan, it’s because most of the fruits sold in the supermarkets are produced locally. One reason is because they prohibit import of fruits from countries where certain pests (specific fruit flies and moths) exist. Which is almost the entire world la -_- So you will hardly find fruits from other countries, which often can produce it more cheaply than Japan. An exception is bananas. Almost all the bananas I’ve ever seen here are from the Philippines. And they’re inexpensive; $1 for a bunch of 4!

We dropped the food at home and headed to the… GYM! Truly reflective of whose birthday we’re celebrating, eh? Haha.

Checked out the local city gym (something like Singapore’s community centre gyms) and the fee was less than $2 per person! We had to go through a briefing first before we could actually use the gym though -_- These people, such a stickler for rules and safety. (We checked out another city’s gym today and the briefing was AN HOUR LONG!!! Almost died of boredom listening to the staff explaining how to use a treadmill.)

After we came home, birthday meal was a healthy meal I cooked up, as we traveled to Korea through the TV.

And that was his simple, but healthy – both physically and financially – birthday this year :D

p.s.: If you found this birthday a bit mundane for your tastes, check out my birthday gift to him last year here (if you haven’t already read it)