The Price of Things

I filled up my car today. I am thankful that I only have to do that about once a month. Our gas prices are running around $3.90/gal here. I know that is keeping pace with what is going on in America. I am not going to complain though... check out the price of gas off base. They are currently paying 160 yen/liter. Look out, I'm going to do some math here. So there are 3.78 liters in a gallon. That means they are paying 605 yen/gallon for gas. Right now we have a very good exchange rate of 107 yen to $1. So, 605 yen= $5.62. That's right, they are paying nearly $1.72 more per gallon than we are. Wow. I guess we need to get smaller cars and complain less. That is what the Japanese do.
Also shocking is the price of groceries over here. For example, I found out that I can only buy milk by the half gallon. That half-gallon of milk costs $2.25 (that equates to about $4.50 per gallon)! No wonder there is COLA here. For all you non-military people, that does not mean I am giving the kids soda rather than milk. COLA stands for cost-of-living allowance. It means that you get slightly more in your paycheck if you live in an expensive area than someone with the same rank who lives in a less expensive area. Think San Fransisco, CA vs. middle of nowhere, Idaho.
In case you are wondering how I get the groceries that I spend half of Brian's paycheck on up to our apartment... I discovered that there are a collection of carts in the first floor stairwell that you can use. Handy!