The Price of Rice - Goin' Up!

I've noticed that I never really write about anything other then games and occasionally wrestling. I still enjoy both and no, this isn't going to be me writing all about how I plan to completely change my life or anything radical like that. But I have been thinking and thinking a lot about how I can mix things up and today I think I found myself the chance to start.

Now, working where I work (Marukai), I know that rice such as Hinode isn't what you could consider "high end" rice. Within the vast selection of rice out there, the Hinode brand doesn't rank that high up there and is generally down with others such as Kokuho Yellow Label and Tsuru Mai.

If you want to get truly extreme with your rice, I have seen a near $70 bag of rice (about 11 pounds) and yes, it does sell folks.

Anyway, today I read on the front page of the Honolulu Star Bulletin that the price for a 20 pound bag of rice could go upward to about $10 a bag. The price of these now is roughly about $7-8. The reasoning? The supply of rice is going to be tight, according to the article.

This is definitely bad news for us folks who aren't as financially set as we'd like to be. Surely, I suppose I could entertain the idea of simply dropping rice out of my daily diet. That would be healthier, right? But then, I was raised with rice being a main diet staple and that sort of change would be drastic. Remember how I said I wouldn't be writing about how I wouldn't be changing my life completely?

But man, with the way things are going these days... it seems almost impossible to function without having to make some sort of changes here and there. I suppose adaptation truly is the name of the game.

As the article also states, which I tend to agree, the price for just about everything here in Hawaii has gone up. It certainly makes me thankful that I don't own my own car, seeing how much the gas prices went up from the last time I had to pay for my own gas and such (about 6 years ago now). But then again, who's to say that the prices for bus passes here on Oahu won't eventually follow suit?

I am absolutely content with living in Hawaii, but with each passing year it looks like more and more of a challenge to simply stay "afloat." I even worry about the lease on the apartment that my girlfriend and I rent. If we were ever forced to leave where we are now, we would be in a world of hurt.

It is interesting to me to see how a simple article about the rising costs of food and a bag of rice in particular, can bring up so much worry. :(