The Fried Potato Problem

Something you may or may not know about me is that I love french fries. When I ate out with my friends in college I almost always got fries (HIGHLY recommend fry piles if you ever see them on menus). However, I can't really get fries where I live. Well, I can, but either the microwaved potatoes at a convenience store or some frozen fries at the grocery store (both of which contain wheat, so I can't eat them, but that's not the problem here). Basically, I can't purchase any deep fried potato product easily where I live. This made me wonder, "just how far am I from the closest fried potato?"

Now, typing in "french fries"or "potato"into Google Maps gives some confusing results, so I measured my distance from fried potatoes in distance from McDonald's shops. Yes there are a large number of McDonald's in Japan too, 2975 to be exact. There are actually more McDonald's per square kilometer/mile in Japan than in America, with one per 127 square kilometers (49 square miles) in Japan and one per 702 square kilometers (271 square miles) in America. Anyway, that's not really important, so onto my findings.

So, as you can see, there are several McDonald's around me. However, there's a bit of a problem: the scale. You can see that I am approximately 40km(25mi) from the closest McDonald's. The other thing is Japan has significantly lower speed limits than America. Most roads near my house have a speed limit of 30km/h(18mph). The wind is faster than the speed limit close to once a week. Luckily for me, despite living in the middle of nowhere I am along a train line and highway, meaning I can take the train or highway to places I need to go. However the speed limit on the highway ranges from 24-38mph, but same as Americans pretty much everyone goes 10 over. In this case that's 10km(6mi) over so a max normal speed of 44mph. These days that 44mph(70km/h) feels fast, which is wild considering I used to often take freeways and drive 65mph(105km/h) back home. Back to the point, it takes me 45-50min by car to get to the closest McDonald's.

This Fried Potato Problem, represented by my closeness to McDonald's, represents something bigger: I'm not really close to anything. There is a grocery store or convenience store 10min by car from my house, but walking there would take 1.5 hours and there aren't any other major grocery stores for 40km(25mi) in any direction. There are some small shops in my town, but I can't exactly exist on the carrots, potatoes, alcohol, and instant ramen that they sell. Since I arrived in November, pretty soon after I arrived here it wasn't uncommon to get snowed in or have the wind be so strong that not only is my boxy kei car hard to drive but waves crash onto the highway. I must plan all my trips around the weather and when the snow plows clear the roads.

To be completely honest, this is really frustrating. I grew up rural, but back then most of my friends, various specialty grocery stores, parks, bookstores, malls, and a fairly large city were within 35min of driving. In college, the town was pretty far from big cities, but it was full of restaurants, friends, and hiking all in under 15min by car or bike. As frustrating as it is, it's important to look on the bright side. Because I live in the middle of nowhere, I have a large apartment, beautiful views, and a friendly community. The view from my front door is rice fields and mountains. That highway where the waves crash on the road with some regularity? An absolutely spectacular drive at sunset (or just in general). In this community, despite my being very out place, people here treat me with kindness and as a person.

Something else fun, I've been making my own french fries lately. Deep frying is a bit intimidating for American cooks, but it is often used in Japanese cooking so it's good to get some practice with just potatoes. Definitely have a long way to go before mastery, but it is fun to learn. I may be far from the closest fried potato, but I'm finding a way to make my own fried potatoes :)