JVlog #9: Japanese Supermarket Shopping

Good Day Everyone,

In this week's Japan vlog I take you grocery shopping with me to our local supermarket here in Japan. Most supermarkets in Japan tend to be based in the basement section of the shopping malls, rather than stand alone stores, like we often have in England.

The supermarkets themselves are quite different to the ones back home. The ones in Japan tend to focus predominantly on the 'food' items, unlike stores in England which often sell items ranging from clothes and shoes to gardening tools and household appliances...a sort of 'everything all under one roof' kind of thing. Items such as cleaning products, detergents and toilet tissue etc whilst available in the supermarket, the space dedicated to them is very small. I don't actually recall ever seeing shampoo, conditioner and body wash etc in our local supermarket, apart from in a small travel kit available by the checkout, as most people go to the drug store for such items.

The supermarkets in Japan tend to be a lot smaller than in England. Most don't have large shopping trolleys, instead you have a little hand basket which you either carry or wheel around in a small trolley. Our local supermarket has a fishmongers in store and the fish section is in fact one of the larger sections of the supermarket, as you may expect in Japan :o).

I've yet to see an in store bakery. In fact the bakery section is one of the smallest sections of the supermarket and in our local one you can't really buy anything much more than basic white bread. It's hard to come across the range and diversity in bread that we have in England where you can buy anything from gluten free to multi-grain. Shopping malls do often have separate bakery stores in the food halls where you can buy a wide variety of bread based products such as baguettes, sweet and savoury pastries, and bread rolls. However, it's rare to find anything that's not made from the white constipation inducing stuff. Living in England and Singapore we rarely ate bread and when we did it was wholemeal multi-grain. However, as our cooking/eating options are much more restricted in Japan due to the lack of an oven/grill and halal food options, white bread has made a forced appearance back into our diet :o(.

With tax, one of these melons costs £24 / $36USD

Fruit is VERY expensive in Japan, especially melons, and some strawberries will cost you £1 per strawberry! In fact, if you watch the video below you can see the groceries I bought, all for the price of ONE melon!

As you would expect there is plenty of rice, noodles, tofu and dried fish options. In fact, where in England you often find sugary drinks and sweets at the checkout, in Japan it tends to be dried fish and nuts. 

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our local Japanese supermarket :o)

Love Sheen xxx