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  • Today we're checking out grocery shopping in Japan.

  • From very inexpensive stores to the grocery stores that have everything,

  • Come let's see what goodies we can find!

  • [Life in Japan Theme Song]

  • Ooo, we've got two today, huh?

  • Fuji apples! That's my favorite.

  • And right now it's apple season, so we take full advantage of the cheap prices.

  • And we are on a mission.

  • Of all the grocery stores in Japan, Gyomyu Super is one of our favorites.

  • Oooo, strawberries are starting to appear again, yea!

  • A couple potatoes.

  • Oh my!

  • It's what looks good to Sarah. Mommy, can I buy this?

  • Let me see which one you got. Chocolate bread.

  • OK Yes!

  • Joshua's favorite, huh? The Chocolate bread.

  • This is a staple that I love to have on hand because it's for yakisoba.

  • So you buy it, it's the noodles all cooked, all you have to do is heat 'em up.

  • And in here is the little package of all the seasonings,

  • So all you have to do is put in whatever vegetables you want

  • And if you want meat then the noodles and sauce are already all made.

  • Sausages that we like. There's good ham here, good chicken here.

  • This ham is so yummy — smoked ham.

  • And it's so great to just pop up or put in sandwiches.

  • Sarah used to love these. They're all made meatballs.

  • So all you've got to do is get this little package,

  • And put it in hot boiling water, and it heats it up.

  • Then you open the package and they're ready to serve.

  • They have two different types of meatballs. They have chicken.

  • I don't know what that is, but it does not look appetizing.

  • I never serve that one.

  • Big chunk of pork for $10.

  • Nice! Big ol chunk of pork, huh?

  • And all your seasonings...

  • Tons of different types of soy sauces and sauces.

  • Sometimes you just gotta buy some flour.

  • Ruth and flour go together.

  • We do. Oh this...

  • OK this is very Japanese. This is all the different types of seaweed.

  • There's so many types of seaweed.

  • Bug.

  • They have skinny ones, fat ones, chopped up ones,

  • See, it's like tinsel for your Christmas tree.

  • And then they have all the furikake.

  • These are like toppings for your rice, so plain ol white rice.

  • And you can change the flavor of your rice depending on what furikake you get.

  • So, I mean, it's endless.

  • This is my sister's favorite. It's egg. Egg with seaweed.

  • But then... there's so many.

  • They have these little variety packs for kids,

  • And they have oh! Just endless options.

  • Pretty cool.

  • Look at this seafood stuff.

  • Whoa, and it's takai (expensive)!

  • It's very expensive.

  • The thing about here, since tempura is a big thing, you can buy everything all ready.

  • Like all these shrimp already all breaded for tempura.

  • Look, like this is probably squid rings...

  • Octopus, and this looks like octopus.

  • Ice cream! Ohh.

  • Joshua! Yeah, that ice cream, that ice cream!

  • What the kids really want. Yea but we don't want it with all of the nuts on it.

  • That's right, we'll get the one without the nuts.

  • OK, let's find the one without the nuts. Right Sarah?

  • Well, we found the correct kind. Alright.

  • And the cart is filling up quickly. Quickly.

  • One thing I cannot find in Japan is Molasses or Corn Syrup.

  • No Corn Syrup, I've never found Corn Syrup.

  • I can't even buy it on Amazon Japan. Can we get two?

  • Um, yeah, we better buy two.

  • No, I want to get it!

  • Thank you.

  • No, I'm going to put it in the cart. Oh, excuse me.

  • Oh, and one thing you probably find mostly in Japan is Matcha ice cream.

  • Green tea ice cream. What?!

  • What?! Yep.

  • They do have western style things. Lots of French Fries.

  • Our local store is tight and small, but this tiny space is full of great deals.

  • If you can find it here, it's probably cheaper than any other grocery store.

  • So is this like the international aisle here?

  • It's all kind of mixedlike this is more international here.

  • Oh, these are good crackers!

  • Onion crackers. Those are good.

  • Radishes here? I think these are radishes.

  • That's like what they do with... The Yakisoba.

  • So here they have all these... look at this! I have not a clue in the world what it is.

  • It looks like you eat it with beer!

  • And this looks like earth worms.

  • This looks like kidney beans.

  • Theseah! I don't have a clue what these things are, but they're very interesting.

  • You can get it in a glob, or you can get it broken up.

  • You can buy smaller packages, larger packages.

  • I have no clue.

  • Well you'll probably have a lot of people tell you what it is!

  • And there's always a line here.

  • Always a line. Let's go down this aisle.

  • Look what I found! Dr Pepper!

  • Dr Pepper! My mom would be so thrilled!

  • What I like about this store is that their prices are very cheap.

  • But... no, no, no, we're not buying that.

  • They have limited supplies of certain... like they don't have all the options.

  • You can't buy a lot of things here, but the things that they do have are very cheap.

  • And that's very good. What honey?

  • OK.

  • You found what you wanted? Oh nice.

  • That was the last one!

  • Oh, the last one! Whoa.

  • This is one of the few places where you still need cash to check out.

  • Joshua, come over here please so people can put their groceries there.

  • Now how good are you at this part, Ruth?

  • I'm good. Good?

  • Mommy knows how to bag the food the best way.

  • The kids are getting buckled in and all the groceries are put away. Time to move on.

  • Hey Daddy? Daddy what?

  • Joshua's out. Joshua's out?!

  • Oh did he eat so much, his tummies so full!

  • And now he's asleep? Let's just see how much asleep he is oh! Not so much!

  • Ah! He's awake.

  • What about Sarah?!

  • Is she awake?! Ahhh!

  • Now this store is a nice supermarket. There's many of them in Japan.

  • But in our area there's this one, there's Life, there's Odakyu OX.

  • They're like a regular, American grocery store that has everything

  • Oh our hands! Our hands.

  • Good job.

  • Oh, you can normally find any fruit here, except if it's really not in season.

  • But like strawberries are starting,

  • So you get, what? 10 Strawberries for $8.

  • So expensive!

  • So this little melon is $23.

  • You gotta really like melon for that, huh?

  • Here we get into the fish section.

  • So you have every type of fish imaginable.

  • The prices on fish are very good.

  • I personally love Salmon, so I mostly go for Salmon.

  • And I try to get the Salmon fillet because I really hate picking out the bones.

  • Daddy! What is it dude?

  • Come over here!

  • Oh, what do you see?

  • Music! Music?

  • And the fish are... well those fish aren't dancing anymore!

  • Game over for them. See you can get the octopus

  • Or whatever these are called. Squid, maybe.

  • You can get them all chopped up, ready for you.

  • This is a very common Japanese fish.

  • They eat this a lot with BBQs.

  • And think now in the fall too. We did that at the BBQ, didn't we?

  • We did it at the BBQ.

  • They eat the whole thing!

  • This reminds me a lot of Brazil.

  • Just very different types of fish.

  • In Japan, it's the king, all the ramens.

  • There's every type of ramen imaginable.

  • Tons of cup noodles. Tons.

  • And you can even get cup noodles in bowls.

  • Yakisoba, noodles, then you can buy a little more traditional types.

  • Then you have all your seasonings on this side, you have individuals, you have packages of 5,

  • Then you get into your little more fancier soups.

  • And then there's always curry,

  • And all different typesboxed. Everything's boxed

  • So you just have your whole seasoning and just add your meat.

  • Here's what Daddy likes. Lots of Taco kits.

  • This is where we get our Taco stuff when we need it.

  • And this is the baking aisle which is, it's not even an aisle.

  • It's a little section.

  • Things are so expensive though.

  • So like powdered sugar in Japan is super expensive.

  • This is probably 200 grams and it's $2.

  • So it's a dollar for a hundred grams.

  • And Vanilla. This tiny little thing of vanilla is 350 yen.

  • But these, they have some very convenient things.

  • And maybe they have them in the U.S., I don't really know.

  • I love these little tarts!

  • They're already all made, so all you have to do is to add your filling.

  • This is great for the lemon tart.

  • And then they have the chocolate ones that all you have to do is add a chocolate mousse to it.

  • And oh my goodness, it's so good.

  • And then they have these cute, cute cookie cutters.

  • All types of little thingies to bake things in.

  • But these are just so cute. I don't really need one, but oh, it's so tempting.

  • Oh, did you find tamago (egg) balls?

  • Yeah. That's what you want for a treat?

  • That's a lot of them, dude!

  • You hold it and we'll buy it. Don't squish it though, because you won't like it if you squish it.

  • And this is the kids' favorite aisle, because this is the snack aisle.

  • So you have tons of rice crackers.

  • Unimaginable amounts.

  • And the seasonal place, huh?

  • They're getting ready for Christmas.

  • These little cheeses are so yummy because you can try a bunch of different styles in one sitting.

  • Obentos, lunchboxes, are huge here in Japan.

  • And you can buy them at the grocery stores and they have every single type.

  • So look at a couple of them.

  • You can get just salads and fruits if you want,

  • You can get these types that have noodles and a type of meat,

  • And all of these little papery plastic things can be heated up in a microwave.

  • So when you buy it, right outside of the cash register,

  • every grocery store, every convenience store has a microwave you can use to heat up your bento.

  • Sushi bentosyou don't need to heat those up!

  • No but oh! This looks so delicious!

  • This is the type they like. That's what Becca and Anna like, huh?

  • No I think I'll get just the Salmon ones, they like just the salmon.

  • Oh Salmon, yum!

  • Daddy likes those too!

  • All kinds of bentos.

  • For tomorrow.

  • So we had to go back and get a basket. We weren't planning on getting so much, but...

  • Yes they have it right here. What?

  • This bread. These are amazing.

  • Then Dad's job is to finish the checkout, get the things so that mom can keep shopping in another store.

  • Oh yum!

  • You guys love pancakes, don't you?

  • Yum! Whoa!

  • So this is my morning breakfast. Two eggs, and some bread.

  • Some bread that we got the other day.

  • Yummy breakfast!

  • Hey, so we're leaving our house right now.

  • My whole family, we're going to go check out the new Maruetsu grocery store

  • New grocery store!

  • So we're putting together this video about grocery stores in Japan, and wouldn't you know it,

  • And brand new grocery store opened up this very weekend right next to us

  • So we have to go check it out!

  • Oh yeah! Everybody has Sketchers on.

  • Oh yeah.

  • The kids. I have one too!

  • You have Sketchers on too? Sarah's are new, they're clean.

  • Oh yeah, look at those Sketchers Sarah.

  • Those just jump out! They're just like Becca's.

  • Four little monkeys dancing in the road...

  • So there are some other honorable mentions, like OK Grocery stores. We really like OK.

  • They've got great prices. It's always really cold in there too.

  • Oh, very cool. Checking out our new grocery store by us.

  • How about this? Very cool.

  • Food is essential for life, so it's nice to know there are a lot of options when it comes to grocery stores in Japan.

  • Everything from fast and convenient to inexpensive and practical to fancy and expensive, it's all here and available.

  • Well alright. We've got the lay of the land.

  • It seemed pretty average priced.

  • I wasn't... it wasn't like Gyomu.

  • But they had a lot more options, I think, than Gyomu.

  • It's very conveniently located, so when I get back from language school, if I need something,

  • I can stop at a grocery store on my way home.

  • Yeah, that's nice.

  • Nice, huh guys?

  • Everybody's like munch, munch, munch! Drink, drink, drink!

  • So that's a look at how we do our grocery shopping here in Japan.

  • Do you have any questions or comments? Leave them below,

  • And as always, thanks for liking and subscribing.

  • We'll see you next time on Life in Japan. Bye bye.

Today we're checking out grocery shopping in Japan.

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