Supermarkets

Supermarkets in Japan are pretty much the same as they are in America; they both carry produce, packaged goods, they have fish departments and butchers. They also sell alcohol, which supermarkets can't sell in New Jersey. Not only that, but the alcohol is cheaper! I'm not talking about only Japanese brands, but also American brands; I can pick up a bottle of Jack Daniels for about $20.00 in Japan, that same bottle would cost about $25.00 back home.

So if supermarkets are about the same, what is the "little difference"? The difference is not where Japanese people shop, it's how they shop. Unlike in America where markets have these hugh shopping carts that people load up with food for a whole week, that little cart in the pic is what the Japanese use to do their food shopping; they just dump a basket into a metal frame and go shopping. But why are their carts so small? Well, there are two big reasons - 1) most Japanese people do not drive, so if they buy 20 bags of groceries, they have to carry 20 bags of groceries all the way home. 2) Japanese homes and apartments are typically smaller than their American counterparts and this trickles down to the average size of their refrigerators; a weeks worth of food just won't fit into a Japanese refrigerator all at once.

What is the solution? In Japan people go food shopping every day. Yes, every single day. It's not as much of a hassle as you might think, remember businesses tend to gather around train stations, so it is just a matter of stopping at the supermarket rather than walking past it on your way home. Also, the further you get away from the train station, the smaller the markets become; at the train station you may find that supermarkets are about the same size as they are in the US; but as you get to more rural areas, they may be the size of your local farmer's market. It is also for this reason that convenience stores are so popular in Japan because sometimes you just can't make the trip to the train station.

"Hey, ma, what's for dinner?" Even she doesn't know until she stops at the market about 5 minutes before she starts cooking.