Shopping for Food: Part 1

Grocery shopping in Japan can be an arduous task.  Not only does one have to contend with the inevitable curious stares from other shoppers, but finding the items on your shopping list can be quite a challenge.  I have learnt that google is my friend when it comes to food shopping and I always make sure I have my phone handy at the grocery store.

The upside to grocery shopping in Japan however, is the surprising and often amusing things you find along the way.  Check out these weird items, all readily available in my local supermarket...

Eggs are very cheap in Japan, though the way they package them for sale is a little bizarre!

I'm not quite sure why, but these bags of eggs are markedly more expensive than usual.

Quail eggs anyone?  Also note how eggs are sold in cartons of ten over here, not twelve.

Random dried foods/beer snacks.  There are a million varieties of these on sale.  Some are delicious, others are purely horrifying!

Despite being eaten for every meal, rice is relatively expensive here.  Also, Japanese rice cookers take a very long time to cook rice (40 minutes or more).  As a result, these pre-cooked packets are pretty popular - not only are they fairly cheap ($4 AUD for 3 packs) but they also only require 2 minutes in the microwave to cook!

Fruit in Japan is very expensive.  This watermelon for example costs about $17 AUD.