Living in Japan definitely has its ups and downs when it comes to grocery items.
PRO: There is almost always a grocery store close by. I would say that within a square mile of our apartment there are maybe 7 grocery stores.
CON: Can't read the labels on anything.
PRO: There is an abundance of sweet tasting snacks.
CON: Some salty items such as microwavable popcorn and tortilla chips are a rarity. Herein, lies the problem....
I would be as bold as to say that Matt is a popcorn man. From my experience, his favorite after dinner snack is to chomp down on those little nuggets of salt and butter. Obviously after the craziness of moving to Japan started to dwindle away, Matt really started to notice this void in his life. After mentioning it on several occasions at the Ninomiya House (I will just call it "the house" from now on), We finally decided to consciously seek some out.
This past Saturday we had a long bike riding journey to visit an agricultural research facility that is famous for their cherry blossoms (that blog is next on my agenda). At some point along the trip we spotted a large store and decided to see what was inside. As it turns out, it was a large supermarket with many household items and food. The first thing you notice when you go inside the store is an intense brightness. I can appreciate a well lit store, but this place was ridiculous! In fact, I felt justified in taking a photo of it.
PRO: There is almost always a grocery store close by. I would say that within a square mile of our apartment there are maybe 7 grocery stores.
CON: Can't read the labels on anything.
PRO: There is an abundance of sweet tasting snacks.
CON: Some salty items such as microwavable popcorn and tortilla chips are a rarity. Herein, lies the problem....
I would be as bold as to say that Matt is a popcorn man. From my experience, his favorite after dinner snack is to chomp down on those little nuggets of salt and butter. Obviously after the craziness of moving to Japan started to dwindle away, Matt really started to notice this void in his life. After mentioning it on several occasions at the Ninomiya House (I will just call it "the house" from now on), We finally decided to consciously seek some out.
This past Saturday we had a long bike riding journey to visit an agricultural research facility that is famous for their cherry blossoms (that blog is next on my agenda). At some point along the trip we spotted a large store and decided to see what was inside. As it turns out, it was a large supermarket with many household items and food. The first thing you notice when you go inside the store is an intense brightness. I can appreciate a well lit store, but this place was ridiculous! In fact, I felt justified in taking a photo of it.
My retinas weren't appreciative of the highly reflective floors either.
The first section we walked through was the diet/health section. I must say, you gotta respect the Japanese for their bluntness in advertising. There was a hilarious add for some diet pills that I thought needed to be shared with the masses.
"You're too fat!"
After trolling around for a while we found our way to the snack section and were only able to find a bag of already popped popcorn. Matt tried for several minutes to ask a worker if they had microwave popcorn. During this ordeal we talked with three workers and a drunk man who stank of whiskey as he tried to tell Matt "Get it! Its chewy!" I also noticed that he had nothing but alcohol in his basket. Anyway, they didn't have what we were looking for. However, there was a glimmer of hope. The next store over was thought to have some popcorn. So we went outside, unlocked our bikes, mounted them, rode 100 feet, unmounted, locked our bikes, and went in the store.
Well wouldn't you know it, we went straight back to the snack section and they had some popcorn made in the good 'ol U.S of A. Inflated prices be damned, we bought all of the bags they had (buttered and natural). There was only 7 bags so Matt got 4 and I got 3. What follows is my share of the goods.
Ahhh, Fun Pop.
I foresee another popcorn outing in our near future. I project that these won't last very long.
-Seth
April 13, 2010 at 8:06 PM
Yes, I do love my popcorn