One of Christian's colleagues took me grocery shopping this morning. We went to a Japanese store, and she explained what everything was. I'm not sure I could go back to the store and repeat what she told me, but it was incredibly informative. Anyway, the bottom line is that if you're a picky eater, you'd probably starve to death in Japan (unless you want to eat at McDonald's everyday). Of course, you can shop at the international grocery stores, but you'll go broke doing so.(one side note: I met an American woman this week who told me she and her family went to McDonald's about 3 times a week the first month they were here. I was relieved because we've been to McDonald's more than I care to admit. It was so easy in the beginning to buy Joseph some McNuggets and call it a meal!)
Let me explain a few things in the photo. The items at the top are pickled plums, cucumbers and eggplant. The carton at the right is Barley tea. This is great stuff. It's decaf and very refreshing. In the bottom right corner are some sausages. I'm skeptical about these...but ya gotta have protein now and again. In the upper left corner are some salad dressings. These are really good (had some last night). But if you're fixated on your Hidden Valley Ranch, these Japanese varieties will disappoint. In the bottom left is cup-a-soup!! However, these are better and way more popular than what you'd find in the US. Finally, in the middle are some udon noodles and boro cookies at the bottom.
Produce here is very interesting. I have not jumped on the organic bandwagon back home, but the Japanese are onto something. The fruit here does not look as good as what you'd find at your local Safeway, but it tastes much better. The apples here are not shiny at all, and that makes me think about all the gunk on our American apples...but I digress. I just paid 148 yen (over $1.50) for one apple here. They are really good. And strawberries...yikes. I paid about $7.50 for 20 strawberries. But let me tell you these strawberries are GOOD. And I am totally addicted to these Japanese oranges here; similar to clementines. I mean, seriously, I have not had one bad piece of produce. I often buy stuff at home, take one bite, and toss it out. Wasteful, yes. I need some standards, though.
I think my biggest frustration about shopping is that I have no idea what I'm looking at. I can't even look up Japanese words in a dictionary to translate into English. What is alphabetization in Japanese? And even if I figure out what I'm buying, I have no idea how to read the cooking instructions. Fortunately, I have figured out the expiration dates on products. At least I won't feed people rotten stuff.
In January, I'm signing up for intensive Japanese language lessons. Wish me luck!
