Grocery Shopping

Of course your experience is completely dependent on where you live, but since I live in little inaka Japan, foreign food is difficult to find. When you manage to hunt down the ever-illusive ingredient, it truly feels like you found the hidden treasure chest. So little inaka gal, where do you head to get your foreign food fix?

Inaka Grocery Stores

The two biggest grocery stores within reasonable driving distance are Elena and MaxValu. Here’s a couple pictures to give you an idea of the selection.

By far these stores offer mainly traditional Japanese ingredients and a very LARGE selection of fish, but they do indeed sell a few foreign brands! You just have to look hard enough. But don’t fret! If you are into Coca-Cola, Oreos, and Doritos you will be completely content 😉

At this type of store you can find foreign food like…

Cereal- Yes, there’s cereal. But make sure you’re into the super sugary, kiddy ones.

Pasta- Spaghetti is popular in Japan (YAY!) and both Elena and SuperValu offer other options like penne pasta and shells. Red sauce is rather popular and on rare occasion, I can even find Alfredo sauce. My closest grocery store even recently added Mac-n-Cheese and I was ecstatic to relive my childhood instant meals.

Salsa- Look for the tiny containers. It’s out there.

Cheese- There is a small variety of cheese compared to back home. Be prepared for smaller bags of “mixed cheese” and generic cheese slices. I’ve tried making cheesy soups and it’s just not the same.

Baking supplies- You can find baking supplies easily but (as obvious from the ever popular tiny microwave/oven combo) baking is not a large practice in Japan. So any ingredients like chocolate chips or powdered sugar will come in smaller and pricier amounts.

Some of the ingredients I did a happy dance over finding include cream cheese, chicken nuggets, tortilla shells, taco seasoning, and corn starch.  Milk, bread, meats, bouillon, flour, sugars, etc are pretty much the same. Overall, your basics are easy to figure out if you have a grasp on katakana. The location in the store might not be where you expect (such as scouring the large selection of dashi to find the tiny packages of chicken stock or how sugar, flour, and powdered sugar will all be shelved in different locations) but the stores thankfully stock many comparable products.

Kaldi Coffee Farm

Lucky for anyone in Nagasaki prefecture, Kaldi is a popular foreign food store in Nagasaki City and Sasebo- about a 45 minute drive from where I am. They carry plenty of wine, candies, coffee, and food from around the world! It’s where any of my Mexican food shopping is accomplished. Plus, it’s a nice relief to scan products that display mostly English labels. (99% of the items in Japanese stores are only in kanji or katakana and it can be a bit much to process after a long day.)

My common buys here include dill pickles, tortilla chips, and cream soups for cooking. They have a wider variety of pricey cheeses, meats, snack food, beans, baking supplies, and spices. I even saw bagels in their stock- cue another happy dance.

Mission Impossible

I have yet to find these. Alas, tiny Japanese grocery stores in the countryside do not offer…

Sour cream. Wild rice. Turkey. Baked beans. Bacon. And many types of cheese :,(

Bacon is the number one food Japan just doesn’t come close to matching. You can find raw meat in the grocery store that looks like bacon, but when you cook it up, it will turn out like ham or will turn white like chicken and just NOT BE THE SAME. Every restaurant dish I’ve had that advertises “bacon” comes out with sliced ham. And every foreigner I’ve met has felt the same frustration over Japanese “bacon.”

Other Purchasing Options

Now if you are a countryside dweller like me and still can’t find what you’re looking for, don’t give up hope! There are several more options.

Costco is a great option for making large grocery runs. You may have to drive a couple of hours but sometimes that taste of home is more than worth the effort.

If you still are missing an ingredient, check online.

Buy meats and cheeses through The Meat Guy.

It’s a bit pricey but if you really want something, you can probably find it at TheFlyingPig.Com.

Another option for pricey foreign food is through iHerb.com.

Have fun with your treasure hunts and best of luck!