From Sydney to Tokyo - Shopping, Grocery-ing, Convenience Shop(-ping)

Coming from SEA country, then lived in Oceania for almost 4 years, and now relocating to Asia for a year. It is quite an experience I shall say and I just got lost as in culture shock or reverse culture shock then reverse culture shock again. Well, like you can see, I am FonCused. ^^

Just want to share and jot down my discovery :)

Shopping, Grocery-ing, Convenience Shop(-ping)

Shopping day is everyday including weekends! Unlike Sydney, despite weekends, departmental store just close as usual, like 5-6pm. Even though there is late night shopping on Thursday night, I doubted that I will walk around since I still need to work on the next day. So yeah, in Tokyo, weekends are just pack with people, from stores to public transport, which this is the bit I missed about home, yet can’t really adapt to it (because I used to the slow paced moment while in Sydney).

In Tokyo, the consumption tax is not included in the price (so ￥100 shop is never costing you ￥100 - at the moment consumption tax is at 8%, will increase till 10% in October – just like GST).

There a few shops that will list down the cost per 100g or 1kg. This is the part where I missed Sydney the most, as everything is so straight forward! And for someone who is cost conscious, I often rely on the per 100g price to justify what I should get.

Not that I recall there is any self-checkout counter, but a few groceries shops like Senyu and Maruetsu petit, will need you to bag your own items (they might charge you for plastic bags)

Japan’s convenience store (Japanese: konbini) is a place where a lot of people (I think locals too) love to visit. There are a huge range of items in the store – from household item (like toothbrush, pan, kitchen utensils etc) to food (the normal instant ones and the ready-made – like bento, sushi, cold soba etc), and to forget, adult manga or magazine (LOL). In Sydney, the food will be just Krispy Cream, sandwich and salad, and definitely no pots and pans. 

Food they sell:

Chinese Cold Noodle

Fish roe rice

Soba!

Grilled Scallop!