The Japanese Shopping Experience

There are several things that make us stand out among the crowd here in Japan and label us as real, 100 percent Gaijins (aka people who are so not Japanese and are a bit out of place in these parts.) There's the white skin, our louder-than-usual personalities, our TMI level differences (the Japanese people are very private and reserved), and our complete and utter inability to understand how to drive on the "wrong" (oh, okay, just the left) side of the road. Okay, that's not entirely true: Casey is a champ at it, but I'm too terrified to try. 

But perhaps the biggest thing that makes us feel completely "Gaijinified" (yes, it's a new term I just created) comes when we do our weekly shopping.

Yes, I said it: Weekly shopping!

Now for those back home in the good ol' U.S. of A. who go to Walmart and pile mounds of groceries into their larger-than-life carts, the way we shop wouldn't seem all that strange. But for the Miyazaki locals and store employees, we are a bit of a sight to behold.

As it turns out, the Japanese people seem to buy their groceries for a day rather than for a week (or a month!) They go to their local super market, take a basket, grab a few items for dinner and head home. 

And then we come in...

We take a cart (Picture the Walmart cart. Then picture a cart that might be its baby. Then picture that baby's baby, and you have yourself a Japanese cart.) Okay, I'm exaggerating, but there just isn't a such thing as a "normal" sized-cart over here. Instead, you take a basket, or two if you are the Bond family, and place them in a basket-holder on wheels. I should give the basket-holder on wheels a little bit of credit, as it does have two basket spots. But that's all you get.

(Taken from www.tune-in-tokyo.com/2009/04/suupa/)

We move from aisle to aisle, piling our two little baskets sky-high and make our way to the check-out counter. And then the cashier looks at us, looks at our cart, gives a giggle, and checks out our groceries. 

(Yes, yes we are not from around here. How did you know?) 

Don't get me wrong: They are incredibly kind and sweet to us. We just know we look ridiculously goofy. 

You then pay for your food by placing your cash into a tray with both hands. They cashier then picks up the money from the tray and puts it into the till. I've asked a few people why the tray is used, but it seems to just be the polite, customary thing to do. 

But anyway, another difference here is the fact that the cashier puts the food back into the basket after it is rung up. The customer then walks over to a long table and bags his or her own groceries. And we don't do the whole "fruits in one bag, breads in another" sort of thing. As long as any meats (which we don't really buy here, as they are two to three times more pricey than in the states) are separated from everything else, it's a "shove as much as you can in a single bag" sort of activity.

But, as it turns out, this can be a dangerous way of bagging groceries. We found this out the hard way when "Plop!" our eggs smashed onto the store floor in front of everyone checking out. Did I mention we're Gaijins? It was one of those moments where you just want to run for your life, abandoning all you own or have just purchased, but you figure you'd better stick it out and pretend it's not as awkward as it really is.

So...there you go - a typical shopping experience in Japan. Well, hopefully we will have fewer egg incidences in the future.