Grocery Shopping

INSANITY is all I can say about this. Japanese shop every day. What is the use of having a Wal-Mart type store and going every day??? They also do not have shopping carts. Instead, they have the baskets (like we use when we are going to pick up 2-3 items) and then place these on wheeled carts. I need a train of these each time I go. Thankfully, since the kids are not in school, I take one with Tanner and one basket and then Isaac takes another cart with two baskets. We have them FILLED! Very few items are in English and you have to rely on instinct, smell, feel, and pictures on the back. For instance, I needed to buy toilet bowl cleaner so after going through several bottles, I finally found one with a picture of someone pouring it in the toilet on the back. For pancake mix, I had to buy a small box because it had a 1 next to the egg and 250 cc’s of water next to a mixing bowl. I could have bought a slightly larger one but it didn’t show me pictures of what to add. A funny story happened yesterday. I wanted to get some ground beef. I was warned to be careful because sometimes it could be horse or beef mixed with pork, etc. I was told that if I go up to the meat counter and ask for ground beef there was one person that understood and would get it for me. Well, when I did this, I got blank looks. That person must not have been there. So then, I repeat and try to explain what I need. I have 3 different people coming to me with goodness knows what kind of meat. There are no pictures of cows anywhere and they are not understanding me and I am just as clueless. I am getting frustrated and Tanner is crying. Finally, I let out a big, “MOOOoooo”. Still…nothing! Come to find out later, Japanese make different animal noises, as well. Now, I will be surprised if men with a white jacket for me don’t show up as I walk in the door. We finally got the meat and for four pounds of Australian Beef I paid $30. We will eat every speck of that meat! On that note….everything is SOOO expensive. One apple is over a dollar. Grapes in a container the size of a strawberry container are $10. One liter of Orange Juice is almost $3. It is crazy! This Saturday, I get to go to Costco with my friend that I knew from Indiana. That will be a welcome addition to our pantry. Also, now that we have our computer set up, there are two services that will deliver American groceries to Japan. I cannot WAIT to get that going. We also have two small stores here that will actually deliver your groceries by that evening if you get your order in and you don’t pay for delivery. That is nice! One other thing….everything is in CASH!! No checks, credit cards, debit cards, etc. So, you have to make sure you have a TON of money on you at all times. That is something I am completely having to retrain myself on.