Japanese supermarkets

Compared to your average Aussie supermarket:

• Japanese supermarkets have a better range of fresh tofu, seafood, rice crackers, seaweed and two-minute noodles ^_^

• Japanese supermarkets tend to sell smaller cuts/amounts of meat, rather than large steaks, big sausages, etc

• There's usually a big section of curry sauces and pastes, but virtually all of them are for Japanese-style curry. Some larger supermarkets, or supermarkets with lots of international foods, will sell other kinds of curry paste. My current supermarket, though not at all small, has only Japanese curry. I can't believe how many different pastes there are when they all taste pretty much the same.

• Generally speaking, obviously, it's cheaper to 'eat Japanese'.  The cheapest food you can make yourself is probably soba or udon. You can get a package of fresh soba for, like, 40 yen.

• Japanese supermarkets have a ready-to-eat food section, which typically includes a sushi section, a deep-fried section, a bento section, and various salads and other miscellaneous items. You can often buy just-cooked fried rice, yakisoba, spring rolls, gyoza, tempura, katsu, yakitori, and many more.

• Japanese supermarkets have a poor selection of good cheeses. For someone like me, who likes a mature cheese with a bit of bite, there is very limited selection. Apart from the occasional wheel of Camembert, you'll mostly get 'cheddar' or 'natural cheese' (?like cheddar but with even less flavour?), but not mature cheddar.

• Japanese frozen food tends to come in smaller packages. A frozen meal in Japan is quite a bit cheaper than its equivalent in Australia.

• There's usually a good range of vegetables. Some of this is the same as you'll find in Australia. For example, it's easy to find broccoli, potatoes, onions, carrots, beans, etc. but Japan has various fruits, vegetables and mushrooms that I've rarely/never seen in Australia, such as piman (green peppers), negi (scallions), hakusai (Chinese cabbage), daikon (giant radish), nashi (Japanese pears), etc. 

• Japan has a similar range of fruits to Australia, but fruits tend to be massive and rather expensive.

• Fruits and vegetables as usually sold 'per unit' (eg, 150 yen for one broccoli) or in bags, unlike in Australia where you usually take as much as you want and pay per weight.

• Most of the bread section is made up of packaged, not-very-fresh-looking, junky snacks, and white bread. Even bread purporting to be 'rye' or 'wholemeal' is usually pretty white. Hahaha. Some supermarkets have a bakery - a store separate from the rest of the supermarket - on site, where you can buy fresh bakery goods.

• When you buy at the checkout, clerks usually put your items into a basket and give you a plastic bag or two (here in Nagoya, you are expected to bring your own bags). Then you take the basket to the nearby counters and bag your own groceries. Sometimes the clerk will give you chopsticks if you've bought a ready-made meal.

• Rice tends to be sold in very large bags. The assumption is you're going to be using a lot of it. I have a 2kg bag in my kitchen - the smallest available - which is not being used because I realised Japanese rice gets very gluggy when not cooked in a rice cooker, which I don't have.

• Japanese supermarkets tend to have a lot of very irritating jingles playing. Sometimes there are different jingles in different parts of the store, or sometimes they are the store's theme song playing at regular intervals throughout the whole store. I don't know how anyone can work in a store in Japan without going mad.

I went to three supermarkets today on my way home. Soon I might post about my purchases, because I'm sure you're all dying to know. ^_^