If you went to the supermarket recently, you might have picked up some cereal and put it in your cart. I bought some cereal recently too — 12 boxes, in fact. Although breakfast cereal can be found easily in Japanese supermarkets, with familiar names like Corn Flake, Corn Frosty, Choko-wa (chocolate loops), Genmai Flake, and recently, Fruits Loops (the “fruits” is a fluke of Japanese phonetics, I love it for some reason), the boxes are so tiny that an American shopper would probably laugh out loud in the middle of the store, with just 1.5-2 “normal” servings of cereal in each box. So I occasionally decide to make an order from the Foreign Buyers’ Club in Kobe, a service that lets foreigners living in Japan purchase anything from the U.S. (or Britain, or Australia), as long as they don’t mind ordering by the supermarket case, which usually means 12 boxes. Having that much of any single brand of cereal is a little tiring, but it’s nice to have the option of buying natsukashii (nostalgic) food from home when I want it.
It’s quite interesting to see how Geoffrey Giraffe, Tony the Tiger and so on have been adapted to Japan. Creepy sometimes, but interesting.
J-List is humming along nicely both here in Japan and in our San Diego office, processing hundreds of orders daily and getting them out the door in a speedy manner. Whether you’re looking for great Japanese snacks, anime figures and toys, Japanese study supplies, 2009 calendars or our Wacky Things from Japan, we’ve ready to get your order processed in record time. Browse our amazing stock of products now!
