Everyone seems to love convenience stores in Japan, which are fun places where you can purchase anything from a hot meal to a cold beer and even pay your electric bill. Today we’ll show you some of the amazing things you’ll find in Japanese convenience stores!
When an employee from a Japanese supermarket chain decided to drive across America to look for “the next big thing” in the early 1970s, he was taken with Seven-Eleven, and convinced his bosses to bring the concept to Japan. The model was extremely successful, and today there are 50,000 conbini in Japan and maybe twice that number in other countries around Asia. Seven-Eleven Japan was so successful, they bought out their parent chain, which is why you sometimes see wonky Japanese snacks or Domo-kun for sale there in the U.S.
Japanese convenience stores offer a lot of benefits. In a way only Japanese companies seem really good at, they manage to compete by being as similar to each other as possible, so anytime you walk into one, you know exactly what to expect. The prices are always uniform, the food offerings and services are uniform, even the toilets that wash your butt are all the same. Since I live in Tokyo on the weekends now, I’ve become quite a connoisseur of conbini, and I wanted to write a post that showed you some of the amazing things they contain.
What Awesome Things Can You Find in Japanese Convenience Stores?
Beer and Other Alcohol. You can get any kind of wonderful alcoholic drink you can imagine at Seven-Eleven, Family Mark, Lawson, etc. Sometimes they even get in some rare craft beers when you’re lucky.
Snacks to go with your alcohol. I’m a big fan of otsumami, a word that describes any snacks you munch on while you drink. At left are kakipea which are spicy rice crackers shaped like persimmon (kaki) seeds and peanuts. At right is chi-tara or strips of choose with dried cod along the sides, making it chewy and wonderful.
Potato chips. Naturally there are lots of potato chips. While Pringles have been getting popular lately, I still usually reach for good old nori-shio or seaweed-and-salt, my favorite flavor.
Damned Delicious Cookies. I don’t need Seven-Eleven messing up my diet with these huge, soft chocolate chip cookies that are impossible to resist. They also make a matcha version.
Ice Cream. This one is called monaka, which is basically vanilla ice cream with chocolate inside, all enclosed in ice cream cone material.
Onigiri Rice Balls. They always common ones like salmon or tuna, and around special events like Halloween, fun varieties like this “Omu-rice” limited rice ball.
Sandwiches. Egg salad, ham, and “tonkatsu sand,” a fried pork cutlet sandwich which was developed so that geisha could eat without messing up their makeup, are all staples. They also get funky and sell strawberry-and-whipped-cream sandwiches.
Pretty Decent Salads. When my mother would visit Japan, eating was often a challenge because so many foods aren’t diabetic-friendly in Asia. Happily, you can always find a pretty good salad.
Interesting Ways to Get Your Protein. When I’m hungry but don’t want to go off my diet, one option is the pre-cooked chicken they sell, which are intended to be cut up and eaten on salad, though you can munch it right out of the bag. The best one is the tandoori chicken flavor from Famima.
Then there’s this strange thing I saw recently. The Japanese love fish sausage, and it’s sort of like that, but with chicken instead of fish. 22g of protein isn’t too bad.
“Burritos.” One of the first things an American learns when he comes to live in Japan is that Mexican food is not very high in local cultural awareness here. The closest thing you can get to Mexican food are these microwave burritos, which usually come in ham and egg, teriyaki chicken and pizza flavors.
Reading material. Everything from newspapers to sports magazines to manga. Sadly no sexy books, as convenience stores all got rid of them in preparation for the upcoming 2020 Olympics.
Supplements and energy drinks. The Japanese love a variety of energy drinks, which provide everything from a boost that helps you get through the day at work to fiber to make your bowels flow to great hangover cures.
And more! The innovations at modern convenience stores keep on coming, with banking services, copy, fax and digital printing machines, the ability to obtain authorized copies of many official documents conveniently, the ability to pay your taxes, and more. And of course Japanese convenience stores are a battleground for the cashless payment wars, always happy to take payment in one of a dozen newfangled payment systems.
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Your Favorite 2D Characters. Every since Sunrise reached out to Pizza Hut to try cross-marketing their pizza with Lelouche and the Rebellion with Pizza Hut, companies have understood the strong opportunities of marketing anime directly to fans. You often walk into a convenience store to see it filled with Love Live Sunshine, Gundam or other popular limited anime products.
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