The Haruki Grocery Store

I arrived Monday night, the day of a big snow storm and it has been snowing every day, at least part of the day, since. They plow the streets, but only the bigger sidewalks.

Thursday I went to the Haruki with Ted, the husband who has been here without me since the first of October and knows all about such things already. Friday, when it stopped snowing for a few hours,  I ventured out to shop by myself.  It's only two blocks from our apartment, so it's not like I could get lost.  The big challenge is walking on the snowy street with the cars, without falling down and getting run over.

Everything in the grocery is packaged and presented beautifully, the same number in each package, the price easy to read.

                                                                         tangerines

                                             Mushrooms, four to a pack

I have no idea what some things are or why you would want to eat them.  The red and yellow sticker means it is discounted.

                                                                   Little fishes?

                                Fish insides? I can understand why these would need to be discounted

My purpose in this shopping trip was to buy bread and milk - things I could identify.

The bread comes six fat white slices to a package - no thin bread, no rye bread, no family size packages with 30 slices.

Milk comes in quart looking size packages, no other sizes.  Other things, like already made coffee also come in milk cartons, so if you can't read Japanese, look for the cow on the label.

I also bought bean sprouts, for only 39 yen.

  

The cashier pointed to the plastic bag and asked me something I thought was did I want a bag.  I said "iie" and pulled my bag out of my pocket.  The store subtracts 2 yen from the total if you don't take their bag.  I said Arigato Gozaimasu and so did she.

I walked home, feeling very pleased.  It was a successful shopping trip.