Japanese Adventures!


The Convinience Store (konbini for short)


The most popular convinence stores in Japan are 7-11, Lawson, and FamilyMart. They cater to most of your daily needs and then some.

A little more high quality than your average American store, they offer prepared meals (no not hot dogs and super-high fructose corn syrup Slurpee) but full course meals, a vast ice cream and snack collection (fresh cakes, and breads my favorite), yogurts, softdrinks, and alcohol. Most meals will be heated up on the spot for you. Daily promotions and mini prizes are offered everyday. A lot of soft drinks in Japan come with little prizes. If you ever go to FamilyMart, you MUST try the FamiChicken :3 most delicious. During the winter Lawson offers giant Nikuman (meat buns), kept warm and oh so fresh everyday. Most students drop by to grab a quick onigiri and catch up on manga, eat cup noodle and hang out before heading home. Adult magazines are sold right on the rack so no need to shuffle up to the clerk and shamefully ask, you can just stand at the rack and read til...well til you need to leave ;)

When you walk in you'll be greeted by a clerk "Irashaimasen" is what they'll greet you with in a very loud and friendly way. (If they don't, their manager will probably beat them...I mean yell at them. The Japanese are a very peaceful people dedicated to doing a good job.)

When you buy something, even if you don't speak Japanese a good phrase to learn is "object" + onegaishimasu. It means please, and it's appreciated, so let's try...Juice onegashimasu! Yay you did it. If you're really linguistically challenged pointing and hopping around like a monkey usually gets the point across to, and the clerk would be happy to assist you.

Also another important fact, you generally don't hand money over to the clerks, there is usually a tray for monitary transactions.