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Staying in another country for the consecutive 3 months is never cheap.
Especially, if you're planning to stay in Japan,
regarded as one of the most expensive countries in the world.
You probably wonder: 'How do you manage to budget your food expenses well enough
and still afford to eat out every single day?'
Well, we use several tactics that help us stay within our means
and at the same time keep us entertained!
In this video we're going to show you why you should make a trip to a Japanese supermarket
at least once during your stay in Japan
and of course, take advantage of the reduced fresh food section! :)
This was one of our first trips to a supermarket in Japan
and probably one of our most exciting ones as well.
We did find the same bargains in most supermarkets in different parts of Japan we have stayed in.
So when you come to Japan,
wherever you stay, you're also bound to find
the same, amazing, fresh, discounted food.
And yes, get yourself a bargain and try discounted fresh sushi and sashimi
that looks even better than the food served in some European restaurants
serving fresh sushi.
We do it at least once per week
and it's totally worth every single yen (or penny!) spent on it!
Enjoy the video and don't forget to subscribe!
If you feel like you've spent too much in Tokyo
...or just want a bargain
you should head out to one of those
convenience stores,
actually, small supermarkets. This one is called LIFE
and you could grab yourself a bargain for half price!
I think it's like a couple of hours before the closing time.
They reduce the items that go out of date
like most supermarkets would.
But in this case, I got onigiri (Japanese rice ball).
Usually it's 120 Yen
and you can get it for...60 Yen
which in Sterling Pound (GBP) is only...
*our first days in Japan, still coverting!*
Like... 45p?
Trying to calculate it to the exact pence [SO CHINESE!]
OK, anyway, you probably get an idea About £0.45 anyway
of how cheap it is.
We're going to give you a little tour around this supermarket
so you can have a look at what sort of prices you can expect.
These ones are quite good [they are called KAKIAGE TEMPURA VEGETABLES]
And you'd be surprised but
there's actually quite a few people hunting for bargains!
So it's not just us being cheapskates!
There are few other cheapskates around!
Smart bargain hunters, not cheapskates.
Well, in different places people would call us differently but
we're just smart about budgeting.
Especially that the food here is really fresh.
And evening won't really make a difference
to this scrumptious food.
[ALL THE FOOD YOU SEE IS PREPARED AND HAS TO BE SOLD ON THE SAME DAY]
No, I don't encourage you to come to Japan to be eating
food which is reduced
but I say that if you really want to come to Japan
and if you think that you don't have enough money...
Well, you probably do.
I think we're almost done with our almost-midnight shopping
on our scooters [READ: KICK SCOOTERS]
I have to say that again: scooters
and it turns out that it's not just us shopping around at this time.
There are quite a few people. So the food is not really wasted in here.
And the best thing about Japan is that the prices are
heavily reduced at probably some time, maybe 9-10pm every day.
Reduced by about 50%. I think everything that goes off the next day or it 'goes off'
but it doesn't actually go off next day. It's good to eat it next day
but it's not good to sell for a supermarket.
They reduce it by half price so you can grab yourself a real bargain here.
It's amazing and next morning or during lunch time
you can have very fresh food. In the supermarkets elsewhere
that would still sell at the original price.
Whereas in here it's no longer good to sell it at the price
that you'd be buying in the morning.
As you can see, the most popular items have already been sold out
You've got some lovely yoghurts here, desserts,
some soba noodles.
It's all empty now.
Just a handful of...
it looks like dim sum to me (Chinese style steamed dumplings).
That's probably... I've actually enquired about that. It's tofu.
Not too bad. So what did we get?
So...
We got... OK.
I've asked about that so that's tempura
with vegetables - KAKIAGE [vegetable and prawn tempura fritters]
and the orange parts are carrots; and I think....
I can't remember. I think it's pak choi - the green parts.
Sui Mai (Shumai spelling is also correct) = Chinese steamed dumplings.
Something for Chinese (foodies) taste buds.
That's potato croquettes.
Onigiri (Rice ball)
That's the tuna onigiri Salmon, sorry!
Times 2!
Looks good. For the price of one!
And the...
Some more sushi?
Vegetarian or vegan friendly sushi.
Although I think... (after closer examination) I'm not sure what's in the middle...
Mushroom.
No, I think this one looks like a crab stick.
So a vegetarian sushi. Yes.
What else did we get? That's it?
Crisps.
And the big bottle of lemon tea. It's only 160 yen (£1.10),
which icludes tax (Japan 8%).
But if you get it from 7Eleven, it's 150 yen for a small bottle, for like a 500ml bottle.
So for another 10 yen why not get three times as much?
It's no brainer really!
I think we're missing eggs.
Eggs, that's it. Oh wait, I've got some dessert as well.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
The dessert.
I think it's an equivalent of our cheesecake (correction, it's quite similar to an egg tart)
or so it appears to be.
And we've got some Japanese Yakult
which is actually really cheap.
Because Yakult back in the UK,
you pay quite a bit for it.
For this one you get 12 bottles
and it was 186 yen, including tax I believe.
So it's just over a pound.
So tonight we are bargain hunters!
Well, if you're staying in Tokyo and Japan for 3 months, you've got to be smart with your money.
Otherwise, if we were big spenders, we would be able to only stay about probably 3 weeks in here.
And we'd be broke after.
But, because we're smart with our money, we can stay here for 3 months!
So... yeah, off we go!
To the till.
Mamaki, mamaki!
Wabaki, wabaki!
Mamaki, mamaki!
And this is cha shu to die for! [also spelt char siu, type of rolled pork]
Guys, seriously, once you try ramen with this type of pork
which is served in the majority of ramen soups but not all of them
like the tonkatsu ramen (MUST-TRY!!!),
you're really going to feel addicted to it.
It's just such an addictive type of meat!
It's beautiful <3
And here is some more. Just so that you know,
it's actually pork belly.
It's divine <3
Hope you've learnt something new today, whether it's money management skills or Japanese food names!
Don't forget to like our video and subscribe to our channel to stay tuned. We appreciate it! :)
So that's how the receipt looks like.
If you don't speak Japanese,
it'll probably be a little bit difficult for you to figure out what products you're paying for.
You can just check against the price.
That would be the easiest way to work out to see whether you've been overcharged
but more likely undercharged!
Yeah, to be honest, I'd just trust the machines here.
I'm sure that the tills are charging the right price.
Yeah. I don't think any of the staff members have actually made a mistake
with any of our orders in the supermarkets or restaurants.
Yeah, not even once! Unlike in other countries which is quite common
(Sudden bouts of uncontrollable cough) - Did he just cough England?
Ok, let's start packing.
So we've just finished our shopping and heading back to our kick scooters,
which we left outside the supermarket
We didn't want to carry them around with us so we thought we'd leave them outside the supermarket
UNCHAINED, UNLOCKED.
For a change.
Here it is.
Untouched. Right where we left them.
Not even a single extra scratch!
And if that was in some areas in the UK and other parts of the world
they'd be gone in a blink of an eye but it's still here.
And we didn't exactly take a minute in the supermarket.
Not too bad, quite a good outcome.
We took about 45 minutes there so ...
No surprise, Japan is very safe.
It's not even 7 o'clock.
I had this okonomiyaki about 3-4 hours ago
and now it's discounted to 50% of its original price.
It's just incredible.
I mean, there's nothing wrong it.
It's just no longer 'fresh' apparently.
So all of that is probably going to be reduced soon.
Because this supermarket closes at 9 pm.
Literally everything here is going down.
Still can't get over it.
3 hours ago that was full price.
This sushi set is just over £2 or £2.30 to be precise.
There are a lot of people looking around
trying to get some good deals.
And the beauty of it is that people in here don't barge through to get the best deals
that are out there.
And they're not afraid to queue up, either.
It's just like anyone is queuing up.
So what did we get?
I've got a set. It's worth waiting literally about 10 minutes.
Reduced by 30%.
It's already cheap enough as it was anyway, under £3 (ALL THAT!!!)
And now it's less than £2 for that.
That's dinner for me.
That's if you're indecisive, you can always wait about.
We got siu mai (also spelt Shumai, traditional Chinese dumplings, usually opened and steamed).
Pork dumplings. I can't believe it's a pound!
148 yen.
And we've got sushi set.
You can forget about getting something like that back in the UK.
Just over £2.
Anywhere else in the world, you're definitely not going to get anything like that for that sort of price.
And yeah, like I said, it's more of a social acceptance.
to buy reduced priced items.
There's nothing wrong with it.
The difference is,
people here are really respectful here.
They don't scrounge off or anything like some people in other countries do.
They literally scrounge over it. But over here, it's a lot more acceptable.
People are respectful, they are polite and they are shopping in the orderly manner.
I think it's embedded in the Japanese culture that people don't really like to waste things
and waste food as well.
Since Japan quite scarce in natural resources.
It's also known for
preserving food
or just taking advantage of ...
(I'm known for not ending my sentences!)
Salaryman (a term given to Japanese white collar workers)
You might think I'm crazy but I love it, absolutely love it.
You don't have to be ashamed of searching for bargains and everyone does it.
What do you think of this Japanese concept? How often do your see yourself wasting food?
Do you think people in the West could learn from the Japanese approach?
Let us know in the comments below!
This is so amazing!
We've just finished our dinner
and there's even more.
This is insane!
And even our food (we bought a few moments before) is on sale, too.
As you can see, when it comes to limiting waste, Japan has really nailed it! Who agrees with us? :)
Thanks for watching guys!
If you liked our video, don't forget to subscribe!