hello everyone it is martina aka king
kogi i am excited today to talk about
convenience stores not convenience
stores in north america but convenience
stores in japan or as they call them in
japan panbinis which might i add is a
way more convenient way of saying it it
is one of the most inconvenient words to
write out try it right now i always get
autocorrected but convenies are so
different than the types of convenience
stores i have experienced in north
america 7-elevens in canada are usually
places that i go for like slushies or
icies in the summer time there's usually
like eight machines with like big gulps
and half of them aren't working pretty
much just junk food and uh you would
never say i'm gonna go for a quick
grocery run at the 7-eleven like that's
just unheard of interestingly i
basically talked my mom's ear off about
the glory of kanbinis and she didn't
really seem to believe me until people
went to japan for the olympics and the
reporters started to report back on the
food that they were experiencing and my
mom was like martina she doesn't
sound like this at all
why does my mom sound like pinocchio
martina you were right convenience
stores are amazing in japan like there's
a reporter and every day he's talking
about the amazing things he's having at
a convenience store and i'm like i know
so why are convenience stores so awesome
well uh just to give you a rough idea of
what i'm about to talk about convenience
stores in japan you can grocery shop you
can buy take away pre-made meals that
are actually delicious you can pay bills
you can buy concert tickets you can do
photocopying
and just like so much stuff so there are
five main convenience stores in japan
there's 7-eleven there is lawson's
there's natural lawsons which i would
say is kind of an anti-up it's kind of
like a specialty convenient then you
have family mart they have a green white
and blue logo you've got a mini stop
which i'm not that familiar with and you
also have the special yamazaki
especially yamazaki is kind of like a
small town or countryside type location
i've never been in one i think i've seen
one when i was on like a trip like out
the window like look it's especially
now this is probably the big highlight
of convenies so the pre-made food is
delivered daily it's refilled all the
time people don't go to convenience
stores because they're just like
desperate and in the middle of the road
driving and they gotta gas up and
they're getting a hot dog and they're
like i shouldn't do this but i'm gonna
convenience stores have
literally good food it ranges from hot
dishes we're talking curries
pastas currently the 7-elevens now are
doing thai food tom yum goon each
convenience store has their own thing
that they're doing soba or cold soba
udon ramen and we're talking about fresh
ramen noodles with the broth and i'm
definitely gonna do another video that's
talking about how they separate all the
items so that they last they don't get
soggy but that is for another video now
with these items you can also do my
favorite thing to do which is like
convenient hacks so i'd like to take
like one item and like mix it with
another item to create something even
more awesome or like things that are
really helpful for if you're traveling
so i like to kind of like go to
convenience and do these little hacks
and stuff
did you
wait a second
i think i'm being hacked
can i be hacked make videos i think i'm
being hacked
[Music]
such a brick king kogi did you really
think you talk about hacking and not
include me
hackerwoman
well while i'm here might as well
introduce you to one of my favorite
conbini hacks so every convenient japan
sells these kind of like ubiquitous rock
hard vanilla ice creams but what i like
to do is hack that and make it into a
super delicious sneaky affigato oh what
now that's right affogato we're talking
coffee and ice cream usually espresso
but for me i make a sneaky cup of coffee
i'm using a roast from shushu tango
guatemala roasted by mother tongue
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california
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oh yeah
take your ice cream bag cut off the top
and dump that big old cube into a bowl
next you're going to want to make your
coffee you're only going to be using a
bit for your ice cream and the rest you
get to drink on the side then pour your
coffee unceremoniously over your ice
cream dig on in with a spoon it's going
to be hot it's gonna be cold it's gonna
be creamy and magical
[Music]
now that's what i call a delicious
dessert it's like a two become one it's
like a is it a spice girl song i don't
really
also do you mind if i move in i'll pay
rent i'm really good at ordering stuff
online
hacker woman
but i will say she has inspired me i
think over on uh king kogi my other
youtube channel i'm gonna do a whole
bunch of videos about uh convenient
hacks that's right hackerwoman well
maybe i'll invite her to step in and
give a couple of tips as well now where
was i before i was really uh yes food
from the convenient let's talk about
groceries you can get things for your
pantry all the way to fresh items out of
convenience you can get all the basics
that you need we're talking about milk
egg they have apples they will have like
seasonal fruit so right now kaki like
persimmons are really in you can get
onions potatoes carrots green onions
like basically anything you need
sometimes they have meat like fresh meat
depending on the place that being said
you can go to expensive grocery stores
in japan you can go there for specialty
items different types of cuts and meat
and fish and different types of
vegetable products so i'm not saying
live your whole life at a convenience
store i'm just saying
you could sugar salt mayo salad dressing
little bags of flour
shoyu like soy sauce like oil
olive oil all the things you might need
for cooking you can get at a convenient
and they also have these amazing
miniature sized items you guys like you
can get mayonnaise that's normally
you get like normal tonkatsu sauce for
like your fried food
tiny tabascos it's amazing so whenever i
have to travel for work and i'm at like
a hotel or an airbnb then i can actually
use these like little mini items i don't
have to buy like a big item so that's a
little bit of a hint there for you guys
if you're coming here on vacation you
don't have to buy a giant bottle of
mayonnaise if you're just trying to cook
for like a week but you also could buy a
giant bottle of mayonnaise because
japan's mayonnaise it's amazing and now
the ramen that's being put for sale in
the convenience is actually ramen and
broth that's made by like some of the
number one ramen shops in japan like the
real ramen shop chefs are now making a
conbini version so if you can't go all
the way to that location you can have a
comparison to it at a convenient if you
bring up your food to the front to pay
for it they are going to ask you a
question and what they're asking you in
japanese is do you want me to warm up
your food and if you don't understand it
because you don't speak japanese you can
say hi or you can say yes or you can say
onigashimasu or you can just say yes
please and they will warm it up for you
and then the next thing they're going to
do is put it into a bag and they will
grab for you either chopsticks or fork
or spoon
some places will do little hand wipes
yoshi buddy they'll put them in for you
some places might ask you so they might
start reaching for they might glance at
it and the next question they're asking
you is do you need cutlery so if you
need it you can again say yes or hi or
onigaishimasu if you don't need them to
warm it up then you can just say no very
helpful as well uh that's a no so use
body language if you don't speak the
language that way you can communicate
regardless from there you got cold items
so you got sandwiches or as they're
called here sando which i love it just
sends like sand oh
within these categories every single
location will have some ubiquitous items
that you can get every location however
on top of that they'll have their own
specialty brand items so there's like
7-eleven snacks that are like the
7-eleven version there's the family mart
snacks and these are only available at
those chains so people get very you know
like argumentative about what their
favorite place is like i have a favorite
place to go for pasta like i prefer
lawson's pasta lost in pasta lost since
pasta lawson's now it sounds like a
funny word say it with me lawson's
pastas and each shop will have basics
like everyone has an egg salad sandwich
but people will fight over which one has
the best one everybody will have like a
tuna mayo onigiri but everybody will
fight over what they think is the best
one and then some will have specialty
items one of my favorites was magoki
gohan onigiri which is like an egg
that's been mixed with like soy sauce
and it gets all creamy and it's normally
a dish that you get but they made it
into like an onigiri format and i could
never it's always sold out but i used to
go in the morning um to the hospital
with my friend anna and she would help
me and we would get them on the way
there we'd always be like yeah we got
them and then they were gone
limited edition so even if you visited
japan before and you've gone to a
convenient don't think that the stuff
that you had is going to still be there
it's always changing you want to know
what else can beanies have in japan
alcohol i mean so much alcohol bourbon
vodka whiskey you've got things like
shochu sake you've got red wine and
white wine is it the highest uh most
expensive wine no the most expensive
wine you're going to get at a convenient
is around i would say 12
and you can also get a bottle of wine
for five dollars and you know what it's
not that bad if i have to be honest with
you i also use an aerator which um helps
out all red wines and also really good
for cooking but outside of heart alcohol
they have canned items if you've ever
heard anybody talking about things like
strong zeros basically it looks like a
wall of soda they're all different
flavors so it's kind of like
mysterious alcohol mixed with lemon or
grapefruit or they do seasonal items
which are always like terrifying like
they have grape which is so sweet or
like peach you can also get like rum
mixed with soda water lemon sours which
is like uh kind of like a
japanese alcohol mixed with like a sour
lemon there's beer of all different
kinds some convenience stores will have
craft beers and have like glass beer
bottles and others will just do like the
normal beers like when you buy them
you'll get to the front cash and the
screen will pop up and say are you 20
years of old and you press yes because
because you are right you're not going
there to underage drink so depending on
the style of person you are some people
will stick to conbini drinking for their
entire evening which i don't really
recommend because it can lead to some
pretty nasty hangovers some people will
go there for the pre-drink they'll go
there just to get like a couple drinks
started before they go somewhere else
and some people will make incredibly bad
decisions and go to convenience stores
after they've spent the night drinking
being like i'm not drunk and then they
buy strong zeros and it will give you a
very strong um hangover so
mom
look away
i've made all of these mistakes in my
time in japan so i feel like i've i have
a strong respect and understanding for
such beverages you will also be able to
use a convenience store to buy concert
tickets
sporting events you want to go to a
baseball game if you want to go to the
ghibli museum you got to go to a
convenience store so there are machines
that are usually located to your right
or left when you walk in they're called
loppies loppi i think and they have all
these different options available for
you to buy these tickets some machines
have english and some of them don't so
it can be a bit complicated you might be
able to get an app on your phone to help
you kind of translate your way through
it and i'm sure there are millions of
websites now available that if you look
up like how to buy studio ghibli they
kind of walk you through it but you do
need to go there to actually buy them so
what else can a convenience store do
well if you're living in japan you're
going to be using it to do things like
pay your bills so your gas bills and
your water bills it'll arrive in your
mailbox and you'll take this with you to
the convenience store and you just walk
up to the front and hand it to them and
the person will know what to do they're
going to scan it they're going to stamp
it they're going to tell you the price
you're going to pay for it and then they
will stamp it and they'll rip it and
they'll give you the parts that you need
to keep
and if you are living in japan you will
also need to go to a convenience store
to buy the tickets that you need if you
want to throw away large furniture items
so if you've got like a couch or a
fridge and you're not selling it and you
want to throw it away you have to get a
special sticker that then goes on to the
item that says that you've paid the
amount of money needed for people to
pick it up so you go to the convenience
stores and you're choosing between like
a small medium or large size item you
can look up the information for which
size the item is and what sticker you
need to get online it will depend on the
neighborhood you're living in so every
neighborhood has like different rules
you can also get tickets for like night
buses if you need to photocopy something
if you don't have a printer but you need
to print an item some places even have
photo printers for your pictures so you
can bring your your like usb in and you
can actually print at them now the final
thing i'm gonna mention about
convenience stores is gonna be their
chicken that's right i am mentioning
their chicken the first time i came to
japan visiting from korea i was hanging
out with my friend zach and becky and my
friend zach was like oh we're hungry we
gotta get some food why don't we got
some fried chicken and i was like we're
gonna get fried chicken from 7-eleven
like what are you talking about that's
like a diary written all over it but no
it does not
every conbini has like this little
display case with all different types of
chicken they have like chicken breast
they'll have chicken nuggets they will
have a chicken on a stick they'll have
special edition chicken with ume
uh like
english and japanese together
pickled plum that's been mushed up and
it's like a sour pickle jam and shiso
leaf which is like sesame leaf but the
japanese version inside of it wrapped in
fried every place has its own version
and people will like argue and fight
over who makes the best fried chicken
but it is worth giving it a go i would
say try it out in the morning in the
afternoon in the evening you'll see them
often like frying and cooking but i
think there's a cut-off time where the
chicken will just kind of be the end of
the day chicken but it's never the day
before chicken it's always like from
that day and now that it's uh autumn
time in japan the oden is out those are
those uh fish cakes and radishes that
have been boiled in like a dashi broth
and they'll put them into like a
container for you and you can stand
outside and be like oh then warms my
soul so i hope this little introduction
a little tldr if you will about
convenience has convinced you that
convenience stores around the world are
not the same i would love to hear in the
comment section below have you been to a
conbini in japan and if you have what
blew your mind about it and if you
haven't what country you're from and
what convenience stores are like maybe
i'm wrong maybe in europe convenience
stores are like amazing and baller and
everyone goes there for pre-made meals
or maybe
i get the sinking suspicion it's similar
to north america where convenience
stores are not where you go for a
healthy wholesome meal
otherwise i'm going to do a little bit
of convenience
over to my king koki youtube channel
and thank you again to trade coffee for
sponsoring this video i cannot express
how happy i am that i get to share a
coffee sponsorship with you guys because
you know how much i love coffee being
able to work and taste different types
of coffee and to suggest coffee to you
guys makes me feel really really happy
uh
just
just makes me makes me very happy thanks
for watching everybody and see you over
on king kogi
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