Hey guys! So I got an unexpected package in the mail the other day and it
reminded me that I really wanted to make another video! I made a similar video
years ago about how food in Japan really isn't that expensive...
I get lots of comments from people that either came here on vacation or they
used to live here and they say that they couldn't stand how expensive food was
here and I thought it was ridiculous
While some things are expensive I'll be showing you some examples of things
that I also feel are ridiculously expensive
However most things that you need on a daily basis you can get for really
reasonable prices and sometimes a lot cheaper than in Canada
The package that I got in the mail, lemme show you guys because this is just really amazing
So this arrived and it was from my friend and I opened it up and I saw this
and it's like a melon pamphlet and then inside was Hello Kitty holding a melon
and I had a feeling this was one of those specialty melons with like Hello Kitty
face on it or something but I wasn't sure because I knew those are really freaking expensive
And I open it up...
Ta-da!! And it was!
So as you can see this is a melon that has been grown so
Hello Kitty's face will be imprinted on the skin of the melon
These sell for 5500 yen
I have no idea what the current exchange rate is but i'll put the American price
in here after I look it up. But that's a lot of money for a melon
Now if you go into stores, grocery stores here you will find lots of fruit that
has insane prices at least for what I'm used to say in canada or other countries
that I've been to. Japanese fruit seems very expensive and then you'll see
things like this
Hello Kitty melon on news sites saying that it cost 5000 yen and
you'll get this weird impression that japanese food is really freaking
expensive! But honestly stuff like rice, seaweed, miso paste, soy sauce
anything that is typical Japanese diet is going to be really cheap
A lot cheaper than say going shopping at a japanese grocery store in Canada
or something
So if you can eat Japanese food while you're here
it's going to be really cheap for you! So don't come to Japan and expect to be
able to get foreign foods like say oatmeal or chia seeds or quinoa
you know stuff that Japanese people don't normally eat! Those kind of things
you're not going to be able to find in regular grocery stores
first off... and if you do find them they're probably going to be very expensive
But I'm going to tell you guys 2 places where you can get foreign
foods for a lot cheaper!
Those are the two places that I do lots of my shopping because there are lots of
foreign foods that I like to include in my diet
Ok, so the first awesome website that I wanna tell you guys about is iHerb.com
Now my friends and people on Twitter
and in the comments on YouTube had been recommending me this site for probably
over two years now and I was lazy and I didn't check it until recently when I
really wanted to get some nutritional yeast, I think was the reason that I
originally looked into it. But I feel really stupid for not doing it until now
because that site is SO CHEAP! You can get amazing prices on stuff and
I think for Japan if you order over $40 worth of groceries or products
it will be free shipping to Japan and the prices are amazing to begin with and
then with the free shipping it's just like shopping in canada with even a
better deal
so I'm just mind-blown! You can get foreign products, you can get lots of
health foods, lots of vegetarian and vegan stuff that you normally wouldn't
be able to get in grocery stores here. So iHerb.com is just a really awesome
website! So, THANK YOU iHerb.com people for making your website
and I have no idea how you make any money
I'm blown away that you can run a business with these prices
Couple things that I get from that website all the time are nutritional yeast flakes
They probably sound disgusting if you have no idea what these are. I guess you
could call them like a parmesan cheese replacement! I put this on my pasta
and what else do I put this on... anything where I want kind of like a cheesy taste and
And plus they're fortified with additional B-vitamins so... It gives it a nice flavour
and they have lots of vitamins in them and yeah it's just really healthy for you
And I also get my acai powder from iHerb.com
now I went shopping at a grocery store with Taylor recently
They do have some products that you aren't able to find on iHerb
and in the other place i'm gonna be talking about in a sec so it is good if
you're looking for like a certain product, however it's very very expensive
The one thing that I did buy there was fresh bread! They had a bakery with some
nice bread, so I do get some breads from there and pitas! They have great pitas!
But again pretty expensive! So I saw this acai powder at that grocery store and it
was approximately 5,000 yen and I just thought that was way too much. I didn't
want to pay that. I figured I'll just go home and look online so I looked it up
on iHerb and it was like 2000 yen or something!
More than half price (off... is what I meant to say)
and I think that's an awesome price for what it is. There's tons in here!
I add it to my smoothies and I make acai bowls with it and it's very healthy
for you so that's just great that I can get it such a cheap price even though
i'm in Japan where people don't normally eat this kind of stuff
I forgot to mention that i get my raw plant-based protein powder from iHerb and this is
just amazing!! My friend Val recommended it to me THANK YOU VAL
This stuff is really really great
it's chocolate flavor it tastes super good! I like to add a scoop of it to my
smoothies in the morning
add some peanut butter to it that also tastes amazing
and this stuff is soy and gluten free, dairy free obviously, and its raw so it
works for lots of different diets
it's just really good stuff you can use it both pre and post-workout and yeah I
think you guys would really like this so if you're looking for a good plant based
protein powder super recommend this one and iHerb has a really good price
a lot cheaper than the price that I found on amazon!
Another random product that I got off there, freeze-dried beet juice
I don't know... honestly I don't know why i got it, I think i was just really craving
beets and I thought I'll just get some beet juice powder and i'll make a beet
drink instead. It kind of tastes like dirt
but in a good way...? If that makes sense...
it tastes like beets, so if you know what beets taste like, that's what it tastes like
it's actually kind of yummy, I was surprised! And again very
healthy for you! So just like random stuff like that, that you normally
wouldn't be able to find in a grocery store here, if you want to get them at
amazing prices check out iherb.com and I have a coupon for $5 off your
order so if you use this code here you can get $5 off your order
You'll get $5 off, $5 will get donated to a charity and I will
get a percentage of sales
So 3 of us benefit, the company loses money, I don't get it... I honestly don't
get how this website works but I'm just gonna be happy that it exists because i
love it so much! So yes! iHerb.com! I love it!
I've only heard amazing things about this website from people
Their shipping is quick (to Japan anyway is very quick) Thumbs up all
around! Great website!
Now the other place where you can get foreign foods and foreign produce which
is also really cool like fruits and vegetables, is Costco! Yes there's Costco
in Japan! There are several of them across Japan
I went on a road trip recently and on the way home we were passing a Costco
so I decided to go and get a membership and we bought $400 worth
of groceries. But most of them are obviously like non-perishables, like in
cans and stuff that we can open up later on a little bit at a time... but I also got
lots of fruits that I'm going to show you guys!
Stuff, again, that you can't normally get in grocery stores here that you can
get for awesome prices at Costco!
Organic blueberries from America
Raspberries from America
Organic spring mix
Really big pack, this is so awesome!
Organic stuff in general is very hard to find here
a six-pack of mangoes from Mexico
Yum!
Organic blackberry and chia seed drinks, 12-pack
Lots of jalapeños! Eee!
Cranberry juice! Another thing that is very difficult to find here
5 year supply of oatmeal
Organic pasta sauces
and some B-vitamins
So those are some of the things that I got from Costco. There's just so much stuff
you can get there, that you can't normally get in a supermarket here! So if you're
looking for that kind of like "foreign food stuff" that Japanese people don't
normally eat, then costco is an amazing place to go shopping! Great prices
huge portions! The package sizing is huge of course, because it's Costco, but
if you live here it's great you can just stock up and go there like, I don't know
every couple months and you'll be good right? Even if it is far away from where
you live
so yeah I totally recommend iHerb.com and Costco if you're looking to buy
foreign foods. Probably do not try to get them in specialty supermarkets you're
going to be paying a lot more than you have to
and if you're just looking to save money in general stay away from foreign foods
and go for japanese stuff like rice and seaweed and miso soup and all that good
stuff and you'll be fine. Honestly, like living here is not insanely expensive
like everybody else makes it out to be! At least the food part of it. The things
that are expensive here are stuff like taxes like city tax
and income tax, health insurance, all those kind of things will really take a
humongous chunk out of your paycheck D; But food is actually very reasonable
So don't let people tell you that food in Japan is crazy and you're going to need
all this money if you're just coming here on vacation. In general
the food is cheap! So don't let people tell you otherwise!
I hope this video is helpful for you guys :) If you have any other tips
regarding places to get cheap food in Japan leave them down below for
everybody to see and i'll see you guys soon!
Thanks for watching! Bye! <3
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