Grocery store finds

We have a new grocery store in the area.  I'm always intrigued to see a new store.  Some are super fun and I find all kinds of interesting things.  This one did not disappoint.

This store requires you to pay a refundable deposit to use the carts in the store.  I've seen this in Korea, but this is the first time in Japan.  Just put the ¥100 coin in the slot and press it into the machine.  The key holding it to the other carts released.  To get your coin back, just reinsert the key from another cart.

Here are just a few products that made me stop and ponder who decided to make these things and how did they ever get past market testing?  My curious mind wants to know.

The drink refrigerator was stocked full of interesting beverages that I've never seen before.  Banana chocolate milk, kiwi or acerola chia seed concoctions, milk tea and café latte with tapioca, and (the most interesting of all) lemon milk.  How the lemon milk isn't a curdled mess, I have no idea.  My husband bought this one and reported, unsurprisingly, that it wasn't very good.

There were some fun chip flavors, too.  The most interesting to me was the mentaiko pizza combination.  Mentaiko is pollak roe or cod eggs.  There was also a ramen flavor.  I've been seeing a lot more ramen flavored recently, as it is the current flavor fad.

On the bread shelves, there was something eyebrow raising for me - sandwiches.  Unrefrigerated sandwiches containing shrimp, fish, and a big potato croquette.  There were also cheeseburgers and teriyaki burgers on the shelf.  I can't even fathom how many preservatives are in these to make them shelf-stable.  It grosses me out.

The most eye raising think I saw in the store was canned whale.  It is such a controversial meat, that I'm not inclined to discuss right now.  But it is here.  It can be found.  It is not rare or unusual in Japan. 

To wrap up our trip to the store, we were surprised to find a new flavor of Kit Kats just in time for Easter (a holiday that is starting to gain momentum in Japan, purely for its association to chocolate).  This time, I couldn't bring myself to purchase the Kit Kats.  Banana flavor is not my cup of tea.

So there were some winners and some losers when perusing the shelves.  But regardless of what went home in my basket, I had a good time being curious and seeing something new.