Conbini Food, Oh Oh!

I'd have to say, by far, one of my favorite things about Japan is the food. Possibly that's the reason I gained about 4kg in Japan. And the fact I visited a conbini every 3rd day didn't help much at all.

Well for those who may not know, conbini or konbini is the Japanese term for convenience stores. Conbini happen to greatly differ from their American counter-parts in the sheer amount and variety of goods offered. You can go buy your favorite porn mag, grab some sushi and pocky for dinner and replace your torn socks. The local conbini (there's usually one every 2 or 3 blocks) is really a one-stop shop, and truely lives up to the name convenience so it comes to no surprise that they flurishing in Japan. The top three conbini are: 7/11, Lawson, and Family Mart. Some other common conbini are AMPM, Mini-Stop and Sunkus. For more info on conbini, look here and here.

The conbini I frequented most often were Lawons, 7/11 and Ministop (in that order) location did play a hand in what conbini I went too most often at first, but after awhile you find there's items carried by only one chain of conbini. Often I'd find myself walking a couple extra blocks just to get that particular drink or that certain pan.

The following are come conbini food I loved -
Pan (bread): Bread in Japan is far more then just white or wheat. It includes all sorts of sweet, filled, fried and unusual bread products. One of my personal goals in Japan was to eat as many different type of pan as I could. Sadly I was often side-tracked by pan I knew I already liked. My favorites are melon pan, and cream pan.

Banana Castella: this is a (usually) banana shaped fried castella cake filled with a mashed up, sweet banana filling. See the image to the left. I first tried this by recommendation, Shouma thought I would like it and like it I did. After the first time I tried it, I couldn't find it for awhile and I found it again at a Mini-stop. I also found a bag of mini banana castellas shaped like animals for 100yen at Sunkus. It is perhaps one of my most favorite items.

Chips: Japan as a wonderful and wide variety of chips available, in just about any flavor you can imagine. I did find it difficult to get cheese flavors however. Most were delicious, or at least interesting. The only variety I really disliked was Doritos Pizza-La flavor. See this link for a great over-view of some Japanese chips.

Apple juice: Apple juice in Japan is an entirely different affair than it is in America. It's think, strong and pulpy. It's not nearly as sweet, but it's way more tasty. The closest juice I had to American apple juice was produced by Fanta, but it was carbonated.

Onigiri: Rice balls, usually triangular in shape and covered in portion by a piece of seaweed. They can be filled with a variety of food including pickled plum, fish, or even chicken! I really liked the chicken onigiri I had on the way to Narita airport, even though it was one of the worst days of my life haha.

Green tea ice cream: Just as the title implies, this is green tea flavored ice cream, and it's just lovely. I usually bought a single serving size, touted as having only 80 calories. I have also heard of sweet potatoe and mochi ice creams, I wish I could've tried those ones as well. But squid ink ice cream ... I'll pass.

Strawberry, banana and vanilla milk: I bought one of these almost everyday. They are usually very delicately sweet and just make you happy as you drink them. The strawberry flavor is apparently too girly for Shouma, but banana is ok.

Well that's all the food I can think of right now, it always makes me hungry when I think about Japanese food. I think America really lacks the innovativeness and openess to create varied food items like Japan. But I think more and more people become interested in unique and international food all the time so perhaps we can look forward to Japanese food being more widely offered here in America someday!