So, today was the day we all hit Costco in Makuhari! Rieko and her 2 kids, and another friend of ours, whose child also attends the same yochien as Branden and who will also be showing up for Friday's BBQ. Her name is Mayumi! And me! This was sadly the only picture I snapped yesterday during our trip. I think just so much going on. And add the fact, I hadn't been to Costco in month's. So I had so much to see. And they had never been to this place, so they had so much to look at as well. We went up and down every single aisle. Upstairs, I didn't buy much except for some toilet paper and some Cascade dish washing detergent. But the food floor, the first floor was a different story because I had so much to get. But then, in my defense (not that I really need to defend myself but, he he) we hadn't been there in ages! : )
Most of this stuff is for our family to consume, not for the BBQ. Avocados, are for guacamole dip, and they are cheap as chips to buy them at Costco, versus buying them at my local Japanese store. Celery, cheaper for me to buy here and great for making peanut butter celery sticks for snacks for the boys. Zucchini, we all love this at our house and it's cheap to buy at Costco. The potatoes, we bought here for the BBQ. We will be having baked potatoes for the BBQ.
The eggs were free because I had to renew our membership and we did it early which is why we got free eggs. With this many eggs, not quite sure what we can do with these many? Maybe eggs for breakfasts this week, over easy, omelets. Some hard boiled for snacks and maybe even egg salad, who knows. but I will have to finish up all these eggs soon. And no way, would I pass up free eggs. It's the cheapskate in me, ha haha. So we will just have to figure out how to consume all of them. Ha ha ha. : )
Snack things. Not too many. Three bags of tortilla chips. Two of these are for the BBQ on Friday. And the other one is for our regular family use. Goldfish cheese crackers. Well over 2 pounds of these things! Our Costco just started carrying these and I like that they are a healthy snack for the kids. Better then eating candy. So I didn't mind so much getting the goldfish crackers for my boys. Plus they will last a long time. And Reese's Pieces is now at Costco Makuhari now! They weren't there, all these years I shopped there and they sure as heck weren't there a few month's ago, when I was there either! So, when I saw them on the Flying Pig website last week. I knew if I saw them at my Costco, I would be buying a bag, 100% sure! I purposely strolled the candy aisle, quietly thinking, *please oh please* have my fav candy, Reese's Pieces!!! And sure as heck they did! I grabbed a bag and it's well over 2 pounds worth of my favorite little treat! I think they were like 900 some odd yen. But definitely affordable enough for me to always buy myself a bag whenever I head to Makuhari from now on! Triple score for the Reese's Pieces! And if you count the celery sticks which we bought for making celery sticks with peanut butter, pictured somewhere up above, you will know we are peanut butter crazy at our house, ha ha ha : )
Bakery and fresh stuff: I brought home a baked peperoni pizza for dinner for my family for last nights dinner! A very cheap dinner! Those delicious yeasty dinner rolls. I, as usual split them in thirds and put 2 of the bags into the freezer already! And choco croissants, yumm!
Frozen waffles, Branden eats these when school is in session. Not sure if I will be back before September 1st, *probably not*, so I bought them now. 2 packs of American bacon. So good, and if it was cheaper, I'd buy more, but 2 is good enough. And 2 packs of flour tortillas, great for quesadillas or sandwich wraps. And from the deli area, I picked up some chicken enchiladas! I will be eating those enchiladas for lunch shortly. Ha ha! : )
Now this right here, is all for the BBQ! We bought 4 slabs of pork ribs! I picked the 4 cheapest ones, they were pretty affordable. They ranged from 1210 yen to, I think a whopping, 1330 yen. For you in the US, that's about $12.00 US per slab. We bought 2 KG (about 4 pounds I think or somewhere about that) of chicken breasts. And a big amount of lean ground beef. We will be cooking up about, sheesh about 30 or so cheeseburgers come Friday, 4 slabs of BBQ ribs, and marinated yakiniku type chicken. So we have a lot of meat! When I left Costco Makuhari, I think there was only 1 slab of ribs still there, as we left, but the rest we took! Ha ha ha! Sorry, anyone else who goes looking for the ribs this week at Costco Makuhari. Gomen nasai! (bows head apologetically)
Pace picante sauce for dipping into our tortilla chips come Friday. And goma dressing for the BBQ, but also frankly, we use so much goma ourselves with salads for our own family dinners. I figured it would be just cheaper for me to buy this giant bottle of it. That way, we can stop running to the store every week to buy another little one, little Mc Cormick one is nearly 300 yen and this big giant Kewpie one was under 600 yen or so, so it was cheaper to just buy this giant one. Now we are set for goma all summer long, no doubt, ha ha ha!
Toilet paper, I need unscented. Not really sure why, nearly every roll I can buy at the regular grocery store in Japan are always scented with something (grapes, peach, roses, mint etc). I'm quite sensitive down there. And I don't want to rub perfume down there, sorry if it's TMI. But sheesh. I need unscented. Meanwhile Japanese like scented TP. So it's just easier for me to buy the kind at Costco, it's unscented, enough said. Ha ha ha, hangs her head in shame for saying all that! : ) And paper plates for the BBQ.
For those of you not in Japan. The price of a can of coke, is normally 120 yen. Think about $1.20 for one can of soda! So it's not surprising that I buy a case of generic Costco brand coke whenever I head to Costco. This time I bought 2 cases. The cases are around 525 yen a case. Could be 565 a case, forgive me for not memorizing or knowing the price down to the yen, but it's about that. : )
All in all, we all had a blast going and shopping together! They *loved* Costco! My friend, Rie-san bought, a really cute long hug pillow for her daughter. It's pink and has the Disney princesses stitched on it. Air fresheners or something like that from upstairs, I forget. A bottle of wine, those mini boxes of Kellogg's cereal, a big bottle of oil, sunflower oil from Italy, and a few other things. The other one didn't buy anything, I don't think.
Most of the stuff I bought was for our own family's usage. And I felt sorta embarrassed buying so much. I found myself wincing at myself. And cringing! Ha ha ha! I worried, oh my god! I hope they don't think we are eating maniacs or anything! Or I worried if they thought, we buy this same amount every month or something. Which we don't, heck we don't even get to Costco too much as most of you friends who read this, know. Oh man was I embarrassed. I told them, I only come here every 3 month's. Still cringing at myself. Hoping they wouldn't think, sheesh that American bought *so* much food!!! Ha ha ha. How embarrassing! But then on the other hand, I did have to buy it, it was my only chance to be there this summer, so I had to take it. Catch 22 here. They didn't seem to mind so much though. Phew! : ) They were actually pretty cool about it!
But anyway, the meat is for the BBQ, and it's nice to know we are getting ready for it, this coming Friday! : ) Anyway sorry for the completely mundane post. What could possibly be more boring then grocery shopping right? But oh well. That is what I really did yesterday. So I thought I better post it anyways! : )
And if you are a fellow expat like me and you live far from Costco, and you ignore the meat bought for the BBQ because that doesn't count, I really didn't buy so much really. Just comforts from home is all. Comforts from home, make living in Japan, so much easier don't they? : )
I am also placing an order from the FBC this evening as well. Because I want to buy 1 pack of phonics flash cards for Branden. A phonics CD with book. And Costco sells some phonics stuff but not like FBC has at all, FBC has more. And I want a few other comforts from home, type food that Costco simply doesn't sell, so I will be buying these tonight. FBC does sell stuff that Costco doesn't and vice versus and to be fair they also sell some stuff that is the same. For instance though, at FBC they sell Italian sausage (I buy this a lot and I looked for it yesterday at Costco and they don't sell it) Anyway you all, I am starting to babble here! So I better cut this thing off!
Have a wonderful night everyone! : )
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