When I am in Japan for a few months, I buy food in the supermarket. I don’t eat in restaurants every single day. From now and then I go and eat Doria, seafood, McDonals, Sushi, etc. In the hostel, I have my own little refrigerator where I store food that I buy in the supermarket.
Eating Simple at the Hostel
I like food that I don’t need to spend time making, aka ready-made food in most part. For example, one of the things that I really like is just buying a pack of veggies and put a tasty sauce on top. There is plenty of tasty sauces that I like in the nearby Supermarket.
The veggies are both tasty and of course healthy. They cost only ¥90 a pack (what you see in the photo). I buy a sauce to inject some tasty flavor into it and I eat them cold. This is my snack, I don’t eat sweets.
I prefer eating light so I sleep well. Eating well helps me feel light and not hurt sleep. If I can’t sleep, it can turn night to day and day tonight and I don’t want that.
Made My Own Spaghetti Meal 🙂
Another thing that I enjoy eating is the spaghetti that I buy in the supermarket. It’s in the box, I just put it in the Microwave. I put inside an egg (I buy it bear the hostel, 5 eggs for 100 Yen I think. Then I buy sweet potato, and I have a full meal.
The cost of that meal is ¥250 for the spaghetti, ¥20 egg, ¥200 sweet potato. For around ¥470 you get a tasty, healthy and satisfactory meal.
About once or two times a week I buy one of those packages of ready-food/fast-food. For example, meat nuggets. In that Japanese supermarket where I usually buy my food, there are plenty of offerings. I just choose something different every time. It can be rice with curry sauce, potatoes, etc.
I Love Sushi
I also like eating Sushi. I buy a few of those Sushi packs. They are very cheap in Japan compared to where I come from. Of course, this is not restaurant-grade sushi but still very tasty. The Sushi packs cost between ¥100 to ¥600 on average, depends on what you take.
I also buy soy sauce, a big bottle, which cost ~¥500 but lasts forever. I still had 50% left when I left Japan and only bought one in my 3-month stay.
What About Drinks?
Well, this is where I allow myself to get a bit “crazy”. I love natural juices. I usually buy orange juice. raspberry juice and pineapple juice. I also enjoy drinking beer from time to time and Japanese beer are amazing.
When you have a little fridge in the room, nothing like taking a break and opening a cold drink to freshen up. I always have several bottles of mineral water in the room as well.
So that’s about it in general. Of course, I mix things but overall I try to eat light. Of course, when I am outdoors, I try different things from time to time.
I am not a Foodie 🙂
Foodies will probably laugh at this post. Well, this is a cost-effective way and I do enjoy the things that I eat and drink. So overall, I am not complaining.
The price of food in supermarkets in Japan is very affordable and there is a large selection of items. The only problem is understanding what the product is because many things are written in Japanese. I use Google Translate to translate Japanese to English on products, it does help.
I wonder if I’ll continue to keep the same eating habits or I’ll mix things up differently this time around.