厚木見物第六: スーパー Atsugi City Tour Part 6: Super Markets

Good Day Ladies and Sirs,

today I will give you some overview of where to get your groceries in Atsugi. The prices between supermarkets vary really much, and it is advisable to pick a cheap one, that satisfies your needs and offers enough quality. Let's see what we have in this town. I will order them by average prize from cheapest to most expensive.

1. 100 Yen Grocery Super Market

Going westwards from the north exit of the station following the rail tracks, you can get to a 100 Yen store specializing in groceries. It is the cheapest you can find, but the selection is quite limited and the quality is not really the best. Anyway it offers a lot other supermarket offer too to much cheaper prices.

My advice is to start a grocery shopping spree here and then get what you are still missing at another supermarket nearby.

I recommend buying spices here



they also have some cleaning utensils

2. 100 Yen Miscellaneous Stuff Store

Another very useful store can be found in イトーヨーカドー (Itouyoukadou). Like the previous store it is a 100 Yen store, but it focuses on every day life articles, instead of food. That means here you can get all kinds of pen & paper articles, tape, wrapping paper, tools, pots, cutlery, cups, glasses and all kinds of cooking utensils. But also rain coats, bike repair stuff, and outdoor equipment. It is really useful stuff and you are going to save a lot of money buying it here.

tape



electronics



glasses



cups



pen & paper articles



lunch boxes

3. イトーヨーカドー Itouyoukadou

In the Basement of イトーヨーカドー Itouyoukadou you can find another super market. It offers a good selection and the cheapest prices after the 100 Yen Super Market. The Quality is also ok.

4. Saty

In the Basement of Saty you can find the super market in Atusgi with the broadest selection and best quality. However the prices are higher than in イトーヨーカドー Itouyoukadou and a shopping spree here can cost you a lot. Still it was my most frequently visited super market, since I was able to find almost anything I needed here.

real pasta and tomato sauce



good selection of Japanese tea



I always bought my rice here: 1 kg, 2kg or even 5 kg

lots of fresh vegetables and fruits



however concerning fruits Bananas are the only affordable fruit in Japan



sauces for Yakisoba or Okonomiyaki (see my recipies category)



paste for Miso soup



Yaki Soba



cheap non genetically engineered Tofu



and Nato

5. Kimisawa

This super market's selection is worse than the previous two and the prices are the highest in Atusgi. However it lies conveniently close to the Youth Heim, Asahi Kasei interns are stationed in. Therefore it's your best choice, when living in 岡田 Okada and needing something very quickly or being to lazy to go all the way to the city center.

6. My Lord Food Market

In the basement of My Lord (right below Hon Atsugi Station) you can find a lot of stores. But two of the stick out and are worth mentioning, because the offer imported goods from all parts of the world. For example you can find real müsli (muesli) and cheese there. Apart from that my shopping list there contained: herbal tea, olives (other super markets have them, but here they a big jar is only 200Yen), mustard, and sweets from other countries.

成城石井

a good selection of sweets



and imported goods like Sauerkraut or Pickles



I always bought my muesli here

Kaldi

has affordable olives



a good selection of jam





and a lot of tea (also fair trade organic tea!)

7. 晴れ屋 The Sunshine Store

Mentioned before in the first part of the Atsugi City Tour, the fair trade store close to Saty and Parco also offers a nice variety of food. The prices are a little higher than those at Saty or Itouyoukadou, but the quality is of course the best (organic food), you are buying fair trade (the people planting and harvesting the food get your money) and you can even find a lot of Items, you will not find elsewhere (e.g. vegetable soup stock, vegetable curry, ...)

apples are actually cheaper than in Saty

地図 Map

I prepared a Google Map, to show you the locations of the super markets. You can find it here.

Feel free to edit it and add your own recommendations, also be sure to add them here in the comments! :)


Good Shopping, Good Cooking, Good Eating
mika

厚木見物第五: 郵便局 Atsugi City Tour Part 5: Post Office

郵便局 Post Office

Welcome to more useful information about the town Atsugi in the Kanagawa prefecture.
Since I presume many people, who will read this Blog are foreigners staying in Atsugi, they might sooner or later want to send some packages overseas to their home or family. So I'd like to give you some information about post offices in Atsugi.

There are enough post offices, that you doesn't make sense telling you the location of all of the offices. There should be one near you, just ask someone living in your area for the next post office:

次の郵便局はどこですか。
tsugi no yuubinkyoku ha doko desu ka?
Where is the next post office?

What you can do at any of those post offices:
- withdraw money from oversea accounts (usually not possible in banks)
- transfer money to oversea accounts (also usually only possible here)
- get stamps
- send letters, post cards
- send air mail and SAL packages

Useful enough. But there is one thing you might sooner or later want to do: Sea Mail.
Now I went to several post offices only to be sent away with: "We're sorry, but we don't do Sea Mail". So I did a little research and found there is only one single post office in Atusgi accepting sea mail packages: the main store (郵便局本局 Yuubinkyoku Honkyoku)

Now sea mail might be really slow and take between 2-3 months to arrive, but it is significantly cheaper and you will have some things to send home that are not urgent. SAL and air mail can cost up to four times the price of sea mail.

Long story short, here's a Google Map, where I pinpointed the post office main store:
郵便局本局 Post Office Main Store

Last but not least, some vocabulary, you might need:

Air Mail 航空便 koukuubin
Sea Mail 船便 funabin
Stamps for overseas 外国のため切手 gaikoku no tame kitte
post card 葉書 hagaki
letter 手紙 tegami
destination address 届け先 todoke saki
sender 差出人 sashidashinin
how long does it take to arrive いつぐらい着きますか。 itsu gurai tsukimasuka?
　
Good Luck and tell me when you need help

mika

厚木見物第四: 日本語授業 Atsugi City Tour Part 4: Japanese Classes

I was asked in another post to give some more info about the Japanese classes in Atsugi, as in where and when they are.

All Japanese classes I name here are free and can be visited without prior application. Just go to the named place a the named time and you can join one group fitting your current level. Depending on the day there are 2-6 different skill level groups in each class. Don't feel afraid to join even if you don't speak any Japanese yet.

月曜日 Monday
Name さつき(Satsuki)
Place 総合福祉センター４階(General Public Welfare Center 4th floor)
Time 18:30 - 20:00

水曜日 Wednesday
Name あゆみ(Ayumi)
Place 勤労福祉センター(Workers Welfare Center)
Time 19:00 - 21:00

木曜日 Thursday
Name さくら(Sakura)
Place 総合福祉センター５階(General Public Welfare Center 5th floor)
Time 18:30 - 20:00

土曜日 Saturday
Name 赤とんぼ(Akatonbo)
Place あつぎパートナーセンター３階(Atsugi Partner Center 3rd floor)
Time 9:30 - 11:00

Name グループ日本語(Group Nihongo)
Place 緑が丘公民館(Midorigaoka Community Center)
Time 19:00 - 20:30

日曜日 Sunday
Name 厚木日本語クラス(Atsugi Nihongo Class)
Place 勤労福祉センター(Workers Welfare Center)
Time 14:30 - 16:00

地図 Map
I created a Google Map with all the locations above, so you can easily find your class. You can find the map here: Atsugi Japanese Classes Map.

I hope this information is useful to you and I wish you the best in learning this wonderful language!

頑張って Ganbatte!
mika

厚木見物第三： アニメと漫画 Atsugi City Tour Part 3: Anime And Manga

Care to see some more of my town in Japan?
In case you have some interest in Anime and Manga, today I will introduce some stores where you can buy Manga and Anime, but also merchandising and figures (both for which Japan is famous for).

Animate

Animate is the biggest Anime, Manga merchandise chain in Japan and you can find a store of it in almost every city, even in Atsugi. Of course they're also selling real Manga and Anime DVDs. This is a good spot to go if you want some cheap or mid priced merchandising for yourself or as a present for some friend who is into Anime/Manga, but does not live in Japan.

Yurindo

Yurindo is Atsugi's biggest book store. And not surprisingly Japanese book stores often have one floor entirely dedicated to Manga. So this is your first address in Atsugi to look for new Manga. They have a huge selection and you will be able to find a lot.

Book-Off

Book-Off is Japan's largest second hand book store. They also have quite a lot of Manga, which you can get a lot cheaper here. They are usually sold in a condition, which you and I couldn't distinguish from new.

Takaharaya

Takaharaya is maybe Atsugi's oldest Toy Store. I found it by change, as I was striving around the city. When I went it and looked around I found myself chatting to the old lady, who owns the store, for over an hour. She told me that this store is around for over 40 years selling toys. Since 10 years it changed with the time and its customers and now mainly sells Anime/Manga figures, toys and some rare merchandising.
The woman told me some interesting stories about how people and their taste changed over the years. She also told me, that when she started working here, there were always a lot of birds greeting her in the morning, sitting and flying around in front of the store. Now she hasn't seen or heard a single bird in years. "The animals of this city are dying out", she said. And she is really afraid of the future we are heading to. She also feels very sorry for future generations and is sad about in which condition our generations hands over this planet to the next.
Talking with her was not only interesting, but also refreshing, since Japanese usually don't talk about such things and are very careful to blame someone or criticize something. I guess however this mainly counts for the younger generations, while the older generations having lived through the rebuilding of Japan after the war or even the war itself have quite a more objective view on the world and live itself.

Finally she told me that her hobby is to raise insect bugs. A hobby still very common in Japan. Because of that she sometimes gathers insect eggs in forests around Atsugi, raises them herself (the raising of a big bug takes about one year, she said) and then sells them to faithful customers.

Even if you are not too much into figures and stuff, I recommend you to visit one of Atsugi's oldest store and have a little chat with the owner. You will be amazed how much you can learn about this city, its people, the change of generations and Japan in general.

Post Hobby

In the top floor of Saty you can find another toy store specialized in Anime Manga, but it also carries a lot of other interesting stuff. Cool things you can find there are:

cool figures



Ghost in the Shell toys




yes they are real, real rpg sets!



and Anime/Manga/Game T-Shirts

See you next time!
mika