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Photopost - Deanna goes to the Makuhari Costco
Today I went down to the Costco in Makuhari to see what the heck it was like, and ostensibly to look for American goods and food and whatnot. I'd heard that Costco was a good place to find imported goods, which it is, although the selection isn't quite what I hoped for, and of course, it has a slight other issue which I hadn't thought of beforehand: buying things in bulk is really stupid when you live by yourself, especially when you live by yourself an hour and a half from Costco by train. (Although, they will deliver things for a fee of like 700 yen.) Ideally I should find some other English teacher or expat who wants import goods from Costco and then buy the big packs of things like 14 bars of soap or 4 cans of spaghetti sauce or 12 boxes of macaroni and cheese or 24 bags of chips or 12 muffins and so on, and then split them. Or something.
I had debated between going to the Costco in Tamasakai but ended up going to the one in Makuhari for various reasons - one, the Makuhari one was only one train switch away since I could catch a Musashino-sen train that went from Minami-Urawa direct to Kaihin-Makuhari (this is REALLY useful to know in the future for Marines games), but getting out to Machida was going to involve several transfers, and two - the Makuhari one was close to Chiba Marine Stadium and I figured I could look in the Lotte store by the station for fun. (Which I did. They had tons of Yabuta and Kobamasa stuff on sale, and I suppose if I were an Ebaying type I could have bought some now that those guys are in MLB, but in reality I just want a Shunsuke Watanabe t-shirt, which I'll get some other time.)
So I got to Chiba around 4:30pm. When the train got near the station, though the sun was setting, I could see the stadium and the Costco and the Makuhari Messe convention center from the train. It was neat. So I started walking towards the direction I thought the Costco was in. From glancing at Google Maps earlier in the day I expected it to take me about 15 minutes to walk it, the distance being just under a mile. After maybe 5-10 minutes I could see the Costco, even! This was going to be easy, right?
WRONG.
There was a WATERWAY inbetween the station and the Costco that I had somehow not noticed when looking up the Google Map, so I had to find a bridge over it. I should have gone west, which would have been quicker, but no, I went east, and then climbed a walkway over the big street, too, and so after all of that walking it took me around 30-35 minutes total to get there, so I was pretty exhausted. Nevermind that my back has been killing me for the last week or two as well...
Map of the route I took from Kaihin-Makuhari station to Costco.
Getting a membership card was actually really easy. I went in and spoke to a really nice lady at the counter, some in Japanese and some in English. (She actually lives near me and commutes an hour each day to work there! Crazy!) They just take a picture and print up the card right then and there. Only thing is that it costs like 4200 yen to join, yikes.
I went downstairs to get a cart, and also stopped by the "food court". They had hot dogs and clam chowder and salads and pizza and churros and stuff. I got a slice of pepperoni pizza for 300 yen.
Here's something funny: when I worked at GE, they would always get Costco pizza and food for our division's pizza lunches, and I'd always be like "Why can't we get some DECENT pizza like Pagliacci's?", because I thought Costco pizza really sucked.
I sat down at a table and took a bite of the pizza. It was the exact same godawful Costco pizza as ever, but I was like "OMFG!!!!! REAL PIZZA!!!! WITH PEPPERONI!!!!! IT TASTES LIKE AMERICA!!!!"
Funny how our perspectives change.
Anyway, I got completely lost in the Costco, it was so big -- something I'm not used to here in Japan. I had some things in mind that I wanted to get, and they didn't have any of it in the goods section -- I might have to bug someone to ship me some stuff one of these days -- but the food section was insane. The things that kept me from buying a ton was that, well, 1) I don't have space in my apartment for a ton of food, 2) I live alone so it takes me forever to eat things, 3) I had decided I wasn't going to have things delivered this time so I'd have to haul anything I bought back on the train, and 4) SEVENTY-FIVE KILOGRAMS, DEANNA. SEVENTY-FIVE. I was staring at a pack of 12 Costco muffins, which I used to absolutely LOVE eating back in America, and was so tempted to buy them... then I remembered, "You know, maybe the reason you lost so much weight here is because you DON'T eat this kind of garbage anymore!"
In the end I bought a shirt and a bunch of junk food (some chocolate, some maple cookies) and a dozen bagels. I thought I had only bought a half dozen bagels, but at the cash register they said "No, see, the 600 yen is actually for TWELVE bagels. So please go back and get another half dozen."
Even more embarrassingly, I needed a bag to carry stuff in, and didn't know I had to buy one at the counter. So on the way out I asked the security guy (who also spoke English) where I could get a bag, and he was like "Oh, you have to buy one. I'll watch your stuff while you get one if you want," so I went to get one... but I didn't know where to get one, so I bugged a random guy, and he was like "Err... I'll sell you one here, but next time you have to buy one when you buy your stuff, okay? OR just bring this one back with you." I was really embarrassed.
Rather than walking all the way back to the station, which would have KILLED me with my bad back and carrying 6 kilograms of stuff, I caught a bus. That was a good call. The timing didn't work out for me to take a Musashino train back, sadly, but I did get a Keiyo express to Tokyo station and then managed to get a seat on the Keihin-Tohoku train back here. I got home around 9:30pm, having left around 2:30pm... yeah, going to Costco is a day excursion, it seems. Although I think that during the summer I could go to a Chiba Lotte Marines afternoon game and then go to Costco afterwards maybe :)
I did laundry after that, and went to Max Valu to get some butter to put on the bagels, and some milk tea and whatnot, and then I watched TV. Sennichi Hoshino, manager of the Japanese Olympic baseball team, is going to be the Bistro guest on SMAPxSMAP next week and I totally cannot wait for that, it's going to RULE. Then I watched Ainori, where we found out some more background on some of the characters. Turns out that Carbonara never went to college, he had to drop out of high school in 11th grade to work to help support his family since his parents were divorced and he had 4 siblings, so he feels really lousy when the other people talk about college for a while. And then one of the girls asked Miya-kun about his first kiss and he was like "Err... I haven't had one." He's so shy! It's so cute! Sadly, there is no Ainori for the next two weeks :( Next Monday is Christmas Eve and the week after is New Year's Eve, so I guess it makes sense, but I am all sad.
ANYWAY FROM HERE ON IN IS COSTCO PICTURES WHEEEEEEEEEE.
I don't know why, but I found this surreal. And tempting.
English magazines! But they were pretty expensive still.
Look, a real Major League Baseball set.
I actually need Ziploc bags, but I don't need NINETY MILLION.
This is really cool actually -- they have these little bottles with some detergent in them so people can see what they smell like without opening the actual big bottles. I wonder if that was a problem?
I really was so excited to see the Kirkland Brand thingy all over the place that I even snapped a picture of a big box of pet beds.
I also really need a new box of Crayola markers, BUT I don't need a gigantic bucket of Crayola supplies, see...
They have some clothes here, basically all imported from America, although they don't really have American-sized clothes for the most part. This helpful chart tells you your proper size... and, notice that they don't even bother with women's sizes over an American size 12? Yeah.
The book table had plenty of stuff in English. HP7 cost 2500 yen which is pretty cheap for Japan. I stood and read it for a little while actually. And then next to it is a Boston Red Sox yearbook. You can tell what's important to kids here.
I have to wonder if anyone in Japan honestly has space for a foosball or pool table in their house.
And here starts in on the chocolate.
They had a surprising amount of Pacific Northwest things, such as Almond Roca, which comes from Tacoma.
OMFG Ruffles.
OMFG Chocolate.
More Seattle stuff! Dillettante chocolates!
And Oh Boy, Oberto!
Goldfish. So tempting, but not really worth it for the non-flavor-blasted ones. Not yet, at least.
Frozen berries.
I didn't buy these and I swear I'm going to crave blueberry muffins for the next week. Next time maybe I'll just buy them and bring them to GEOS or something, though that's an expensive way to satisfy my food desires.
Also tempting. I keep saying how weird it is that you can't get chocolate milk in Japan. I'll probably break down next time and get some of these.
Cereal. With Kanji.
Nutella is global, I swear.
I had debated between going to the Costco in Tamasakai but ended up going to the one in Makuhari for various reasons - one, the Makuhari one was only one train switch away since I could catch a Musashino-sen train that went from Minami-Urawa direct to Kaihin-Makuhari (this is REALLY useful to know in the future for Marines games), but getting out to Machida was going to involve several transfers, and two - the Makuhari one was close to Chiba Marine Stadium and I figured I could look in the Lotte store by the station for fun. (Which I did. They had tons of Yabuta and Kobamasa stuff on sale, and I suppose if I were an Ebaying type I could have bought some now that those guys are in MLB, but in reality I just want a Shunsuke Watanabe t-shirt, which I'll get some other time.)
So I got to Chiba around 4:30pm. When the train got near the station, though the sun was setting, I could see the stadium and the Costco and the Makuhari Messe convention center from the train. It was neat. So I started walking towards the direction I thought the Costco was in. From glancing at Google Maps earlier in the day I expected it to take me about 15 minutes to walk it, the distance being just under a mile. After maybe 5-10 minutes I could see the Costco, even! This was going to be easy, right?
WRONG.
There was a WATERWAY inbetween the station and the Costco that I had somehow not noticed when looking up the Google Map, so I had to find a bridge over it. I should have gone west, which would have been quicker, but no, I went east, and then climbed a walkway over the big street, too, and so after all of that walking it took me around 30-35 minutes total to get there, so I was pretty exhausted. Nevermind that my back has been killing me for the last week or two as well...
Map of the route I took from Kaihin-Makuhari station to Costco.
Getting a membership card was actually really easy. I went in and spoke to a really nice lady at the counter, some in Japanese and some in English. (She actually lives near me and commutes an hour each day to work there! Crazy!) They just take a picture and print up the card right then and there. Only thing is that it costs like 4200 yen to join, yikes.
I went downstairs to get a cart, and also stopped by the "food court". They had hot dogs and clam chowder and salads and pizza and churros and stuff. I got a slice of pepperoni pizza for 300 yen.
Here's something funny: when I worked at GE, they would always get Costco pizza and food for our division's pizza lunches, and I'd always be like "Why can't we get some DECENT pizza like Pagliacci's?", because I thought Costco pizza really sucked.
I sat down at a table and took a bite of the pizza. It was the exact same godawful Costco pizza as ever, but I was like "OMFG!!!!! REAL PIZZA!!!! WITH PEPPERONI!!!!! IT TASTES LIKE AMERICA!!!!"
Funny how our perspectives change.
Anyway, I got completely lost in the Costco, it was so big -- something I'm not used to here in Japan. I had some things in mind that I wanted to get, and they didn't have any of it in the goods section -- I might have to bug someone to ship me some stuff one of these days -- but the food section was insane. The things that kept me from buying a ton was that, well, 1) I don't have space in my apartment for a ton of food, 2) I live alone so it takes me forever to eat things, 3) I had decided I wasn't going to have things delivered this time so I'd have to haul anything I bought back on the train, and 4) SEVENTY-FIVE KILOGRAMS, DEANNA. SEVENTY-FIVE. I was staring at a pack of 12 Costco muffins, which I used to absolutely LOVE eating back in America, and was so tempted to buy them... then I remembered, "You know, maybe the reason you lost so much weight here is because you DON'T eat this kind of garbage anymore!"
In the end I bought a shirt and a bunch of junk food (some chocolate, some maple cookies) and a dozen bagels. I thought I had only bought a half dozen bagels, but at the cash register they said "No, see, the 600 yen is actually for TWELVE bagels. So please go back and get another half dozen."
Even more embarrassingly, I needed a bag to carry stuff in, and didn't know I had to buy one at the counter. So on the way out I asked the security guy (who also spoke English) where I could get a bag, and he was like "Oh, you have to buy one. I'll watch your stuff while you get one if you want," so I went to get one... but I didn't know where to get one, so I bugged a random guy, and he was like "Err... I'll sell you one here, but next time you have to buy one when you buy your stuff, okay? OR just bring this one back with you." I was really embarrassed.
Rather than walking all the way back to the station, which would have KILLED me with my bad back and carrying 6 kilograms of stuff, I caught a bus. That was a good call. The timing didn't work out for me to take a Musashino train back, sadly, but I did get a Keiyo express to Tokyo station and then managed to get a seat on the Keihin-Tohoku train back here. I got home around 9:30pm, having left around 2:30pm... yeah, going to Costco is a day excursion, it seems. Although I think that during the summer I could go to a Chiba Lotte Marines afternoon game and then go to Costco afterwards maybe :)
I did laundry after that, and went to Max Valu to get some butter to put on the bagels, and some milk tea and whatnot, and then I watched TV. Sennichi Hoshino, manager of the Japanese Olympic baseball team, is going to be the Bistro guest on SMAPxSMAP next week and I totally cannot wait for that, it's going to RULE. Then I watched Ainori, where we found out some more background on some of the characters. Turns out that Carbonara never went to college, he had to drop out of high school in 11th grade to work to help support his family since his parents were divorced and he had 4 siblings, so he feels really lousy when the other people talk about college for a while. And then one of the girls asked Miya-kun about his first kiss and he was like "Err... I haven't had one." He's so shy! It's so cute! Sadly, there is no Ainori for the next two weeks :( Next Monday is Christmas Eve and the week after is New Year's Eve, so I guess it makes sense, but I am all sad.
ANYWAY FROM HERE ON IN IS COSTCO PICTURES WHEEEEEEEEEE.
I don't know why, but I found this surreal. And tempting.
English magazines! But they were pretty expensive still.
Look, a real Major League Baseball set.
I actually need Ziploc bags, but I don't need NINETY MILLION.
This is really cool actually -- they have these little bottles with some detergent in them so people can see what they smell like without opening the actual big bottles. I wonder if that was a problem?
I really was so excited to see the Kirkland Brand thingy all over the place that I even snapped a picture of a big box of pet beds.
I also really need a new box of Crayola markers, BUT I don't need a gigantic bucket of Crayola supplies, see...
They have some clothes here, basically all imported from America, although they don't really have American-sized clothes for the most part. This helpful chart tells you your proper size... and, notice that they don't even bother with women's sizes over an American size 12? Yeah.
The book table had plenty of stuff in English. HP7 cost 2500 yen which is pretty cheap for Japan. I stood and read it for a little while actually. And then next to it is a Boston Red Sox yearbook. You can tell what's important to kids here.
I have to wonder if anyone in Japan honestly has space for a foosball or pool table in their house.
And here starts in on the chocolate.
They had a surprising amount of Pacific Northwest things, such as Almond Roca, which comes from Tacoma.
OMFG Ruffles.
OMFG Chocolate.
More Seattle stuff! Dillettante chocolates!
And Oh Boy, Oberto!
Goldfish. So tempting, but not really worth it for the non-flavor-blasted ones. Not yet, at least.
Frozen berries.
I didn't buy these and I swear I'm going to crave blueberry muffins for the next week. Next time maybe I'll just buy them and bring them to GEOS or something, though that's an expensive way to satisfy my food desires.
Also tempting. I keep saying how weird it is that you can't get chocolate milk in Japan. I'll probably break down next time and get some of these.
Cereal. With Kanji.
Nutella is global, I swear.
no subject
It's times like this where I kind of understand why Japanese people in Seattle buy ridiculous brands of things for high prices at Uwajimaya, too.