Shopping at Costco Japan

Sunday was a good day – Sunny and warm (probably one of the last warm weekends before winter comes) .. and i guess it was an especially good day for me because we went to a sweets paradise! Itsukis mother and sister joined us for a ride to go shopping at Costco. Costco is an American based wholesale retailer and as it happens they also have a couple of stores here in Japan and one of them is located in Amagasaki between Osaka and Kobe which isn’t too far away from us (about 30km).

They do sell some imported goods that are hard to get here in Japan. Mostly American things, but i was surprised to also find some real Swiss honey and Lindt chocolate. The sweets i bought should hopefully last me through the cold wintertime.

I also was happy to find some of my favorite Hokey Pokey ice creme from New Zealand there! With a good supply of this ice creme the next summer will be easy to survive!

I was surprised to find that Costco pretty much used the same shopping model like in the states. This includes a membership fee (4,200 JPY for a year) and even some bag-checks at the exit to make sure nobody is stealing anything … which i found a bit over the top, considering the low rate of criminality here in Japan. But anyway, i am looking forward to my next visit there! – Next time i am going to buy me one of those American sized pizzas they sell over there at normal prices. Costco food court sells them for 1,500 JPY (for a 45cm pizza) … while the Japanese branches of Pizzahut or Domino Pizza charge up to about 4,000 JPY (thats about 40 USD!) for a normal sized 31cm Pizza.