Grocery Stores (for Mum)

No pictures today, sorry; I'll try to take a few next time I have to go to the store. But I can answer questions about grocery stores!

Is there anything amazing or different about it?
The only amazing thing I can think of is how good the fresh produce is. I don't mean good as in delicious (although that's true too, I suppose), but good as in quality. You don't really have to bother much about deciding which of something is best or making sure you don't get anything that's past its prime. It's pretty much all good.

As for differences, there aren't really that many. Grocery stores are pretty similar to back home, but maybe there are bigger sections where you can get prepared salads and sandwiches and tempura and box lunches and stuff (like a deli section, I guess, but not necessarily from a counter). Oh, and you have to bag your own things! And there aren't big shopping carts in most stores - just the basket (but there are wheely things to put them on so you don't have to carry them which is good when you have to buy, like, a heavy bag of rice). People shop more frequently here - a combination of buying more fresh food and a lack of storage space at home - so they don't really need a big cart to haul stuff around in.

And this isn't a difference in the store really, but in the actual produce. Carrots are different here! They are shorter than I'm used to and really fat. It's weird.

How is it trying to figure out what things are?
It's not that difficult. There are usually enough picture clues (or occasionally random English) on packaging that even if I can't read it (if it's written in kanji), I can usually figure out what something is and find what I'm looking for. Then again, I'm usually buying pretty straightforward things. Rice. Pasta. Veggies. Fruit. Tofu.

However, I have bought things that I couldn't figure out the flavor of, just out of curiosity. Kit Kats are a good example (not that I buy them very often). They come in a lot of different flavors (many of them seasonal), and while usually I can tell from the packaging what flavor it is, a couple times it was not so easy. There was one flavor especially - I still haven't figured out what it was supposed to be because I couldn't read it and the picture on the package was not helpful for once - that was revolting. The candy was blue! And kind of burned my tongue with grossness! (Best Kit Kat flavor: green tea. Not the best, but surprisingly not gross: apple vinegar.)

Have you bought anything that turned out to be completely different from what you thought it would be?
Just once! It was in the produce section. I grabbed what looked like baby spinach. It was not spinach. It did not taste good. I don't know what it was - maybe some kind of herb? - but it was a really unpleasant surprise when I took a big bite of it.

Are you becoming proficient in bowing?
はい！ Yes!