My Japanese Supermarket Culture Shocks

After living in a different country for many years, you adapt to the local lifestyle and tend to forget the things that surprised you in the first place. The last time I went to my home country, France, I experienced several reverse culture shocks, one of them just by going to my local supermarket.

When I travel to a new country, I always make sure to look at the local supermarkets. The kinds of products, the sizes, the packaging, the way the staff is working, all these seemingly insignificant things speak volumes regarding the local culture. Spending 15 minutes in a local supermarket will tell you a lot about what the local people eat, how they live, and what they value.

Here are some of the few things that were culture shocks to me when I started living in Japan.

・Shopping carts are a lot tinier. In Japan, supermarket shopping carts look like in the picture above: they fit at best two baskets. In France, you can also use such baskets if you have only a few things to buy, but most people will use huge supermarket carts. It reflects the local way of consuming groceries: people habitually buy many things once per week in France. In Japan, it is still customary for the typical housewife to go and buy groceries every day. The idea is to cook with the freshest products possible and get the best deals every day.