Name: What a Supermarket in Japan is Really Like
Uploaded: 2025-08-04T18:12:20.000Z
Duration: 15 min 31 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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This is what a Japanese supermarket is really like.

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So today I'm in Life Supermarket here in Tokyo and I'm super happy because I've always wanted to show you guys inside of a Japanese supermarket and I finally got permission.

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So I'm going to be taking you around and show you some of my favorite items as well as the prices included.

So without further ado, let me take you around.

Yup, I've got full access to the supermarket or in Japanese, SUPA.

You don't know how long I've been trying to do this video on the up and up and please let me know in the comments how the SUPA compares to your country and if anything surprises you.

So the first thing you notice when you're coming into a Japanese supermarket, you'll probably walk through the produce section with all the vegetables and fruits and whatnot, which is actually quite an important thing, but today we're going to skip that for right now.

Maybe we'll go back to it a little bit later because I want to show you this first.

So first thing you're going to see is this wonderful seafood section.

Seafood in Japan is very popular for home cooking and as you can see, you can easily get it fresh at the supermarket.

There's an entire section of whole fish in various sizes, but being in the city, some may consider it extravagant as large anago eel costs 15,000 yen.

The red snapper costs 3,580 yen and Ishida snapper costs 6,800 yen.

However, if you ask the workers, they'll kindly clean the fish for you in any way you want.

Also, they actually have a tank here where you can order the fish super fresh.

They even do Ikejime, a Japanese technique performed when cleaning the fish to help maximize freshness.

Also, the supermarket offers reasonable pre-cut fish as well.

Oh, and I love their tuna section, which offers a variety of parts.

They've got toro, red meat, tataki, and chopped tuna.

I mean, a set of fat tuna, medium tuna, and red meat for 3,580 yen is a pretty good deal in the city.

And since we're talking about seafood, I have to take you guys to the sushi section and if you just look around, you have all these different styles of sushi, but you can also get the sushi cake or you can get a piece of cake here and then you can just get like a plethora of different sushi items.

Having a wide variety of sushi is common in Japanese supermarkets.

They don't only have nigiri sets, which are quite popular when you want to splurge for your lunch or dinner, but they also have kaisendon which are more affordable at 798 yen or the rolls like this for 680 yen.

They sometimes even sell real deal wasabi, so you can freshly grind it at home.

And it's pretty cool to be able to see sushi being made safely right in front of you.

So this is quite fun being able to show you guys all of these different products and all the things that you can get in a Japanese supermarket.

So this section right here, if you just look, it goes all the way down the aisle and it's Japanese cooking sauces.

They have ponzu, miso, and tsuyu, which is a mix of dashi, mirin, and soy sauce.

They also have a light colored tsuyu like this one.

And this one is ago dashi, made from flying fish.

I love their premium section from different manufacturers.

This one is gluten free, owari no tamari.

They even have soy sauce designed for egg over rice.

You even have these unique soy sauces like uni, shoyu, you have kaki, oyster, soy sauce, shoyu, miniku, which is garlic, shoyu.

So there's just like so many different varieties for soy sauce.

And then, oh, I just want to show you this one here.

This right here is kurozu, which is like a vinegar, like a black vinegar, and it is blueberry flavor.

It's supposed to be really, really healthy.

I put it in my shake, mix it with my vegetables and whatnot, and it just adds a little nice flavor to it.

Here, you generally find lighter colored miso called shiro miso, super dark red miso, and ones in between those two, which are considered red miso.

Michael switches brands around, but this has to be her favorite.

Oh, and for easy use, they also have freeze-dried miso flakes and liquid bottles.

Now, let me show you one of my favorite sections, bentos in the sozai deli.

You have all sorts of different bentos, and the prices are actually fairly reasonable, too.

This is the roast katsu, and it's such a great deal.

Within the bento section, you'll find all sorts of bentos.

Traditional-style bentos, super-sized bentos, and organic bentos.

It's pretty fascinating to see all the different creations.

In the traditional-style area, you can find bentos that have grilled fish with side dishes, and this one with fried fish over rice with side dishes.

I love yakitori bentos like this one, and also oyakodon bentos like this.

Super-sized bentos, at least this is what it's thought of in Japan, look like this.

This is chicken steak with pilaf, and this one just has a bunch of stuff, both for only 598 yen.

This healthy bento is in the organic section, only 390 yen.

Organic bentos generally come with grain rice and lots of vegetables.

This section is for sure my wife's favorite.

They also have non-Japanese bentos like bibimbap and gappang.

Now, let me take you to the sozai deli section.

In Japan, the sozai deli items are often bought as add-on dishes for home dinners, especially dishes that take time and effort to prepare, like fried goods and yakitori.

You can even get yakitori here, and my favorite is the sukune.

So, yakitori is a very popular Japanese sozai dish, and you can usually choose between shio, salt, or a tare sauce flavor.

And look at this, they even have these party platters.

This one has fried chicken, croquette, it has actually two kinds of shrimp, potato wedges, whole meal deal right here.

So, one of my favorites here is this one.

This is wagyu and it's a mince-y ball, so you have this minced meat all over this fried, crusty loveliness.

So, one thing I should note about all of this is that the prices listed today, they may be a little bit different depending on the season or the time, so you know, just take that with a grain of salt.

So, now we're here in the meats section, and as you can see, it's not kind of like your western meat section, meaning that you won't find a lot of thick meats, you'll actually find a lot more sliced meats because in Japan, a lot of people like to do shabu-shabu or sukiyaki, so the meats are actually a lot thinner here.

Also, people in Japan like to sauté more, so you'll find a lot of these meats sliced.

Just look at this fresh section, you can see that you don't have any sirloin or t-bone steaks, you have sliced meat.

What I love of course is the variety of wagyu beef in the Japanese supermarket.

This lovely one is Nagasaki Ikigyu beef, and this one is black-haired wagyu from Kagoshima.

And the best part is, they offer free gyushi, which is a pure wagyu fat and used for cooking your wagyu.

It has a unique sweetness and umami flavor.

Japanese-style barbecue, yakiniku, is often eaten at home, so you'll find bite-sized sliced meat as well.

Unlike Korean barbecue, the meat is never served frozen, and it's impossible to slice it this thin at home, so people usually just buy these meats from the supermarket.

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