COSTCO

Yeah, its here. I've heard it blows away BJs. Actually never been to one in the States but had a good time in the one in Japan. This place was BIG and WIDE, things that you dont see in Tokyo. Everything was efficient of course. To enter the building from the parking deck there is a system of conveyor belts for you and your cart. There were items from all over the world, mostly american and Japanese. It had the feel of BJs and I felt like I was back at home in yorktown heights. They do TVs, tires, the usual. Because its Japan they sold tremendous amounts of booze at cheap prices. Beer, wine, as well as hard stuff. The seafood section was also tremendous. One of the big hits in Japan are rotissere chickens. They cost twice as much as in America but are so good. I was happy that host mother agreed and grabbed two for dinner.

You don't see these bad boys in American Costco. If you think about it, Japan is a heck of a lot closer to King Crab territory than NY.
Christmas Cakes
HUGE wine selection

Bakery section looking the same
Imported booze. Hope prices are visable. The bottom row holds my favorite gin and vodka to date. The gin is recognizable, vodka is a polish import that Max brought back from his time in Poland. It's all over Japan for some reason and dirt cheap.
Welcome to a wholesaler. Same look.
Conveyor belt
At the end of the line there was an ice cream that came with a strong recommendation: hokkaido cream. Hokkaido is the far north island of Japan and is known for its food, especially milk products. There is a special raw milk caramel that comes from hokkaido, as well as butter. This ice cream fell into the same category. It was just vanilla flavored, no other choices but probably didn't need the vanilla flavor to be the best soft, custard style ice cream I've had. I don't know the butterfat content and don't want to but it was worth whatever it was. Ice CREAM. Sugar was kept pretty low and you could taste and feel the raw cream and butterfat that makes this so good. I would love to just a plain, milk flavored ice cream in this style. The cup I had cost 200 yen, putting it as probably the cheapest calorie per yen food in the world. Anyone who gets the 300 yen cup has a death wish. It's that good. Japanese have a word for such food...yabai.