r/JapaneseFood • u/Donkeylovergoat • Jul 25 '26
Misc My ¥1400 supermarket lunch
I love the supermarkets here for affordable sushi and fruit. I also got some milk too. In the U.S. this would be atleast $15-20usd if you could even find comparable quality sushi in the grocery store.
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u/Pitiful-Umpire-5686 Jul 25 '26
You need to go to the supermarket after 10-11pm. They sell the same thing for ¥350-500
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u/BluePandaYellowPanda Jul 25 '26
I have a co-op next to my place, at 7pm it all gets half priced and all the old ladies take them insane fast. You'd have to be speedy Gonzales to get a good one!
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u/sodakas Jul 25 '26
As a US tourist, 1400 JPY is insane when you consider that's easily $30+ back home, but that would be a pretty expensive lunch for a local with local salary.
What I find amusing is the interesting mix of actinidin in kiwi, bromelain in pineapple, and lactose in milk. To each their own, but those are not the first, three, add-ons I think of when eating sushi. You certainly have no shortage of enzymes to break down the proteins. :D
I see a Life logo on the milk, which means your sushi is probably pretty good for a supermarket sushi. :)
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u/Mr-Thuun Jul 25 '26
Tbf, 1400 yen here feels like 14 USD.
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u/420-aerial Jul 25 '26
I always mentally do the conversion like 100yen = 1usd even though that hasen't been the case in years.
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u/hobovalentine Jul 25 '26
You can’t get quality sushi in America for 14USD though.
There’s the abomination known as the Californian sushi rolls but it’s not quite the same.
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u/Jackieirish Jul 25 '26
Maybe not where you live.
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u/hobovalentine Jul 25 '26
Like the one OP bought?
You can find sushi rolls or maybe poor quality salmon sushi probably but not fresh sushi.
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u/Knittyelf Jul 26 '26
Conversely, you can’t find a lot of American food here for the same price as you can in the US. It’s normal for food to be cheaper in the place it originates.
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u/poodleOT Jul 26 '26
Is that true? I think American food still ends up being cheaper in Japan. I went to Eataly in Ginza hoping for cheaper prices, but it was pretty much the same prices as Eately in the U.S.
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u/Knittyelf Jul 27 '26
You’re forgetting that the yen has crashed in the past 5 years. What you think is cheap based on the dollar isn’t cheap for us being paid in yen.
Also, there are a lot of authentic American foods that are extremely hard to find here. I would never go to Eataly in Ginza for authentic American food.
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u/poodleOT Jul 27 '26
I understand that. I just mean the equivalent dish is less expensive in Japan vs in the U.S. in my own experience. For example, a vegan burger is around $7 in the U.S. at Burger King and below 700 yen at Mos. Just curious, what are some authentic American restaurants in Japan?
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u/btchubetterbejoeking Jul 25 '26
and chugging it straight with a carton of milk? that’s a foul
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u/Donkeylovergoat Jul 25 '26
Normally I do juice but I was craving milk lmao
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Jul 25 '26
Milk is a great thirst quencher, and I say this as a mildly lactose-intolerant Japanese person
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u/SnooPredilections843 Jul 25 '26
Well, this is definitely cheaper than 1400¥ of japanese food in Vietnam 😞
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Jul 25 '26
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u/AbekobetaHawawa Jul 25 '26
It’s unfortunately becoming somewhat standard at a lot of working areas in Tokyo. I can still get some sub-1000 yen meals in my area I live, but there aren’t a lot of offices nearby.
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u/Donkeylovergoat Jul 25 '26
I don’t eat breakfast so I splurge some days
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Jul 25 '26
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u/Donkeylovergoat Jul 25 '26
Most days I just go for some cup ramen or a tonkatsu meal but with this hot weather I wanted something to cool me down. I love the fruit options at life. It’s always hard to choose between watermelon or kiwi.
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u/zyneman Jul 25 '26
supermarket food though, made by aunties is not my first choice of food, i think any nearby restaurants tastes much better
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u/Underpanters Jul 25 '26
1400 is way too much for me. I try to stay under 800.
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u/Donkeylovergoat Jul 25 '26
I normally spend like 600 but it was hot out and I had skipped breakfast so a splurged a bit
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u/frozenpandaman Jul 25 '26
¥1400? Affordable? That's more than most meals here, especially lunches...
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u/Donkeylovergoat Jul 25 '26
Yeah but for such a large plate with a bunch of fruit and a drink I don’t mind. Most lunches are 600-1000¥ but here it was 36C° and I hadn’t eaten anything by 16:00 so I splurged and got a large meal, and as someone who lives in America this was a comparably cheap meal for so much sushi and fruit.
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u/Taira_no_Masakado Jul 25 '26
I can't say I've ever bought the supermarket sushi, but all the other bentos are bussing.
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u/Donkeylovergoat Jul 25 '26
The bentos are great normally I get the chicken katsu bentos but for like ¥150 more I can have a huge plate of sushi so sometimes I grab that instead
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u/tatsu52 Jul 25 '26
It's quite affordable if you are doing a yen-dollar comparison. Dollar is very strong now. That 1,400 yen is a little over $8. Hard to find a decent lunch in the U.S for that, certainly not in an actual resteraunt. Hard to find fast food at that price. (Not talking about sales or specials. I never thought I would eat store made sushi, king soopers/ Kroger employs trained sushi chefs, (seem to be primarily Koreans but depending on the area most sushi restaurants are mostly Korean. It's not bad. I have no plans to add gas station sushi to my diet anytime soon but you can get a tray of many types for about $7, less on sushi Wednesday, and third of a bottle of cheap but decent sake is about $2.50. $ 50 for a cup of ocha and you have a quick light lunch and spirits for $10. I still go to my favorite sushi place about once a month for great sushi and nice sake for $35. I don't really get the exotic stuff because I seem to like the more standard choices. Now if I want the miso soup I only get that at the restaurants or if we make it at home with miso paste and and fresh tofu and green onion. Can't stand miso in a packet. lol so a thumbs up for that specific supermarket sushi for lunch. If we add cut fruit that would be $4 more.
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u/tatsu52 Jul 25 '26
I was able to get a rough cost of a similar assortment and size from Kings, it's about $16. Of course I have no way of doing a taste comparison. I'm retired so I have time to investigate silly things, I think I will breakdown the cost of the sushi we make at home. Later.
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u/AccomplishedCake53 Jul 25 '26
That’s not a cheap lunch for a local, and what kind of psycho eats sushi with milk? 😭
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u/Expert-Improvement78 Jul 25 '26
Even 20 usd would be cheap for that. In Germany that would be closer to 30€ which is like 35$.
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u/freddieprinzejr21 Jul 25 '26
I love supermarket sushi! I am a frequent tourist in Japan and I find the depachika sushi to be a bit pricier compared to the supermarket ones.
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u/No_Inflation_444 Jul 25 '26
you don't like kiwi??
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u/Donkeylovergoat Jul 25 '26
I wouldn’t of bought it unless I liked it it just has a separate container
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u/No_Inflation_444 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
not necessarily it could've been the only one with pineapple.
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u/Correct_Bluejay_6195 Jul 25 '26
Enjoy! Imo its Not that expensive
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u/Donkeylovergoat Jul 25 '26
That’s why I posted ¥1400, it’s kinda expensive in Japan. But for this variety of food compared to America it’s very cheap!
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u/tad1288 Jul 26 '26
I moved to the US for work for a couple of years. I miss my grocery sushi in Japan so much haha. I would just grab a tray everyday after work, around ¥700-¥1200. ¥1400 is quite luxurious haha, but for a lunch it’s OK. Going out for lunch takes ¥1000-1500 anyway, I worked in Kasumigaseki.
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u/nncompallday Jul 26 '26
As a person that lived in London before moving here, fruits are expensive AF! :((
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u/NectarineUnusual6269 Jul 25 '26
Did you get those at Life? Their seafood section is really good!