COSTCO

  Amagasaki, Kinki, Japan
Thursday, October 9, 2008

We've been here over a month and haven't eaten a single piece of pizza. That's just wrong! Yes Japan does have pizza but it looks and tastes nothing like pizza from home. For starters they usually add things like corn or crab meat and they aren't so interested in things like cheese. So pretty much what is left over is nothing like a pizza at all. We did try though one night to order a pizza from Dominos hoping to get just cheese but due to our lack of Japanese they eventually said in English "We can not deliver you pizza" and hung up on poor KJ. It was probably for the best though seeing as how a medium pizza cost about $30.00.

Pretty walk to COSTCO

However, we heard through the gajin grapevine that there was a COSTCO nearby and it served pizza at the cafeteria. So off we ventured to the magical COSTCO. We realized after getting off at the train stop we had no idea which direction to walk....we only knew it was a 15 minute walk from a particular train stop. Too late to turn around now!! After taking the long way around we did eventually find it and it was just as magical as we pictured.

KJ found COSTCO!!!!

It looks and feels like a COSTCO except for the hoards of Japanese people buying in bulk. Now, keep in mind we can't really buy in bulk so to speak because we can only take what we can carry on our backs and in our hands. But some things were worth it like the barrel of pretzels or the 5 lb. bag of peanut M&Ms or the huge bottle of white vinegar (Japanese use rice vinegar, not white vinegar).

I found the biggest bottle of white vinegar!!

The pizza was wonderful (for a COSTCO) and the American goodies we purchased made the trip worth it! When we came out we noticed that across the street was a store called "Home's" and it looked suspiciously like our version of Home Depot....hmmmm.....

Across the street was a Home's

Seeing as how we now had all of our lovely goodies we didn't stop to check it out but maybe someday we will venture in there. We went back home very satisfied and look forward to our next trip to the wonderful land of COSTCO.