Who says Japan is expensive?
On our seemingly never ending efforts to get our apartment setup here in Tokyo - we decided to make our way over to one of Japan’s new Ikea stores. They didn’t have Ikea here when I lived here previously - it just popped up in the last couple of years. Ikea is pretty much the same as back home - simple furniture at reasonable prices. They also have your cheap eats - like a 99 yen breakfast plate and your uber cheap hotdogs at the cash.
I was also amazed to find that on a Saturday morning we practically had the store to ourselves. That was a welcome relief after a week of commuting to the office and a crowded train.
As we were in that part of town - we also decided to drop by Costco. Now that’s a store I have missed in Australia! I don’t tend to buy that much at Costco, but it’s fun to look there once in a while. Costco in Japan is pretty cool as it’s got local stuff in bulk - like your udon noodles, sake and kakipi. We picked up a few food items as well as a new microwave / toaster oven. No idea if we really saved that much money - but the novelty of it was certainly worth it.
Wanna tag along on our day trip? Check out the pictures we took along the way…
Itching for some pictures of our place and new daily routine? They’ll be coming before too long - we’re still getting setup. 
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Hey, definitely want to hit up Costco with you sometime soon!
Cool - for sure lets go sometime in the next few weeks. Shipping from there was amazingly cheap too - like 600 yen for a huge box of stuff. Beats trying to lug home 32 rolls of toilet paper on the train!
I’m now at Reading, U.K. Everything is expensive here. U.K. Pond is just above 200 Yen, but I can’t believe that because figure itself looks like the same in Australia. Easy dinners are around 6.00 - 10.00. That is 600 Yen - 1000 Yen in Oz, but here 1200 Yen - 2000 Yen.
I found in your picture that IKEA’s vending machine accepts SUICA. Amazing, I didn’t know that. BTW I think IKEA is Swedish, isn’t it? Is it popular in Canada, too?
Also I’ve been COSTCO member for years, but I didn’t remember I saw COSTCO in Ottawa. Are there?
Hi Okumura-san,
That sounds crazy expensive. I’m glad we’ve left Australia at least because of the price of simple things that should be cheap…
Ikea - yep, its Swedish. I didn’t notice that you could use Suica at the vending machines at Ikea. That is pretty cool. I find Suica amazing now… so convenient everywhere!
Costco is very popular in Canada - I think there are at least 3 around the Ottawa area. Most major cities in Canada have them. It was great going here - I went a long time ago when I first came to Japan but I think we’ll take more advantage of it this time!