Today Greg, Gabriella and myself went on a Farmer's and Fish Market tour. Originally I was going to go with Rachel, but she got stuck in Tokyo while coming home from the states. Since I didn't really want to waste the ticket Greg and Gabriella agreed to go with me. This tour made 4 stops.
The first stop was JA Market. It reminded me of a green grocer, only veggies and fruits, although they did have a few snacks and flowers. This store is stocked by local farmers and the veggies and fruits are brought in daily. They have freshly made tofu, other baked goodies and bento box lunches. The store was quite crowded but we were able to browse through the aisles with relative ease. We purchased some fresh green beans and some strawberries. I need to take a moment to tell you how ridiculously expensive strawberries are at our commissary. Less than a pint of strawberries can cost upwards of $7. One would think that for $7 these would be the greatest strawberries ever grown, the fact is that they are sub-par at best, already spoiled at worst. Needless to say finding strawberries for 200 yen (about $2) was a very pleasant surprise. Gabriella and Greg had them for desert tonight and said they were delicious. We also got some fried dough balls and a pink cake for a breakfast snack.
The second stop was the VegeVege store. It was a covered stall attached to a small store that specialized in fruit and veggies. We saw a wide variety of apples for about 80 yen each (about 80 cents) which is a big difference from the commissary price of $2.50 per pound for already spoiling apples. This store also had watermelon which I've never seen on the island. Gabriella bought herself an apple, she took the apple to the counter, paid and received her change. She thanked the shop keeper in Japanese and while we were walking out one of the stockers gave her an orange. She was thrilled and immediately said Arrigato.
The next stop was by far the most unique. It's called Mini Mini and it's a zoo/egg store. They have a menagerie of animals including 9 peacocks, a llama, monkeys, donkeys, birds of every sort, turtles, a wallaby, and a large number of reptiles. Greg's favorite was an armadillo which he'd never seen in person before. Once we finished checking out the animals we headed into the store. They had a lot of eggs and some tasty looking custards and desserts. I bought a cream puff for Greg. He hasn't had it yet but it is huge and looks delicious. Okinawans take the freshness of their eggs very seriously. A typical Okinawan breakfast is steamed rice with a cracked raw egg mixed in. Therefore most Okinawans buy their eggs at mini mini because they are the freshest. In fact the little store was packed with people picking up 2-3 dozen eggs at a time. It was at Mini Mini that our camera batteries ran out, we were disappointed, but I'm sure we will be back another time.
The last stop was Yakamada fish market. The fish market was small and busy. It's bigger than the fish market we have on base and had a greater variety of fish. The most surprising fish was the parrot fish, it was huge and looked like it was wearing lipstick. They had a large variety of fresh fish, including red snapper and mahi mahi, they also had tuna, octopus, squid and cuttlefish. The market included an extensive frozen food section including huge prawns and scallops still in their shells. This market was our stop for lunch. Greg got a huge order of fried squid and I got the lobster meal. My meal included a bowl of miso soup, rice with banana peppers, a few pieces of sashimi and 1/2 a lobster covered in a delicious buttery sauce.My lobster meal was 1400 yen ($14 US). Gabriella and I shared most of my meal, although she wasn't really interested in eating as much as playing with her chopsticks. The meals included hot tea or water, they also had a beer vending machine. Outside of the market was a stand where you could buy freshly fried Tempura.
I was almost sorry that we couldn't buy more food to bring home. I wouldn't be prudent seeing as we are leaving for Tokyo on Monday. However, I will be going back to all these places once we get back into town. I will never buy produce from the commissary again. Why would I when I can get fresher, cheaper and locally grown food out in the economy.
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