Shopping away from home

After the country officially closed its doors to outside trade in 1635, many outsiders were forced to accept that the rulers of Japan at the time thought less-than-highly of foreign residents and goods from other countries. (The cries of "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians!" probably didn't help, either.) Truth be told, even before the vaunted Meiji Restoration of 1868, the borders weren't exactly closed; under- and aboveground trade flourished between Japan and such countries as Korea, Denmark and China, and exploded in the painful recovery years following the Second World War. Today, foreign influences are so prevalent that you'd be forgiven for mistaking, at points, that you're back in your home country. Look! There's American actress Cameron Diaz shilling for a local cell phone company! Listen! That's Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Relax', playing as intro music for a late-night comedy show!
Still, when it comes to the nitty-gritty - that favorite brand of crisps, that "comfort" chocolate bar from back home, that astringent you never thought you'd have to live without - one may find foreign items in Japan considerably harder to find.
Harder, but not impossible. Along with the influx of foreigners into Japan has also come a marked increase in the number of stores selling goods from abroad. True to its history, Kobe is still one of the main cities bridging Japan and Everywhere Else. The following are a few of the local shops offering foreign residents a taste of life back home.

The foreign buyer

Kobe's Foreign Buyer's Club may be a prime example of what happens when someone presents the right idea, in the right place, at just the right time. The idea of starting a shipping conglomerate for homesick foreign buyers seems fairly obvious now; back in 1987, however, it was something of a new idea.

FBC founder and CEO Chuck Grafft talks about his thousands-strong "club" and why carrying a selection of 300 brands of cereal really does matter.

KS: How did you get started?

Chuck Grafft: We've been here since 1987. Back when I first came to Japan in '85, the exchange rate was ¥285 to the dollar. Foreign goods weren't as popular, but I still thought there was a market for importing things for personal use.

KS: Why did you get started?

CG: For us, it was, and still is, a very organic business. The things the FBC first ordered were actually things my wife and I needed; people would come and ask us to order things for them as well, and it went from there. As my wife and I started having our first children, the company started ordering baby food, school supplies; that's how we've grown.

KS: How many of your customers actually are foreign buyers? And how many Japanese?

CG: About 50 percent of our customers now are Japanese. We've a huge number of Japanese housewives who order with the company; members who've maybe lived overseas, or seen something on TV that interested them. In a lot of cases, we'll suddenly be swamped with some order for some particular good - like, Puffs tissues, or something. It always turns out that some celebrity on TV mentioned something, some kind of foreign product, and that always sets off a lot of requests.

KS: Why do people shop with you?

CG: The very first 100 customers we had, I literally knew everyone. And, to a big extent, the company is still like that. The things people order are very important for them, for some reason or another. They know what they want, and they know we can get it. We've got 20 to 30 different kinds of paper towels, 300 kinds of breakfast cereal; and when they call and ask us for wheat gluten or Mennen Speed Stick, or whatever, they know that we can get it for them. I think that's a cool thing.

The old-school grocers

For the past 30 years, Kobe Grocers has been servicing customers in the Sannomiya neighborhood (as well as outliers willing to make the trip). Thirty years, due as much to the wide selection of international goods the store carries (2,500 items altogether, encompassing everything from Camembert cheese to Johnsonville sausages) as to the charming, cozy atmosphere the store radiates.

"We have regular customers, but they change; everything is always changing," manager Hiroaki Kitagawa says. "The customers get older and older, they start families, they bring in friends.

"At the start the numbers had been 70 percent foreigners, and 30 percent Japanese," Kitagawa continues. "After the earthquake, the numbers reversed; many foreigners ended up leaving the city, moving to Rokko [Island], maybe."

At a fraction of the size of bigger supermarkets such as Izumiya and Life, Kobe Grocers crowds the shelves with items like multi-grain cereals, herbals teas, bullion bases, pastas and exotic seasonings, all without making the store itself feel crowded.

"I come in contact with many foreigners and many Japanese here," Kitagawa says. "We communicate with each other; I teach lots of things to the customers about the items here, and, a lot of time, the customers are always giving me information and suggestions as well.

Unprovincial provisions

The how-to-find directions read like the listing of an underground nightclub: "Take the elevator to the third floor of the apartment building; look for the shop name, scratched on the door in bright red marker…" There's a very important reason the Indian Provision Store is where it is, however - the original proprietor, importer/ exporter Tewari K, suffered a heart attack, and the family thought it best to arrange work close to home that wasn't physically stressful.

"This is the second generation of the family running this shop," says current proprietor Tewari A K. "Thirty-four years ago, we started out of this very same apartment."

The no-nonsense name pretty much spells out what the Indian Provision Store offers, a massive variety of spices, grocer items, sweets, snacks and loads of readyto- cook items within the walls of the small, cleared-out apartment. Jars of home-style pickles and bags of cashews line the shelves; sacks of rice and bottles of sweet mango juice stretch from end to end. The IPS's main customers are from neighboring Kobe, but word of mouth brings in the curious from all areas, he says. ("We get customers from Nara, Kyoto, Akashi, Himeji; all over, really."). The shop also provides raw goods to a number of Indian restaurants in Japan, work that keeps the small shop busy even when the walk-in customers don't.

"We enjoy the work - it's a good business," he says. "We supply more than 60 to 80 restaurants all over Japan; [the shop] looks small, but the operation is much bigger than that."

"It's a good give and take," he says.

Spiritual nourishment

If you don't already know what Halal meat is (beef, mutton or chicken slaughtered in compliance with Islamic law), then obtaining it probably isn't a big concern. If you do, getting a steady supply is probably is a big concern (as well as a cause of some consternation, if you don't know where to look). The aptly-named Halal Food, breathing distance from the Kobe Mosque, is a good place to start; store manager Mohammad Khan fills out the details.

KS: What do you carry?

Mohammad Khan: We carry halal food from all over – India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey. Lots of chicken and mutton; curry, beans and spices; lots of ready to eat food, as well.

KS: Why is the shop here?

MK: The main reason the shop is here is because of the mosque. The mosque has been here since 1920 or 1925, I think. [The Kobe Mosque officially opened for prayers in 1935.-ed] It's quite amazing; it made it through World War II and the Kobe earthquake without a scratch.

KS: Please tell us about your customers.

MK: We get lots of customers from around the neighborhood – lots of Indians, Malaysians, Egyptians, Pakistani Indians; we get the same people all the time, especially on Fridays, when people come for the Friday prayers.

KS: Do you get many Japanese customers?

MK: Them, too. They're new to it, but they do come. Lots of Japanese housewives always come by.

KS: How is the store doing?

MK: It's doing very well. We have two branches, actually; there's also a location in front of the mosque, as well. We gets lots of mail orders from places like Fukuoka and Hiroshima. The end of December is going to be very busy for us; Eid is coming, and we're expecting lots of customers.

Where to find ...

Happy holidays! You've got that big Christmas bonus in hand (you did get a Christmas bonus, didn't you?); now to find some of those foreign items you've been pining for. Why not indulge in:

A bottle of Laphroaig

There are nights for Ozeki One Cup, Nikka Whiskey and Sparkling Peach Chu-Hai, and then there are nights for alcohol a bit more refined, shall we say. Japanese - and foreign - liquor connoisseurs have become increasingly aware of the charms of Yamaya, a one-stop warehouse for seemingly all of the world's alcohols. A massive winery, a finely-stocked beer fridge and the best scotch whisky selection in the country (and at prices cheaper than those of the UK, to boot!) make for an indispensable after-work stop.

Aquafresh toothpaste

Refusal to go native any more than they have to has lead many foreigners to skip the local brands entirely, and opt for the "good" (re: familiar) toothpastes when selecting their dentifrice. It's a similar case for many other toiletries, cold medicines and prophylactics: many people just cannot feel comfortable until they have their Secret Sheer Dry Antiperspirant & Deodorant, Tylenol PM Extra Strength Caplets and a box of Trojan Condoms on the side. A good place to look is the Foreign Buyers' Club, which carries all of the previous (and lots, lots more).

A size 13 pair of LeBron James Nike Air Max 360

Unfortunately, the shoe sizes at local chain shops like Step and ABC Mart top out at around 27.5 centimeters - 28.5, if you're lucky. If one ever had need of a 30-centimeter shoe - that's about a size 12, Americans – the first place to start looking was, well, back home. (Step and ABC Mart both do not take orders for larger sizes.) An easier solution for the big-footed freaks among you may be to try retail chain Sports Depo, which has a monstrous store in Mino Visola that does accept special orders.

A turkey

What are the holidays, really, without a grand holiday bird to dress, cook and carve in front of the family? (Vegetarians don't need to answer.) The venerable seven-faced bird (Shichimencho, turkey's rather strange Japanese name translation) is notoriously expensive, and notoriously difficult to find in even the biggest of Japan's "name" department stores. Two choices remain: gather the family around a piping-hot plate of KFC Mango Chili Chicken Twisters; or try CostCo, which offers a mighty fine selection of roasting turkeys for the Christmas season. Obviously, please make sure beforehand that you have access to an oven big enough to cook the thing.

"Big" clothing

Regular readers of GQ are no doubt aware of how deeply the magazine frowns upon buying suits off the rack. Buying personalized ensembles is always good advice - especially in Japan, where fat thighs and gangly gaijin arms can turn an off-the-rack purchase into a sartorial disaster. If one lacks the patience (or the money) to buy a custom-made suit at one of the local chains like Aoyama and Perfect Suit Factory, worry not: both companies are more than happy to measure you, adjust any suit you buy from them, and have it ready for you the next day. For nonwork clothing, Western shops (The Gap, or Tommy Hilfiger), or local shops that ape Western shops (UniQlo) are the best choices for the best-fitting clothing.

A region-1 (US) copy of Snakes on a Plane

This, unfortunately, is where the trail goes cold. If one simply cannot wait for the Region-2 version of whatever DVD one is looking for to make it to Japan - or, if one simply balks at the outrageous price markup one is likely to run into - the first, last and best choice remains amazon.com While shipping to Japan isn't free, it is pretty fast. Fast enough, anyway; act now, and those Region-1 copies of The Devil Wears Prada and Miami Vice will make it here just in time for a Christmas Day movie marathon.

Text: Jeff Lo • Photos: Rocky Femia, FBC, KS