Yamaya: Japanese Liquor & International Food Store

One of the popular questions I get asked by other westerners here is whereabouts in Kanazawa I live. When I tell them I live near LeParc (a big superstore whose real name I think is Nagasakiya) in Nishi Izumi the response I get 90% of the time is "oooh that's really near to Yamaya," (pron. yam-ay-ya) a supermarket that sells tortilla chips, french cheese, italian food, salami and other international culinary delights.

So for ages I didn't visit Yamaya. I hadn't got to the point of being sick of Japanese food, I mean I'd only been here for a few weeks. Then someone mentioned you could buy really cheap there and I was offski! It didn't disappoint. One bottle of red Paul Masson Californian red was a shocking 450 Yen (about £3). I was made!

But that wasn't the only shocker in the store. Yamaya sells booze in 5 litre bottles that defies everything about teeny Japan and outsizes anything I've seen sold in the US.

Check out these bottles of sake next to my measily bottle of red : )

The store is mostly full of booze and has a few aisles of international food but the