Stuff that I miss

Steve Digs into some Greek Food

I was trying to justify to Chris the other day why I was waiting on a care package from home with deodorant in it, when I realized that it was more about my brand familiarity and comfort zone than about the quality of goods here in Japan. That's alright. Thanks again Cathy for sending that over!

But I got to thinking about some of the stuff that I wish I could buy here that you just can't find here in Hamamatsu (not yet anyway), and I thought- I have me a blog topic! All product images come from the company websites...
Poptarts - Man- I would probably eat them like once or twice a year, but when I get the craving for one- I really want one! These yummy morsels you pull out of the wrapper, stick the toaster and when they pop out are delicious and hot! I would sometimes just eat them cold...

Greek Food - When I think about it, Greek food should be a great fit for Japan. Hummus would be very popular with it's healthiness and great taste (even tahini, one of the ingredients of hummus is a sesamee based product- they love sesame here!), not to mention tzatziki. Greek Salad, pita bread, calamari and souvlaki would all go down nicely here too- why can't I find a blooming Greek restaurant here!?
Cherry Garcia - Basically the best ice cream I have ever eaten. Enough said.
Sleemans Honey Brown Ale/Spring Pale Ale - At most import stores you can see European beers and some American beers but no sight of anything Canadian (not even Molson Canadian) I was holding onto hope when I heard that Sleeman's was bought by a Japanese company last year- Sapporo, but no such luck. Oh well- going to Vancouver in 2 months.
HP Sauce - HP stands for House of Parliament- not Hewlett Packard. The other day we were able to find a steak that didn't cost about $27, so we bought and enjoyed a nice steak dinner last night. That brought me around to my favorite steak sauce- HP. I have no idea why it wouldn't be at one of the import stores- even in Nagoya and Tokyo I've had no luck finding it. Luckily Ritsy improvised up a good sauce for our dinner!
Lime Tortilla Chips - Man I loved those things! Happy memories of the hockey playoffs my last year in Vancouver, when all the guys would get together and we would have a couple of Kokanee's and eat the Lime chips. I actually found some in Nagoya one time at Parco or something like that- mmm chips...

It would be great if they had a store just with stuff I needed- but I know that in the real world it doesn't work like that. There is a thing called the Foreign Buyer's Club- but the prices are just unreasonable and it sounds like you have to wait a long time. I just binge when I go home to visit... but if you happen across any of these products in Japan, let me know!