Sanwa Super Market 三和の店横須賀

Sanwa Supermarket has been open for about a month now, and I recently paid a visit. It is still going through the "new store" phenomenon where everybody in the area wants to check it out.

Bottom Line Up Front: I give Sanwa Supermarket a thumbs up. The quality of the fresh food was excellent and the prices were pretty good too. We bought some things for the first time at Sanwa that we have never previously bought in Japan due to the high prices.  Because the prices were right though, some fresh corn on the cob and a large watermelon came home. The watermelon was very sweet, and came in at only $7. This is about $5 cheaper than the watermelon at Daiei.

Every Japanese food store will have some perfectly formed fruit for sale for a price of course

I bought some grapes at Sanwa. They were about $5 a bunch. Way above the norm for grapes right? Yes but I took them home and made a sorbet (future post of course) out of them and it turned out fantastic. These were Pione grapes from Yamanashi Prefecture, which is a large grape growing region in Japan.  Pione grapes are a cross between Kyoho Grapes and Cannon Hole Muscat. I recommend you try some of these Japanese grapes sometime. They are a cut above the kind you get at most U.S. markets.

 The one critique I have of Sanwa is that the aisles were very tight. With boxes piled at the ends of the aisles and lots and lots of people, it made for a sometimes slow crawl through the place. Going against the counterclockwise flow on the outside ring of the store was nearly impossible. You had to find an interior aisle to go back.

The seafood and meat sections are smaller than AVE but still manage to have a good selection. 

I like Sanwa over AVE for its atmosphere. AVE is very utilitarian but Sanwa is warm and inviting. (AVE does have huge aisles in comparison though and nearly matches on price based on my one and only visit so far). 

Carrots of all sorts

 OK so the corn is in the photo below. About 58 cents per ear. In Wisconsin during harvest season you can get it for less than 20 cents an ear. But this is Japan and getting fresh, locally grown corn like this at these prices is great! All of them were in excellent shape too with not a rotten one in sight.

Fresh and cheap corn

Sanwa is located on the "beach" road (Yokosuka Kaigan Dori) before you get to LIVIN. There is also an electronics market, a Toy's R Us, and restaurant Sumiyoshi located in the building. As far as I can tell the restaurant is the same chain as my previous review. I've added Sanwa to the blog map. Parking is free either in front or in the parking garage.

meat aisle

The below photo is cause for concern. Note the white, innocent looking animal/man thing with human hands. It is meant to get your attention and it does this by playing a song. It's a short song like maybe 8 seconds long. It is then repeated again and again, and again, and again, etc. If you are blocked in by other shoppers you will be driven to a state of panic, unable to escape. And it's loud. It's like hearing Barney songs over and over while your child dances. Adults just cannot cope with it.  But for some reason Japanese stores like to buy these little machines.

So I decided to track down the manufacturer of this torture device. It is made by Oh-Sense and can be bought for a cool $220. Really? It has an IC memory that plays a total of two songs over and over??! It is called the MC-F06 Yobikumi. Yobikumi is someone or something that attempts to attract patrons to shops, bars, "and such," by exhorting the passing public. Daiei Food Store used to have one of these machines too right next to the fresh shrimp. But I'd like to think that I had something to do with it's ultimate demise. Sanwa? Are you listening?

About $2.50 for a kilo of chicken. 

Superfresh and cheap chicken

Taylor's Tonics all the way from the U.S.

Sometimes the Japanese just use "pine" for pineapple

About 19 lines of Japanese efficiency

Sanwa, we're coming back.