Burn a hole in your pocket

There are many places on and around base to buy the things that you need. There is of course the Navy Exchange, that is located near the center of the base, that is divided up according to what you are buying. The main store (shown in the video below) contains all the clothing for teens to adults, make-up, household supplies, some snack food, electronics, books and jewelry.



The commissary is located next to the NEX, and just like on every other base in the world, is most crowded on payday so beware. You can find most products from the states that you might be looking for, but they may not have the brand that you are fond of. For example, there are only Thomas brand bagels at the commissary and they only carry California Sunshine brand milk. It doesn't help much if you love coupons but you can defiantly find all the items you will need to make your favorite American meals.

One thing to prepare for though is the price increase. Milk here averages over $4.00 a gallon and fruits and vegetables are through the roof. You can easily spend around $10.00 on an average sized honeydew. On the flip side though, meat is I think on the average to low side and the quality is way up there. A helpful thing about being overseas is that fleet and family services does have pre-cut coupons that you can sort through to use. The commissary excepts coupons from the states that are up to six months expired, so if you are determined to get those bagels cheaper, you can always sort through the coupon baggies and find a deal.

The furniture NEX has some great pieces of furniture for fair prices. Every now and then they have sells and clearance items. You can sometimes find a steal of a love seat for only $100 bucks! They do deliver to where ever you are living for different prices depending on the distance.

The home goods store is where you can find all of the pots, pans, sheets, pillows and other house items that you may need. They also have a pretty nice selection of Japanese Giftware that you can send back home to friends and family or decorate your home with.

Down the street from the base is Daiei Mall. This place is huge and you can find tons a neat stuff there. Since it is not on base, they only take yen there and most people working there do not speak English so be prepared to use a lot of hand signals and your translation guide if needed.

When shopping out in town for clothing, remember that they do not carry larger sizes. Japanese people are much smaller on average so most stores will not have sizes for woman above an American size 10 at the very most and men above a 38. Those sizes will even be hard to find.

All in all, you can pretty much find what you are looking for here, you just need to be prepared to make a few compromises and pay a little more sometimes, and if not, there is always online shopping!