Vegetables is a subject where stereotypes diverge greatly from the reality, according to What Japan Thinks. “Ask someone what the Japanese eat and you get tales of lots of vegetable-based side dishes lovingly prepared, but if you observe the reality you’ll find that fast foods and fried foods abound, and vegetables are often limited to just a lettuce
leaf or a teacup-sized salad of sliced cabbage.”

They summarize a recent study of 8,135 individuals conducted by DIMSDRIVE Research that had some rather surprising results. The questions included:

• About how often do you make food at home?
• How often do you eat food that includes vegetables?
• What vegetable do you most often buy?
• Where do you buy vegetables?
• When buying vegetables, what points are important?
• Do you consume enough vegetables in your daily life?
• When you feel you aren’t having enough, what do you do?
• When you want to eat vegetables, what do you choose?

The blogger also noted that “Supermarket vegetable quality is very variable; I sometimes use Jusco or Daiei, and find that most of the time their veggies are average to poor quality. However, right opposite Jusco is Kohyo, a slightly more upmarket chain who are just as cheap, if not cheaper, than Jusco yet have so much higher quality. The best I’ve found
in town was a farmer’s co-op shop that was almost half the price of the nearest supermarket.”

Eek — Jusco! That seemed to ring a bell and — sure enough — that’s the establishment lampooned in Shimotsuma Monogatori. It’s like a Japanese Wal-Mart I think? Even the name seems to fit.