SHOPPING DAY AT VALOR

SHOPPING DAY AT VALOR

Just like in any other town or city, in any prefecture in Japan, and just like any town or city in the USA, we do much of our weekly shopping on Friday or Saturday at our local supermarket and home store. In Tajimi-shi, we like to go to the Valor supamaketto and home store. Valor is a chain of such stores, based in Tajimi which serves Gifu Prefecture among others. The company is quite popoular with everyone and highly successful:

http://www.valor.co.jp/vghp/, http://www.alacrastore.com/company-snapshot/Valor_Co_Ltd-1079290

Fridays and Saturdays are particularly busy, a time when not only young families come to shop but also middle-aged and elderly couples as well. If you visit Gifu, and particularly Tajimi-shi, you owe it to yourself to visit Valor. You will be amazed at the wide variety of foods and goods available in both the grocery market and the home store, and the prices are often much better than in the US. You'll be amazed. What perhaps will impress any visitor the most is that each store is immaculately clean and the staff are not only helpful, but extremely polite and gracious, always eager to help a visitor.

The front entrance to the Valor supamaketto in Tajimi-shi.

The ever-present security guard, there mostly to direct traffic.

Nobody likes him!


A required stopping place, either before or after
shopping is Mr. Donut for fresh coffee and donuts!

The main entrance to the supermarket, featuring the

freshest produce and fruits.

Got a cat? There's a wide variety of canned cat food

available, including some from the US - which our cat

hates with a passion!

Fresh fish at reasonable prices.

More fish, probably caught the day before.

Bacon for 97 yen - that's $1.50 USD!

Aisle after aisle of anything food from Japan and

many places around the world you can imagine.

Of course there are the ever-present vending machines.

Japan is vending machine country and you can

find anything from sodas, tea, cigarettes, to candy and snacks.

I have seen this gentleman many times before, although I have never

learned his name. He rides his bicycle, almost daily, some three miles

over a steep hill to the market, and back again, rain or shine,

summer or winter. Well into his seventies well into his seventies,

possibly over eighty, he is a fine example of how fit and hardy

Japanese senior citizens are.

Something you rarely see in the US, a pay telephone! Very handy

to have when your cell phone breaks down!

Of course there are fresh flowers, an important part

of any Japanese household.

Security directing traffic into the home store parking lot.