I always get a kick taking weekend trips to international markets. We have a number of them where I live, and it usually provides me a good assortment of things to look at, knick-knacks, interesting foods to try, and a chance to enjoy some favorites I don't frequently get at the local generic grocery store.

Today my daughter and I took a run down to the local Japanese food market, which was a combination of grabbing a few specialties, checking out the collection of toys and anime stuff for sale, and grabbing a few cold ones for the fridge.

Sweets are everywhere. There is no shortage of cakes, cookies, sweets, pastries and more, especially given the fact that the two big taste categories of Pacific Rim food tends to be salty or sweet.

Lots of Choices in Dishware

Another neat thing is the assortment of bowls, dips, vases and similar dishware that makes it a lot easier to serve different kinds of foods. Most American dishware stores barely carry a lot of this stuff, sized for smaller portions. Instead, when you buy a bowl, it's big enough to fit a football or it's basically a plate with raised edges or cereal bowl. Instead, the market we went to had probably about 50 different choices in bowls alone, and plenty of patterns or details on them too. However, many are not dishwasher-safe, so that's always something to watch out for.

My daughter chose the cat bowl. Gee, what a surprise.

Robot Toys are Plenty

Since I was a kid, I always enjoyed Japanese toy art in the form of futuristic robots. Whether it was the early manga style robots or the later evolutions that became the genesis for the Transformers, they were all cool to look at and build as glue-plastic models. But to actually get the figure actions that worked was the premium prize, especially since you could only get them as imports in most of the U.S.

Today, they're all over, and the local Japanese market has a healthy collection, even though its a food store. Oh and no worries for all the Funko diehards; there are plenty of those collectibles too, big and small.

And then, of course, you can't go through a store without finding something that looks pretty darn familiar.

Isn't there a Solana meme token that just came out with this character as the mascot?!?

Who's meming who here anyways?

So, if you want to get away from the computer, social media and various crypto Discords and see real life for a change, but don't want to spend an arm and a leg doing it, go to a local international market instead and explore for a while. You'll be surprised what you find, as well as how much variety there is in food choices. And, don't worry, there's some good standbys for consistency too. Got myself a 12-pack of Sapporo for tonight's relaxing.

All images are my own and under copyright.