CONVENIENCE STORES IN JAPAN WITH KIDS

Convenience stores and vending machines in Japan are some of my favourite things. I’ve made a cheat sheet for every day items.

It might sound strange but the combini (convenience store) is a major part of the visit to Japan.
In most countries in the world – it would only be a very, very brave person who dared to eat a “meal” made up of convenience store food but, in Japan, you can find an entire deli section, salads, bakery goods (all delivered daily), household supplies, sweets, alcohol, frozen foods etc.

You can actually get a healthy lunch on the go – and even heat up a lunch plate afterwards. Here are my tips on healthier convenience store options.
Japanese people also use combinis to pay bills and buy concert tickets.

See here for my similar “cheat sheet” for Japanese vending machines.

PLEASE NOTE: This article contains some affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

I cannot even imagine walking out of an Australian 7-Eleven with a dozen fresh eggs, some firm tofu, a salad and range of dressings and pack assorted sushi & sashimi.

Although I am a big believer that part of the whole “Japan experience” is not knowing what you’re ordering and buying at all times I thought I’d give some handy hints for some of the staples at convenience stores to get you started.
(This is , naturally, a constant work in progress as convenience stores in Japan are constantly changing and moving with the trends. Also , different products are available in different brands of combinis.)

Did you know that you can also charge your pasmo and suica on your phone or apple watch wallet at the ATMs at 7-Eleven in Japan? Tap on “charge/emoney” and then “charge prepaid transaction cards” and then place your phone on the touch pad and choose “charge” on the screen.

Which translation app do I recommend for shopping for food in Japan?
Google translate is the best one, in my opinion. Great for in restaurants too. But, for convenience stores and supermarkets I believe that you need more than just a translation app as products are often presented and packaged differently in Japan.
Also some products are (of course!) served differently.
For that reason – this blog post is a long one!

MILK & JUICE

Reaching for juice in the convenience stores in Japan.

Photo taken at Family Mart: Top Shelf: Cafe Latte, Non-Sugar Cafe Latte, Cafe Latte – lightly sweetened, Cafe Latte – Mandheling Coffee, Cafe Latte – Regular, Cafe Latte- Sugar Free. Second Shelf from the Top: A Milky Cafe Latte, Soy Latte, Mild MIlk Coffee, Craft Lemonade, Chocolate Mint Milk, Acai Bowl, Tropical Rooibos ^ Mango, Sweet Fruit Tea. Second from the Bottom Shelf: Tropicana Orange Blend Multivitamin Juice, Tropicana Mango Blend Iron Juice, Tropicana Peach Blend Fibre Juice, Kagome Green Smoothie, Kagome Berry & Pomegranate Smoothie, Grapefruit Juice, Grapefruit Juice, Orange Juice, Melon Milk, Strawberry Milk. Bottom Shelf: 100% OJ, 100% Apple Juice, 100% Sweet Orange Juice, 100% Green & Red Apple Juice, 100% Apple Juice, Lemonade with Coffee, Pirukuru 400 Probiotic Fermented Drink, Milk Tea, Protein Coffee Drink

Top Shelf: Kagome Vegetable Juice, Kagome Mulit-Vitamin Juice, Summer Fruit “One Whole Stick of Fruit” Fruit Juice, 1 day of Veg Juice, 1 day of Veg Juice Triple Care, 1 day of Veg Juice Middle Shelf: Savas Milk Protein Zero Fat Yoghurt Drink, Tebes Milk White Protein Drink, Almond Protein Drink, Mango Au Lait Protein Drink, My Protein Milk Tea Protein Drink. This photo was taken at Family Mart. Bottom Shelf: Kirin Postbiotic Immune Care Drink with 50% less Calories, Postbiotic Immune Care Drink, Gaseri Yoghurt Drink, R-1 Probiotic Drink, Y100 Yakult.

FULL CREAM = WHOLE MILK

WATER & DRINKS

Different types of water and juice in convenience stores in Japan.

HOW TO TELL ALCOHOLIC DRINKS FROM NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS
Understandably, many parents don’t want to make a mistake and accidentally buy an alcoholic beverage. The way to tell is alcoholic drinks will have お酒　on the front with a circle around it. Like in the picture below.

How to tell if drinks are alcoholic Japan

BOILED EGGS
Please note that this boiled eggs found in Japanese convenience stores are boiled in just salt – so they are also a great gluten free snack or breakfast on the go in Japan.

Top shelf : “Onsen Tamago” (explanation above), Dashimaki egg Second from the top shelf: Udon to make at home, Yakisoba to make at home, Imitation Crab, Kamaboko, Fishcake Chikuwa Sticks, Pickled Chinese Onions Second Shelf from the Bottom: Eggs Bottom Shelf: Bananas

Margarine , bread and jam
It is possible to buy white bread, margarine and blueberry or strawberry jam or peanut butter in convenience stores too. ( These are cheaper to purchase in a supermarket but if convenience is your number one priority, this is a good option. You will have additional types of bread to choose from in a supermarket too.)

One of the most popular brands of margarine sold in convenience stores, looks like this :

Neosoft Margarine. I also quite like a brand called Hotel Margarine. For a bigger range of butters and spreads – best to go to a supermarket.

Olive Oil
Small bottles of olive oil are sold at Japanese convenience stores.

This is a throw together breakfast I made while staying at Sumii apartment Yoyogi-Uehara. All of these ingredients pictured (except for the tall sweet chilli sauce bottle at the back) were purchased at Family Mart. The small bottle that says Bosco is the olive oil.

Ham
Convenience stores sell the perfect amount of ham for when you’re on holidays.

Convenience store ham. There are a few slices in each package.

The ham and cheese selection at the Lawson right near Mimaru Osaka Namba North.
The tops shelf is the different types of ham.
The bright yellow rectangles are dashimaki tamago (rolled egg omelette with stock and some sweet sauce) and the next shelf down is the cheese sticks (a box with a tub of margarine to the left of the cheesesticks) and to the right of the cheese sticks are little portions of cheese and cheese slices. The package closer to the bottom of the pic with a red 50 – that’s yakisoba noodles and the flavouring is in the pack too. You can use google translate for the instructions on the back.

Bread
Sliced bread (for toast etc) is sold in the convenience stores but you might miss it as it can look a bit different to what you see at home. Loaves of sliced bread are sold in halves in Japan and the thickness is determined by how many slices are in the pack.

A six slice loaf of bread can look really small to those from other countries who don’t use rice more than or as much as they consume bread.

See how this one says 6 ? so it’s 6 thick slices of bread. You can also find 8 slices or 10 slices (this is more commonly found in the supermarket, not just the convenience stores though.)

The bread selection at Lawson. A mixture of savoury and sweet breads – you can see the little sliced loaves on the bottom right (second shelf from the bottom) and the bottom shelf has some cereals too – a fruit muesli and some frosted cornflakes.
This is at the Lawson near Mimaru Osaka Namba North.

The Famous Egg Sandwiches
These are famous for a reason. They are soooo good and are sold in all major brands of convenience stores.

Japan’s famous convenience store egg sandwiches

Cream Cheese
Some convenience stores and most supermarkets sell these KIRI cream cheese snack packs with the little stick crackers.

Cheese

Chicken sold at the convenience store counters
These are LIFESAVERS (especially if you have picky eaters with you.)
This one pictured below is available at Lawson convenience stores – it is called “Karaage-Kun” (pronounced “ka-ra-age-kun”) and inside contains approx 6 pieces of Japanese fried chicken. Be sure to get the REGULAR flavour and the other option is a bit spicy and one of the other flavours sometimes available contains cheese.

Karage-kun. Sold at Lawson Convenience Stores (not sold at “Natural Lawson”)

There is also a Lawson fried chicken themed “Karaage-kun” bath ball. ( a Japanese bath ball is a bath bomb that disintergrates in the bath and contains a small surprise toy) I bought this at Loft in Shibuya – on the toy floor. So random and funny, right?

And Family Mart also have their own version of hot counter fried chicken called “Famichiki“. My kids both LOVE it!

SWEETS
I think the sweets don’t need translation as it adds to the fun. Japanese sweets are very reasonably priced so why not fill a basket with lots of colourful tricks and have a picnic?

Also, Japanese convenience stores are constantly introducing new flavours (of teas, chocolates, chewing gum) for a limited time only. Keep an eye out for promotional stickers for unusual flavours of the season and grab them while you can. Limited time only is written as 期限限定（kigen gentei).

Here are some of my family’s favourite convenience store treats:

Where have coolish been all my life? This is vanilla ice-cream in a pouch! It’s so great to help avoid the mess of an ice-cream cone. You can even replace the lid if you’re not quite finished and pop it in the freezer again! (Other flavours are sometimes for sale during different seasons.)

I also ingenious idea where @brollyknits told me that she has once used it as an icepack for a child’s hurt chin and, at the same time, it was a built-in bribery for holding it there!
Hold the icepack and eat the contents afterwards! Genius!

Treasures from the Family Mart INSIDE our hotel at the Tokyo Bay Shiomi Prince Hotel.

As you can see from some of the pictures already – my daughter’s favourite are PINO.
They are little mini icecreams sold as a mini set of 6 all covered in chocolate. It is considered to be extra lucky if one or more of the PINO in the pack are star or heart shaped. Pino are also gluten free !

The lucky “stats” when it comes to chances of getting stars or hearts in your pino pack.

Enjoying a pino and a coolish on the terrace at &Here Shinjuku in the evening.

Vanilla Bars from Family Mart are sooo yummy too.

And this is the king of all Icecream bars, in my opinion. The cone outside never gets soggy and it doesn’t melt easily.
The quality of the Icecream is also so good. It’s worth keeping an eye open for additional “limited time only” flavours too.
It’s called a JUMBO.

This is what it looks like on the inside

Jumbo. Sooo good. Ignore the black part of the packaging in the bottom left of the picture – that’s just a special wrapper for during winter.

The inside of a jumbo ice-cream – a massive icec-ream sandwich sold at Japanese convenience stores and supermarkets.

I am the only one in my family who likes these but I really like these ice-creams called “Black.” They are like a dark chocolate paddlepop to me.

And this ice-cream is my favourite of all time (but I only recommend if you like yogurt flavoured items.) It’s called Papico and there are two little ice-cream “bottles” inside. And my favourite is the White Sour flavour.

Matcha Icecream Bars

Not me gobbling up this delicious Matcha Monaco Ice-cream Bar in my Sumii Furnished Apartment in Yoyogi-Uehara. It was so so good! I love that I could keep several in the freezer here.

**Yoghur**t

I feel like no-one talks about this yummy fruit salad yoghurt from the convenience stores enough! It’s been around for years and years. This is me having some while staying at Sumii Furnished Apartments– I mixed through some cherries and blueberries from the nearby Maruetsu Supermarket too.

**DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE 7-ELEVEN SMOOTHIES!**
Look in the freezer section of 7-Eleven for a cup of pre-chopped and frozen fruit and veg. Then use the machine in-store to make it into a smoothie! You can even choose the acai option! Remember – this is just frozen fruit blended – making them **vegan AND gluten free.**

This is also strawberry yoghurt (sold in supermarkets and some convenience stores). It’s supposedly zero fat too and contains strawberry pulp.

Frozen Pineapple
This is in the icecream section of 7-Eleven but it is just a frozen stick of pineapple. Perfect for kids and adults! Especially during the heat of Japanese summer.

This is just a frozen stick of pineapple (available in the icecream section next to the icecreams) at 7-Eleven.

Jelly with Fruit Pieces
Both my hubby and I love this jelly. It’s got big pieces of mandarin. It’s really good.

Mh husband and I really love this jelly. it has big pieces of mandarin.

I love eating this orange mandarin jelly in the bath when it’s right out of the fridge. This is the bath at Tokyo Family Stay’s airbnb in Koenji.

While my little boy loves these pouch drinking jellies too. This is apple flavoured but there are a whole range of fruit options in the supermarkets.

Alfort Chocolate Topped Biscuits
These chocolate topped small biscuits are called Alfort. They are DELICIOUS! We all like the original flavour and my kids especially love the lighter milk chocolate. I also like the white chocolate version. They are a more delicate version of a digestive biscuit in the UK.

Alfort Biscuits and Koala- no-March chocolate filled cookies.

SAVOURY TREATS FROM JAPANESE CONVENIENCE STORES

Jyagariko , stick-shaped potato crisps. We all like the “salad” (sounds gross but it isn’t) flavoured ones the best.
This flavour and the ones in the blue cup are also gluten free!

These “jyagariko bits” are also now for sale in many places too (they are just smaller packets with smaller pieces.)

My little boy, in particular, adores these little savoury goldfish crackers ( a much lighter and less flavoured goldfish than the U.S. option.)

These little “mini ball” crackers are a little bit sweet and are perfect for toddlers. They are either in my little boys tummy or in between the couch cushions at all times.

My kids LOVE these chicken meatballs from Family Mart.

And my kids also love this “Gold” Hamburg steak from 7-Eleven. For fellow aussies, this is eating really nice juicy beef rissoles. I recommend getting these if you are staying in an apartment hotel with a kitchenette like a Mimaru or an &Here apartment hotel. You can microwave it in the bag (google translate the instructions on the back) and it’s really nice to serve with convenience store microwaveable rice (also in this article.)

These are some other amazing snacks that I love but don’t have any English on the packaging. Like these rice crackers with sweet icing called Yuki no Yado.

Or these chocolate dipped pretzel “mushrooms” called Kinoko no Yama.

Kinoko no Yama – convenience store chocolate snack

And we love Toppo. It’s a pretzel filled with chocolate. It’s so good.

Toppo are like inside out Pocky. Pretzel tube filled with chocolate.

And these vegan curries are for sale at convenience store, Natural Lawson. They also stock vegan soy meat bolognese and carbonara sauce.

Natural Lawson is another brand of convenience store that is known for more “healthy” options (more gluten free and vegetarian options and often more whole grains or organic products etc.)

I think it is worth noting that the “blue green” range of items at Family Mart convenience stores in Japan are NOT strictly vegan – if you you google translate you will see “may contain animal products.”

Also, did you know that most convenience stores in Japan have microwaves for customers to use to heat up the items they just purchased?
Just a warning – these are restaurant grade strength so 10 seconds is like putting something in the normal microwave for a minute!
You can heat up your meal in the microwave and then take it to your hotel room to eat. It’s so so handy with kids.

My kids both LOVE the “meat sauce pasta” from 7-Eleven and Family Mart (the 7-eleven one is their absolute favourite though) so so much.

My daughter eating Meat Sauce Pasta in the room at Hotel MyStays Premier Narita.

I know I won’t be winning any photography awards for this shot. You’re just going to have to trust me that my LOVE a convenience store “meat sauce pasta” in Japan.

Examples of other ready made meals at convenience store foods. This photo was taken at Lawson. You can use the microwave inside Lawson to heat or you can take it back to your accommodation. They will provide cutlery too, if you need. Top shelf: Salmon Roe Mochi Cheese Gratin, Shrimp Doria. Second shelf: Pork Garlic Ramen, Vegetable Tempura Soba, A Day’s worth of Veg Champon Noodles. Third shelf: Japanese Napolitan Pasta, Japanese style Pasta with Soy Sauce and Mushrooms, Cod Roe Pasta, Fettucine Carbonara Fourth shelf: Chilled Chinese Noodles, Peperoncino Spaghetti. Japanese Napolitan Pasta, Spicy Cod Roe Mayonnaise Pasta. Bottom shelf: Meat Sauce Spaghetti.

For more grocery items in all convenience stores that don’t have English on the packaging, see my post here.

I do love how in countryside Japan you will also find many stores have to play down their signage so that it doesn’t take away from the feel. Even McDonalds red becomes brown!
This is 7-Eleven in Takayama.

Gluten free convenience store options include:
Jagariko (Jyagariko) potato chips
Boiled eggs
Small chopped vegetable tubs
Simple salt rice balls
As I mention in my what to pack blog post – if you are gluten free I recommend bringing your own gluten free soy sauce and the international type of kewpie mayo that doesn’t contain gluten.

Some 7-Eleven Japan fruit and cheese options. Top shelf: Chopped and peeled apple, chopped pineapple, dried persimmon. Middle shelf: Red bean manjyu, a wheel of camembert cheese (the one with the minnie mouse). Bottom shelf: Melon Flavoured Annin Tofu (Almond Tofu), Annin Tofu

Vegan options at 7-Eleven in Japan (great back up snacks while you’re moving around the cities)
-bananas
-chopped pineapple and apples
-dried sweet potato
-small packs of red and green grapes
-the plain salt onigiri (rice ball)
-rice with adzuki beans onigiri (rice ball)
-berry & pomegranate kagome smoothie (the banana smoothie isn’t vegan)
-kikkoman soy milk “juice packs” (the green soy milk and the pudding flavour are both vegan)
-roasted chestnuts
-chocolate tofu sweets bar
-packs of edamame (triangular package)
-warabi mochi & sweet potato mochi

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER : The convenience stores have some great bentos and ready made meals – but guess who has EVEN MORE bentos and ready made meals in Japan? Japanese Supermarkets!!!!

PLEASE NOTE: This article contains some affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

SaveSave