As I mentioned last time, at least from my experience 100yen stores are the primary target for freegans :-) One can find two types of them in Tokyo: selling mixed kind of things and selling mainly food. I will pay my attention to the later. I'm sure you can find 4 or 5 100yen stores around the place you live, because there are thousands of them in Tokyo. First, the same as with supermarkets, check where they place their garbage. Some of them lock it inside, some have trash bins at the front of the store and some place them somewhere near (in small streets around the corner, etc.). Of course, you can't make anything if they lock their garbage in the store. If the trash bins are placed at the front checking what's inside becomes quite complicated and not so convenient. Especially when the streets are busy, 100yen stores work non-stop 24/7 and you don't want to look as crazy gaijin ;-) But from all the 100yen stores that are around my house two of them put their garbage in small streets around the corner so dumpster diving is really easy.
What you can get from 100yen store?
It depends, but usually they throw away quite many produce. I can get all my fruits and vegetables I need only by “visiting” two 100yen stores: apples, oranges, tangerines, pineapples, lemons, kabocha, daikon, salads, cabbages, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes... You can find almost everything. Out-of-date goods are more rare and most of them are not vegan, but sometimes I find spices, flour, pasta, soy milk, tofu, etc.
Next time – what time is the best to go dumpster dive ;-)
1 comment:
Wowzers! This is amazing! I'm an avid dumpster diver in Seattle visiting Tokyo for a week. I realize this blog is from years ago, but would you share the locations of the 100 yen stores you used to dive? I'd like to check 'em out and see if they're still hot. :-)
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