Activity Resources - Konbini Games

Convenience Stores （コンビニ）

コンビニoriginated in the U.S.A. more than 70 years ago. In Japan the first one appeared in 1974, and there are now 55,000 コンビニ. To achieve this phenomenal success in Japan, they had to introduce management practices from the U.S.A. while inventing their own business techniques. For example, the stores developed their own recipes for some traditional foods (おにぎり, おでんetc.) They also have refrigerated packaged meals and other food products delivered several times a day. Many コンビニ in Japan have a retail floor area of only about 100㎡, limiting them to a maximum of about 3,000 types of products. Even so, a local コンビニ is generally able to sell what we need for daily living.

One important factor is the Point of Sales (POS) system. Computer networks link cash registers in stores to their respective headquarters. The cash registers have buttons to record customer gender and age group. In this way, customer data is correlated with the product and price information obtained from the bar codes of the item purchased. Customer and sales data is transmitted from each store to the headquarters, where it is stored and analysed. Because of POS, コンビニ can stock exactly what people want, which explains why sales revenues and store numbers are continuing to rise. Now コンビニ are succeeding in other countries including Taiwan, Korea and China. おにぎり is becoming a popular light meal in Korea.

Services in コンビニ

A popular facility offered at コンビニ is bills payment. ATMs and a toilet are also available. A recent addition includes touch screen monitors. Customers can touch the screen to reserve a hotel room, concert tickets or airline tickets. You can also order CDs, videos, DVDs and books. You can even order a health check kit from a コンビニ. It will be delivered to your home the next day, and you can use the kit to take your own urine and blood samples, send them to a lab, and have the results delivered. You can recharge your mobile phone for a small fee, which is especially good for people who need to give their phone a quick recharge before making an important call. Meal deliveries are also possible, and about 300 different types of meals can be delivered to your home or office. When you buy おべんとう or おにぎり, you can use the complimentary microwave to heat it up. If you want to eat カップラーメン just after you buy it, boiling hot water is also available.

あめ

These are lollies which are often wrapped individually and sold in a bag. The most popular あめ come in fruit or soft drink flavours.

あんパン

あん is sweet bean jam. Sweet beans are strained or mashed bean paste boiled with sugar. あん is most commonly made from red beans (あずき), but it is sometimes made from white or mottled kidney beans. It is the most widely used ingredient in Japanese sweets. あんパン is a bread filled with あん.

おかし（お菓子）

おかし usually refers to sweets, cakes and chocolates, but it also includes savoury food such as potato chips and せんべい (Japanese rice crackers). おかし can also be referred to as おやつ which actually means afternoon tea.

おちゃ（お茶）

There are various kinds of tea drinks sold in Japan such as green tea, oolong tea, herbal tea and black tea. Usually it is sold in a PET bottle or can. おちゃ(green tea) is more popular than water. In コンビニ, when people buy Japanese foods like おべんとう or おにぎり, they often buy a tea drink. You can have hot tea or cold tea, and most people prefer cold tea to the hot variety.

おでん

Japanese stew, usually served with hot mustard as a condiment. A variety of foods ? soybean curd, octopus, hard-boiled eggs, devil’s tongue, Japanese radish, rolls of kelp, many kinds of fish-paste cake, etc. are boiled together in a large pot with seasoned fish broth. In コンビニ, there is a big pot of おでん near the cash register from which you can choose the ingredients you like, and take the stew away. おでん is a very cheap meal, and is very popular in winter.

おにぎり

おにぎり is a rice ball. It is either round or triangular in shape, and is often covered with a sheet of のり(dried seaweed). It comes with a variety of fillings such as pickled plum, codfish roe, salty salmon or spicy boiled foods. There are about 18 kinds of おにぎり sold in コンビニ.

おべんとう（お弁当）

A Japanese lunchbox usually contains rice, a sour plum and vegetables boiled in soy sauce. The main meal is often fish, otherwise chicken, pork or steak. The kind of おべんとう sold depends on the season. A microwave is always available to the customer to heat up their おべんとう.

カップラーメン（Instant Noodles)

A wide variety of instant noodles are sold in コンビニ. They are cooked by pouring hot water into the large polystyrene cup in which they are sold. You can also buy instant pasta, うどん and そば. There is an urn with boiling water near the cash register for customers to cook their noodles.

カレー(Curry)

カレー found in コンビニ is sold in a vacuum pack （レトルトパック）for a quick meal. It is made by putting the packet into boiling water for 6-7 minutes, opening the packet and pouring it onto rice.

コーヒー（Coffee）

Canned coffee is very popular in Japan, and every vending machine stocks it. There are many kinds of coffee, which business people commonly drink in the morning. Cold coffee is also available.

サラダ（Salad）

In コンビニ, salads are sold in small plastic containers. There are many varieties of salads. There is the basic salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and tuna, or salad with seaweed. Other choices are macaroni salad and burdock salad, and the dressing is usually mayonnaise. Because salads are healthy, they are very popular with women. Japanese people often have salads with breakfast.

サンドイッチ (Sandwich)

Sandwiches are similar to their Western equivalent, but in Japan they are usually made of white bread and the crusts are cut off.

しょうゆ

Soy sauce is the most commonly used seasoning in Japan. It made by fermenting beans.

せんべい

These are Japanese sweet or salted crackers. One type is made from wheat flour, mixed with sugar, eggs, spices, seasonings, etc. The dough is pressed flat in iron molds and baked. The other is made from rice, dried and baked to a crisp, the crackers are seasoned with salt or soy sauce, and dried by baking them again. Some are wrapped in seaweed. The size and shape of せんべい vary greatly from locality to locality.

そば（蕎麦）

そば are long thin brownish noodles made from buckwheat flour with egg and yam starch. They are eaten either hot in soup (かけそば) or as a cold dish with a dip (ざるそば or もりそば). Minced green onions and other spices are used as condiments. In コンビニ, かけそば are sold like instant noodles, and ざるそば or もりそば are sold in round dishes separated into soba and a pack of cold soup and condiments.

だんご（団子）

Made of dough consisting mainly of rice flour, だんご is kneaded and shaped into small balls which are steamed or boiled. The balls are given a variety of coatings, such as sweet bean paste (あん) or soybean flour (きなこ), or they are dipped in soy sauce and grilled, often on bamboo skewers.

にくまん（肉まん）

This is a round bun, consisting of flour based pastry usually with pork mince inside. にくまん are always sold hot, and stored in ovens to keep them warm. They are relatively cheap, and they come with a variety of fillings including pizza, coffee cream, curry and あん.

まんが（漫画）

まんが (cartoons) are very widely read by both young people and adults. Someまんが sell several million copies every week (ONE PEACE, HUNTER×HUNTER, NANA, NARUTO etc.) Popular manga are turned into books after first being serialized in weekly magazines. In コンビニ, shop owners allow browsing because they want to create the impression of a busy and bustling convenience store. They also consider having many customers a form of theft prevention.

マニキュア（Nail Polish)

Although this word comes from the English word ‘manicure’, in Japanese it actually refers to nail polish.

みそ（味噌）

みそ is made by crushing boiled soybeans and adding salt and malted rice (which acts as a yeast) made from beans. みそ is a vital ingredient of みそしる, which is a traditional Japanese soup.

やきとり（焼鳥）

やきとり consists of pieces of chicken, grilled on bamboo skewers over charcoal. It is flavoured during cooking with either a sour-sweet soy-based sauce or with salt.