Shopping in the U.S. vs. in Japan If Japan is a paradise of convenience stores and yaoya (Japanese style groceries), the U.S. is a country of various supermarkets and groceries. In Japan yaoya, I can bear in mind the locations of what I would like to buy just after the first time visit. But in the U.S., I often get lost in the 'paddy field-like' supermarkets divided into a lot of sections and designed indistinctively. Sometimes, I am in Kroger but I think that I'm in Publix . Or, I'm in Target but i think I'm in Walmart. I look for what I want to buy in Publix but how possible?... because I'm in Kroger. (Different types of supermarkets open for different types of customers but some are one another's competitors. For example, Kroger is Publix's archenemey. To attract consumers, they often 'dump' the products or sell ones which cannot be found in the other supermarket. I prefer Publix's competition strategies that sometimes make customers funny). I wonder why there are so many different brands for a product. For example, to buy a 567g box of raisin cereal with 190 calories ($2,99) in the cereal section of more than 50 different kinds, i have to check about tastes (honey, chocolate, strawberry, blueberry, banana, etc.), the weight + calories, the price, the date and the various information of promotion such as buy 1 get 1 free, buy 2 for $6,00, buy 1 save 0.90cent, buy 2 get 1 free, etc. The same process goes over and over again during the shopping. For many people, shopping is a hobby but for me it's a kind of energy-consuming exercise (both spiritual and physical). After finishing a shopping list, I'm often very sleepy. I don't know that it's because I keep moving around so long in an air-conditioned supermarket or because I forced my small brain to operate too much. Now I put this symptom a nickname called 'shopping disorder'. Too little is not enough but too much is abundant. The life is always imbalanced.