Coffee in Japan - Expensive but can be cheap

I'm a pretty avid coffee drinker. But by no means am I a coffee snob. To me, coffee is coffee. Well ok most. But I have a big sweet tooth too. Coffee in Japan is at least 300 yen ($3) for a small. At Starbucks (which I don't even really go to...talk about globalization, btw), I think the smallest was 360 yen. I don't have the prices but check out this HUGE two-story Starbucks:



I've never been a big fan of Starbucks anyway because I'm mostly about the fair trade stuff (and if that doesn't exist where I'm at, I'd still rather support the small, independent business) so obviously we didn't go there. Steph's pretty conscious about that kind of stuff too so let's go and snub Starbucks yo.

Seriously, maybe I'm just cheap when it comes to coffee in general but to me, $3.60 for a small coffee is expensive. But I usually like to drink lattes with a touch of sugar or splenda. I also like my coffee iced on a hot day. And today was a hot day.

And feeling like a hypocrite and determined to prove my budget theory, I let it all go.

I rolled into an AM PM. The coffee at independent coffee houses REALLY were expensive. I had to sacrifice my beliefs for 20 minutes.

So yeeeeah, they actually have those here. HAHAHAHAHHA. IT's not like in the states at all. Here, it's so much better.

This is how I roll:

I actually got the one on the right and it was chilled and sweet and it tasted soooo good! I also got it for 84 yen from another AM PM. Yeah, that's how I do. If you're wondering about the size, it's actually quite big. It's about 300ml.

For my sweet tooth, I've been having pre-packed mini donuts because they're way sweeter than the actual donuts from the donut and coffee shops. Plus, a pack like this costs only 105 yen!

Total for coffee and donuts at the most when you do it bargain style: 210 yen ($2.10). Holla!