AVE

In the last year I have started doing more shopping out in town.  I have always done some shopping off base, but not on a weekly basis or anything.  AVE is a store just a few minutes down the road, and I find it has the best deals on produce and is easy for us to go there- we can park at the store so we don't have to worry about parking on base, then walking and carrying our groceries home. They are open from 10-7 and they don't do very much re-stocking during the afternoon so if you go late there isn't much selection.  We usually go right before nap or after.

   The first thing we do when we get to AVE is go visit the puppies (Inu) and Kittens (nek0).  Gabrielle LOVES this part, she tells all of them HI and goes back and forth between all the windows to visit them.  After pulling her away from the animals and saying goodbye to them we go to the other side of the store- the food side.  The produce is so sweet, clean and amazing here. I don't know how people buy it on base and not locally!  They only take cash, and I normally only take 5000yen  with me ($50) but that covers it and we have money left.  Last week I took a picture of our purchases after we got home. With Clayton home I had to buy more so this trip cost about $45.  We bought: 3 green apples (best apples you will ever have!) # red apples, 4 peaches, 5 cucumbers, 3 carrots, 1 pineapple, 2 gold kiwi, 2 bags fresh green beans, 1 honeydew melon, 1/2 watermelon, bunch of bananas, apple juice, pineapple juice, piece of salmon, 2 containers of prepared edimame (our absolute favorite) and two ice cream treats! 

  Oh and I do buy more vegetables, but those I do tend to get on base. AVE sells like 3 pieces of asparagus as a bunch! Plus most of the stuff I don't know exactly what it is or how you would eat it! Today's trip was only $30.