Japanese Style Convini's (convinence marts) in USA!! Famima!!!

Wow! when I got back from Japan I saw a store in torrance near my apt that looked a hell of a lot like one I saw in Harajuku. I never bothered to check it out, but damn I moved to westwood recently near UCLA and I saw the same store. Turns out it's the company that owns family mart trying to open up Japanese style Convini's in the US. I decided to check out the one in westwood and it's not too shabby. It has some american fusion in there, but hasn't totally left out the Japanese element. You can get riceballs, melon bread, Curry Pan, Buns and the such. Sure beats 7-11 =). Too bad the one in Westwood might close down because of bad location placement. They should have placed it in westwood village where they get more Student foot traffic.

http://www.famima-usa.com/

I know some others:

Mitsuwa in the CA/NJ area.
http://www.mitsuwa.com/slh2.html

In NYC:
Sunrise Mart in NYC (east village - St. Marks).

JAS Mart in three locations (east village St Marks, 23rd st Lexington, 110th St west side - don't remember the exact location)

Yagura Marketplace - 41st btwn Madison and 5th Ave.

Katagiri - 59th St btwn 2nd & 3rd Ave. (notorious for selling expired goods)

well mitsuwa are more like full blown supermarkets than convinis . Not sure about the other ones though since I've never been to east coast, but this famima is like pure convini D:!

Too bad it is only in LA.

[quote name='XxFuRy2Xx']Too bad it is only in LA.[/QUOTE]

If it does well they are planning to expand though which could be really great for people craving riceballs