As we were packing to come to Japan, we brought a bunch of personal care products since we are aware that many companies add chemicals to body care products that we would rather avoid, but we thought that we could probably easily find things like rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, so we did not bring any with us. Once we started looking for rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, we quickly realized that we were not easily going to find any. At the pharmacy section of a store, we typed the term “rubbing alcohol” into google translate and showed the store attendant the translated result, “消毒用アルコール” and she guided us to a small expensive bottle which after we purchased we realized that it was a lime scented disinfectant. We did the same for hydrogen peroxide, we typed it in and got “過酸化水素” and the store attendant was puzzled, I think she knew what it was, but didn’t think you could buy purely it. She led us into the connected grocery part of the store and led us to the floor cleaning supplies which may have contained hydrogen peroxide.

maybe next time we should look for / ask about オキシドール when looking for hydrogen peroxide

and try looking for 消毒用工タノール for rubbing alcohol