Here’s a bit of a throw back Thursday post. It’s been nearly 2 months since I returned from Japan! Here are some non-beauty bits I picked up from Japan.
I didn’t do much clothing shopping in Japan. There wasn’t a ton there that I couldn’t get here at home. Although, I was a big fan of their style: the standard outfit consisted of elastic waist a-line skirt and a loose boxy top, worn with platform wedge sandals or Birkenstocks. It was all about comfort!
Uniqlo
I was so excited to stumble on the liberty of London x Uniqlo while I was there! I ended up buying 2 items from the collection:
“Relaco” culottes – these are so comfy! (culottes are very popular in Japan, I noticed)
Canvas tote – mine has navy handles and base instead of the white.
And this was from Uniqlo’s regularly line:
V-neck overalls (this is what the Google translate spits out when I translated this “Vネックサロペット”) – I’d call this a romper. I got this because it looks like the quintessential “Japanese” fashion. here are typical Japanese women’s outfits:
I aim to emulate these looks when I wear the romper!
Clothes shopping is a pleasant experience in Japan – they provide shoes of various heights to try on with your items. I experienced something similar at higher end stores in Hong Kong as well.
They also provide these disposable face cover sheets so you don’t soil the clothes with your makeup – smart! Uniqlo is planning to open a location in Toronto this October – it will be interesting to see how the pricing will be for the Canadian market.
Daiso and Can⋆Do
These are the Japanese version of a dollar store. Things are priced by increments of ¥100 – the most expensive things I’ve seen are ¥500 (~C$6.30)
Pencil holders – I don’t know how they are able to sell these for only ¥200 each (~C$2.50) and they’re made in Japan!
I plan to use these to hold eyeliners and shorter brushes.
Hello Kitty pouch – not sure what I’m going to use this for but it’s an authentic Sanrio product for ¥100 (~C$1.25). This was the only hello Kitty item I bought on the whole trip, even though the selection was extensive:
SHOCKER!
Foaming net, and cotton buds – if you look up articles of what to buy in Japanese drugstores, more often than not you’ll see them recommend Japanese cotton buds. They’re supposed to be superior to what we get here.
I saw some up for sale that were made in China so I made sure to buy ones made in Japan!
Clear plastic earrings and hair elastics – I have nickel allergies and so far, I’ve only been able to wear earrings with titanium posts. But, I find titanium very heavy to wear for an extended period of time. I’ve heard of these little plastic earrings before but they’re not available locally. I hope these work for me! and the hair elastics are just like the Invisibobbles, which retails $10 for 3pcs. This cost me ¥100 (~C$1.25) for 6pcs!
Randoms
Japanese socks – 2 of them have the toe separation meant to be worn with Geta “下駄” (traditional Japanese sandals). The one on the right has a cat design at the heel. They’re so cute!
Bracelet kit, coin purse frame, and liberty of London fabric – I stumbled upon a crafting section inside a department store:
I felt up some of the knitting yarns but ultimately decided not to buy any.
But I did find some Marimekko and Liberty of London fabric (I think these were quilting squares).
And a vast selection of frames to make coin purses.
Here’s something you don’t know about me – I love old-fashioned coin purses with the twist clasps. I just find them so precious. I’ve never made my own so I’m excited to try!
Nanoblocks in Pikachu and giant Panda – I’ve been interested in getting Nanoblocks for ages but they’re overpriced online. funny that I bought the Pikachu way before the whole Pokémon GO thing started! I wanted things that were “Japanesey”, hence also the panda.
ハイチュウ Hi-Chew
This is my favourite candy! We discovered the Japanese-made Hi-Chews in a local Japanese market in Toronto a few years ago and have been buying them every time we come across them. There are also “Hi-Chew” which are made in Taiwan and we don’t like those as much. The Japanese-made ones have only the Japanese name “ハイチュウ” on the package, whereas the Taiwanese made ones show the English name. read more about the differences here. So naturally we had to stock up:
These are the regular flavours that you can find at most convenient stores (top to bottom): Strawberry, green Apple, Grape, and Lemon.
These are some special ones we came across at random places like train stations and Daiso (top to bottom): Cola, Bitter Orange (omg I want to marry this flavour), Kagoshima Yuzu Fruit (which is a citrus fruit similar to grapefruit), and rich Mango. I am just gutted that I didn’t buy more than 1 of the Bitter Orange flavour – there’s nothing bitter about it, it’s just an intense orange flavour with bits of orange rind (like marmalade) inside. As you can see we dug into the package already. We’re about half way through these flavours now and I’m trying to find online sources to secure more!
The SO found this at the airport – they’re a special regional flavour with special images from the region of Hokkaido. The flavour is cantaloupe and it tastes so much like the real fruit!
That is all the candies we got. We came across a lot of interesting flavours of kit Kat (strawberry, red apple, green tea etc) but we’re just not big fans of kit Kats so we passed on them.
Gashapon
These are vending machine capsule toys, which I didn’t know there was a term for until I saw it on RCubed’s blog. I was quite amused by the rows of these machines at the Akihabara District. For ¥200, you can walk away with anything from a key chain to a mini kit to grow a plant! I had a difficult time narrowing my decision but was quite happy to walk away with this little squid like creature key chain:
Then at the Narita airport, we were trying to get rid of the last our of cash, so I had some change to spare and blew them on these:
The middle key chain is fake potato chips that looks real enough to eat! that one on the right is apparently from Gudetama. I saw lots of Gudetama merchandise in hello Kitty / Sanrio stores but at the time I did not understand what the egg-like blob was about. I’ve since been schooled about Gudetama from Cutepretybeauty on IG. All I knew at the time was that the vending machine showed the possibility of getting one of these:
I really wanted the one with Gudetama in the frying pan but I got the bowling pin looking thing instead, which turns out is actually Japanese mayonnaise.
I was also hoping to get the dog in the hot dog bun, or the bacon-wrapped dachshund:
What is up with the Japanese putting animal characters inside food? Advice to the Narita airport – you need to install way more of these vending machines. think of how many tourists are trying to get rid of their leftover coins. You’d make a killing! You’re welcome.
While I was at the airport waiting to board the flight home, a girl came up to me to ask me to fill in a survey for visitors to Tokyo. It asked questions about what districts we visited, and how much on average we spent on hotels and food. When I handed her back the survey, she gave me this as a token of appreciation:
It’s a sushi eraser! So sweet! I’ve taken surveys before and never got a thank you gift like this!
And those are my non-beauty haul from Japan! What do you normally buy as souvenirs when you travel?
PS. My header image shows a bunch of Monchichi dolls. I was itching to get one but they were so pricey – I couldn’t in good conscience buy a $50 stuffed toy.
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