I really enjoyed shopping in Japan and I just wanted to share what I got! We bought so much stuff, it almost didn’t all fit on the table!
This is the tetsubin. It’s made by the brand Iwachu, and it’s a teapot called nanbu tekki, or southern ironware. In total, the teapot and teacup were $75. We bought this from a shop on the Kappabashi Dori shopping street.
We also got these individual nabe pot sets on Kappabashi Dori street. It comes with a wooden base, a fuel holder, base, pot, and wooden cap.
We bought these chopstick sets in Nara, for $5 each I think. We saw later that they’re common tourist souvenirs sold everywhere but whatever. We bought the wooden spoons and spatula from a covered shopping street in Osaka or Kobe, and the white and pink thing in the plastic casing is a mochi tower. You’re supposed to cook them and then eat them for the new year, but we didn’t since the old man made us mochi from scratch instead.
The trophy of our haul: a bunch of Starbucks mugs! Collecting Starbucks mugs is a big thing in Japan and I didn’t really get it until I experienced the excitement of finding a rare autumn cup during the winter season! We have Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, and Nara city cups (skipping Kyoto because we don’t care about that city), and autumn, normal, and winter seasonal Japan mugs. We also got a cute plastic tumbler because I couldn’t resist the cute cartoon shiba inus on it. That one is a tumbler they released for the new year.
Now we have the clothing we bought in Japan. The red jacket is a silk suyasan we bought in Sibuya from a brand callec Pandiesta. The jeans are fropm EVISU in Osaka and theyre hand painted according to Masas request. The panda face on top is my jacket from Harajuku, and the two sweaters behind it are panda sweaters from Shibuya and Osaka. The panda onesie on the red jacket is for my two cats to wear if they want. We also got a pink fuzzy onesie in Harajuku and a yellow Pikachu onesie at Don Quijote. At Yodabashi camera, we got these two cotton robes. The avocado toy in the bottom corner of this picture is a phone or purse charm that Masa bought me in Harajuku. It swung from my purse every single day we travelled in Japan, and I still carry it around when I use a purse.
We bought the panda cat shirt in the countryside between Kyoto and Nara. We found it at Don Quijote. It’s in the size XS, but I think it fits my babies just fine!
However, I don’t think they are happy wearing it. My cats like to be wild and free, I guess. Every time I tried to put the hood up, they shook it off.
These are all the snacks we bought there. We bought pocky, Baton d’Or, Kit Kats (Flavors: melon, peach, strawberry, matcha, Shinshu apple, yuzu sake, sake, plum sake, sakura/warabi, Kyoto matcha, Kyushu strawberry), matcha drink mix, tea, sakura drink mix, mochis, daifukus, Kyoto matcha cake, some biscuits, and strawberry jellies. We also got two whiskies and one sake from Don Quijote.
We got the Baton d’Ors in Osaka, most of the non-Kit Kats from LAOX, and all the Kit Kats from either Yodabashi Camera or Don Quijote. We got the Kyoto matcha cake and the peach and melon KitKats from the airport, since we had remaining Japanese cash we had to spend.
The makeup I bought: I got the normal Hada Labo Gokujyun lotion, milk, and cream in a jar. I also got the Hada Labo Premium cream. I got the Shiseido and Shu Uemura eyelash curlers. I got DHC eyelash tonic and two of their legendary lip creams. I also got some Suisai face wash powder pods, which will be useful when I travel again. These products were actually so steal-able or popular that I had to bring the empty packet to the front to get them to bring a real one out for me. I bought the famous Biore sunscreen, and then the KissMe Heroine Make eyeliner, mascara, and eye makeup remover. I also got two Canmake lip balms and a Canmake nail polish in the color N19, sweet coral (a natural-ish color, which seems to be what many Japanese women seem to gravitate more to).
This is the knife I bought in Nara. It’s made of layered damascus steel and it has the shop’s name carved on the blade. It’s really beautiful and I’ve only used it a few times to cut something special. I’m so scared to use it. It was $130. Below it is the watch I bought at the second hand shop. Ever since I dropped my Skagen, I’ve been on the lookout for a simple watch that wasn’t DW. I saw this Hamilton in Shinjuku, and by the third time I passed the shop, I just bit the bullet and bought it (tax free!).
We also bought a Instax polaroid camera for Masa’s sister as a Christmas gift, and some fountain pens for my brother. We also gave all of our siblings a bunch of snacks from Japan.
I don’t want to calculate the grand total of what we spent in Japan. I’m sure that if I knew the figure, I’d barf a little. We bought all this with a very YOLO mindset. Some of this stuff (the watch, the mugs, the chopsticks, utensils, skincare, lip balms, and avocado toy) we use every day. I figure that if we have to use material objects in our day to day life, they’d be more useful doing double duty both as functional objects and as souvenirs with nice memories attached to them.
