New Year’s Shopping in Tokyo: Fukubukuro Mania

One of the best times to shop in Tokyo is the first week of January. Almost all stores have sales and a lot of them offer fukubukuro, or “lucky bags” — a Japanese New Year’s tradition. Fukubukuro are filled with mystery items and sold for a discounted price; each store has a limited amount, so insane lines form for a popular store’s fukubukuro.

A lot of stores are closed on New Year’s Day, but Laforet – a Harajuku department store – was open this year. A sign above their entrance announced the dates they’d be selling fukubukuro.

New Year’s Day shoppers inside Laforet.

Stores make special bags for their fukubukuro. Sometimes the bags are so cute you want to buy the fukubukuro just for the bag. I wanted this brand’s bag because of their logo — a bear drooling vomit; the hologram effect was a bonus.

Sometimes you want to buy a fukubukuro because the brand name is funny and/or nonsensical. This happened a lot.

This shop only had one fukubukuro left, so the salesgirls were jumping around and shouting “last one!” So kawaii.

Most shoppers bought multiple fukubukuro. Some people bought so many they needed wheeled luggage to carry everything.

Another department store with major fukubukuro action was Shibuya 109 — the mecca for girls who like gyaru style.

People camped out the night before.

On opening day, security was there to prevent shopping casualties. If a stampede had actually happened, I’m not sure how well this wall would’ve held up; those guys seemed nervous.

Girls immediately opened their fukubukuro on the sidewalk to check out their winnings.

Meanwhile, behind the barricade, shoppers held up their unwanted items for trade with others.

New Year’s shopping has become a social activity as much as a hunt for deals so many girls shop in large groups.

Guys also like fukubukuro. This line was for the Journal Standard store in Shinjuku.

Fukubukuro duffel bags from a men’s store on Cat Street in Harajuku.

Francfranc is a Japanese home goods chain store whose fukubukuro came in boxes. All kinds of vendors sell fukubukuro, including bakeries, pharmacies, and the Apple store. Mystery cake, drugs, and iPads, anyone?

I decided to buy a 5000 yen (around $60, based on the current exchange rate) fukubukuro from Lowrys Farm, one of my favorite Japanese brands. A fuzzy/cute bag and a hilarious/nonsensical brand name — so far so good.

And the reveal! Six items: a short down jacket, a sweater dress, a thin hooded poncho, two sweaters, and a jersey top.

Normally, the down jacket alone would have cost 5000 yen, so on one hand, this was an awesome deal; on the other hand, I will probably only wear two of these items. Opening a bag full of unknown items was inexplicably thrilling — it’s like gambling, for shoppers. Well, this is what regifting is for.