There are many things to buy in Japan as souvenir. However, most of the time, I would stick to food items because it is cheaper and easier to distribute to colleagues. Due to the 'omiyage 御土産' tradition, most Japanese people will buy souvenir for colleagues, I ate a lot of omiyage during my two years working in Japan. Well, I also bought packets of souvenirs during my travel for my colleagues. (contribute back!)
*omiyage = something like local produce
Due to that omiyage tradition too, one can find many nicely packed cookies or sweets (菓子) in beautiful boxes in the shops in tourist attractions. Normally, it came in 30 pieces per box. The one I bought range from 5 pieces to 40 pieces. One box normally costs around 1050 yen. From 1st April 2014, the sales tax will increase from 5% to 8%, so it would probably costs 1080 yen per box or the retailers will absorb the cost themselves, which I think is very unlikely!
Below photo shows some normal souvenirs. Normally, one can find similar products like below photo, boxes of cookies wrapped in cute packaging related to the place one is visiting. In Kumamoto, the normal (not so expensive and affordable with high quantity) souvenirs are cookies wrapped in packaging with Kumamon photo. This is the type people normally buy to give to colleagues.
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| souvenir from Kumamoto (utilises Kumamon) |
For family members or close friends, there are more expensive options. One of the famous omiyage in Kumamoto is Jindaiko 誉の陣太鼓, a type of sweet cake made of red beans. A package of 6 pieces cost around 1020 yen. It is definitely more delicious than the normal cookies. There are many other local speciality too. Mount Aso area in Kumamoto is famous for dairy product too, the cheese cake is very nice.
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| 誉の陣太鼓 (a famous food from Kumamoto) - the packaging |
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| 誉の陣太鼓 (a famous food from Kumamoto) |
Well, apart from the affordable cookies, many prefectures in Japan have their own specialities too. In Nagasaki, castella can be found in many places. Well, I bought this castella for my own consumption and gave only to my two close friends when I went to Nagasaki. if I remember correctly, it is around 1500 yen per 5 boxes, buying individual box would be more expensive.
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| famous in Nagasaki - castella |
Sometimes, some sweets has a rather interesting combination, like the Raspberry Nanban Ourai produced by Sakaeya in Fukuoka, the ingredients include butter, raspberry jam, sugar, flour, egg yolk, alcohol, malt sugar, apple, etc. The filling is sweet. When I first saw this, I felt weird, but it's actually quite good. The idea of this sweets came from the western confectionery first appeared in Nagasaki when Japan was still a locked country 鎖国, during that time, only a few places were allowed to make contact with foreigners and one of the places was Dejima in Nagasaki.
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| Nanban Ourai from Fukuoka |
When I went to Beppu for the winter fireworks, I bought Beppu-Castella. It is almost the same with Nagasaki Castella, the reason I bought this because it has a very beautiful box. I still keep the box! One thing about Japan tourism is they are very good at 'packaging'. Everything in the souvenir shop is so tidy, neat, cute and beautiful! Plus, the salesperson is so polite that sometimes I would feel guilty if I didn't buy anything.
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| Beppu Castella - bought this to get the box |
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| souvenir from Oita - 瑠異沙 |
Among all my trips in Japan, I spent the most in Hokkaido on shopping. For my colleagues, I bought Shiroi Koibito cookies. It is kind of a standard souvenir from Hokkaido. For my family, I bought dried scallop (expensive!) and dried scallop sweets. Initially, I wanted to buy dried sea cucumber because my dad really like that, however, I couldn't find it in Sapporo Shin-Chitose Airport, so just save the money. For myself, I bought the famous Rokkatei 六花亭 sandwich cookies, processed kombu (it can be eaten right away) and really delicious cheese cake. For the cheese cake, since it had to be stored in a cold environment, I bought it in Shin-Chitose Airport just before my flight and the salesperson add cold packs to help to maintain a low temperature environment. Some shops will provide free cold packs, but the more famous one will not and one have to pay a small fee for that. Anyway, the salesperson would enquire about the time needed before one reaches home to gauge the amount of cold packs needed, what a level of good service!
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| delicious cheese cake from Hokkaido |
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| Marusei Butter Sandwich from Rokkatei 六花亭 |
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| processed kombu |
I usually reserved the souvenir buying time at the last leg of my trip so that I wouldn't have to lug it around during my travel. Normally, other than the tourist sites, there are many choices in train stations and airports too, so no worry!
*I developed a taste for mentaiko 明太子 in Japan, so I really wanted to bring home some to my mother before I went back to Malaysia, however, I couldn't because it is in "liquid" form and there's no direct flight from Fukuoka to Kuala Lumpur, I had to take transit flight. Even though I was able to buy the mentaiko in Airport shop after I checked in, I wouldn't able to bring it pass another check point in Singapore (the transit point). Ahhhh, I miss mentaiko!
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