If you’re visiting Japan, you’re going to want to pick up a few mementoes to remember it by. Luckily, the country is well equipped.
Japan is a country with many faces, meaning Japanese souvenirs are equally diverse. For the oldies back home pick up something nice and traditional like a teapot or some matcha (green tea), for your friends, a slice of the country’s ultra-modern side: a gadget or some cutting edge fashion.
Below, I’ve put together a list of some of Japan’s best souvenirs, intended to inspire, inform and put a smile on someone’s face back home.
Matcha Sweets or Snacks
In Osaka, you can find a lot of foods, sweets or snacks are made by matcha. Matcha is a type of green tea made by taking young tea leaves and grinding them into a bright green powder. Matcha is a quintessentially Japanese ingredient that is enjoyed all around the globe. Recently, matcha has started to become one of the standby Japanese flavors, and there are countless matcha-flavored sweets to be savored!
Here are some Matcha treats you can buy:
- Matcha Marshmallow Chocolate (7-Eleven)
- Seven Cafe Matcha Cookie (7-Eleven)
- Dorayaki (Matcha & Warabimochi & Kuromitsu) (7-Eleven)
- Rich Matcha Pound Cake (FamilyMart)
- Matcha Daifuku (Lawson)
Keshimochi
This famous local sweet comes from Osaka’s southern area, Sakai, and it was created during the Edo period. It is a soft chewy rice cake filled with red bean paste and coated with poppy seeds. This is one sweet that any red bean paste fan shouldn’t miss!
Bâton d’or
This is one of the most popular sweets in Osaka. Bâton d’or is made from dough kneaded with butter. The stick is consist of various flavors you can choose from, such as milk, chocolate, strawberry, apple, butter, matcha, coffee and cinnamon. The sweet is limited item and only available in Osaka. You can get Pocky in many countries, however, Bâton d’or is quite rare and only can get it in Osaka. Why not try it for yourself and buy this sweet as a gift. It is only sold at Glico’s directly managed stores which are in Hankyu Umeda Central Branch and Takashimaya Osaka Branch.
Kendama
A kendama is a ball and string toy. Move aside video games, a simple wooden kendama promises hours of fun for children and adults alike. Available in a huge array of different designs and styles, they make for a perfect souvenir of traditional Japan.
Sensu (Folding Fans)
What could be a more traditional Japanese souvenir than a fan? As a tourist, you’ll see fans everywhere in a range of styles and for a range of prices. If you’re looking to splash out, head to a speciality shop where the better items will be made handmade using local fabric and wood. Folding fans are very meaningful souvenir from Japan and are usually made of bamboo or Japanese cyprus then connected by washi paper. Especially that it is hot in our country (PH), this fan can be very useful to us.
Stationary
Another thing you’ll want to bring back is Japanese stationery. You can choose for the more traditional variety or the more cutesy or modern, but there is an overwhelming variety to choose from. Pens, pencils, paper stationery, notebooks – get as much as you can because you’ll be wishing you’d bought more soon enough.
Here are some stationary stores you may want to visit in Tokyo:
- Muji
- Kakimori
- Tokyu Hands
- Bumpodo
SOURCES:
CURIOUS TRAVELLER
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Curious Traveler 