At the start of a new year, retailers in Japan traditionally sell Fukubukuro, which are ‘lucky bags’ full of random merchandise. They range in price from cheap to very expensive and while they can contain anything, they’re often used as a way to move unsold product. Naturally, we had to join the fun.
We headed to Akihabara yesterday to buy some, and saw them for sale at most retailers. Some of them were immensely popular, with very long lines stretching around the block, and all day long we saw people walking around carrying the distinctive red bags.
The above are some examples sold by a trading card shop in Akiba: Magic The Gathering fukubukuro ranging from ¥5000 (about $38) to ¥200,000 (~$1540!!?!). The contents are random!! The super-expensive one was a massive stuffed bag, but even then it’s a massive gamble.
We also saw a ‘TV’ fukubukuro for ~$2200 at a popular electronics retailer, which presumably ‘contained’ a television? I’ve read there are even more expensive ones sold across the country, and historically some stores have ‘seeded’ them with lavish items like expensive holidays or even cars.
The above shows a different type: a black suit! The only identifier is the color and size, and it costs >$100! Who buys this? We also saw fukubukuro sold from a seafood store, a cake shop, grocery stores and even Starbucks!
The above photo shows the three we bought, all from Akihabara anime shops. In total they cost ¥5000, or about $38. While we rarely open purchases made during travel (saving them for when we get home) we naturally had to make an exception this time, so let’s see what was inside!
The small flat one in the above pic seemed to suggest (according to google translate) that it contained anime goods, and indeed it did: 7 keychains, a business card holder and 4 acrylic stands. Not bad for under $15, until you realize this stuff is bottom-of-the-barrel trash from series no one cares about! It gave us a good laugh 🙂
The largest bag was an anime themed bag labeled ‘for women’, and considering it was the same price as the other one contained much more stuff! But once again, the quality is very low, with trash-tier clear files, key chains and badges making up the bulk. It also contained six copies of the same CD single, all with different cover art! We chuckled heartily as these pieces were removed one by one 🙂
And here are the contents of the 15-gatcha bag, which was only ~$6.60. A couple of keychains, a couple of tiny cars, a couple of figures and a lot of miniatures (including a mop). This is certainly an eclectic mix, and representative of the variety in machines today, and it’s hard to fault the value in this bag. That said, I never would have put a ¥100 coin in any of these machines so for me the value is meaningless. We laughed so hard at some of this we almost developed hernias!
Overall then: our fukubukuro contained trash, and I mean that literally since after the pics were taken we placed it all directly in the trash! But they were fun to open and gave us some belly laughs in the process, so it was a lose-win in the end.
But it’s worth noting that these are traditionally sold between January 1 and 3, so there’s still time to get more. Should we?
The above is a detailed pic of one of the gatcha miniatures we got: a credit card payment terminal (the card is removable). This entire thing is only about 2cm long with each button about 1 mm. Gives you an idea of the detail of these tiny gatcha miniatures!
And I’ll end today with this pic, which shows a few ‘random’ gatcha machines we also saw in Akiba today. I had a go at the Ultraman one (top left) and the completely random one (middle bottom). What did I get? I didn’t open them 😉
Oh and if you’re waiting for the post about the insanity of Akihabara, then I promise that one will come when we return here after our sojourn in Kyoto…
