New Year's Shopping in Japan - Fukubukuro

Fukubukuro (it can be translated as Lucky Bag in English) is a value set filled with random goodies. It's sold in many varieties at many stores offering goods such as food, clothing, and electronics. They traditionally go on sale January 1st every year. But recently some stores have been starting to sell them earlier!

福 (fuku) = Luck / Fortune
袋 (fukuro) = Bag
Together it is 福袋 (fukubukuro)!

The concept of fukubukuro is a mix of lottery and serendipity. In fact, all of us equally have a chance to get high-end products or goods you've always wanted at a discounted price! Yay! People accept the fact they might get some goods that they don't love in a bag. However, what if you win one thing - that makes the purchase of fukubukuro worth it? That's a game changer. Also, you might fall in love with the rest of products that you might have missed otherwise! After all, people love buying fukubukuro even though they don't know what's in it because they like to give it a shot to see whether or not they have luck for the year!

It seems like the fukubukuro tradition is getting easier than ever for us to win. The release of information of what's in a bag for consumers has been increasing. In the past, the number of products in a bag was the only information people knew before buying. Lately, a visible fukubukuro where all products are exposed is sold from MUJI.

When it comes to sneak peeks, people love to share what they get in a bag on social media. #福袋, #福袋ネタバレ, and #happybag are often used on their Instagram posts. And people search so they can reference them and help to estimate what the next year's bag should be like! Each brand has their own passionate followers. Popular fukubukuros are sold out really quickly. Yup, you better start preparing yourself a year ago. (just kidding)

ZenPop started this service to spread the joy of trying unique and cool Japanese products and food! We love the concept of fukubukuro. It's got a pure excitement of winning products you've wanted and experiencing new products you didn't know you'd enjoy. We hope we can make your adventure so much fun like fukubukuro for all of you interested in Japanese culture and products!

Check out our Japanese Packs and get lucky today!

All pictures on this post from TokyoFashion.com's Flickr page.