福袋...

Happy New Year!

Today I thought it fitting to talk about 福袋 since it's all the rage right now.  福袋 or fukubukuro is the New Year tradition of Lucky Bags or Happy Bags or Mystery Bags.  Basically you buy a bag full of stuff be it clothes or home goods or pretty much anything that's for sale at a heavily discounted price.  Sometimes it's backstock that the store can't get rid of but I've noticed a trend of brand new items included in the bags. 

Since this is the first time I've ever experienced this, I went to La La Port Toyosu for my research.  There were tons of people there today and almost every store had the 福袋 and I'm guessing some stores may have sold out of theirs.  For example, I saw a woman holding a big pink ANAP bag but they were gone by the time I got to ANAP.  Bummer because it's one of my favorite stores. 

Here are the many many 福袋 I saw today:

Make sure you get the correct gender 福袋:

Probably the cheapest 福袋 I saw today at ¥1000:

Tokyu Hands had see-through bags:

I was really really tempted to buy this one.  If only it didn't come with a puffy coat!

The pink ANAP bag is pictured but they were gone.  :(

The next two photos feature items that come in your bag (even men's and children's):

I actually saw people carrying around these pricey bags:

Only one left:

It's a lucky box!

Even Starbucks has 福袋 for only ¥5000 and ¥3000.  Yikes.

Hello Kitty and My Melody 福袋:

I did succumb to the 福袋 craze.  My lucky box was ¥3000.

And in it 90 gourmet fresh leaf tea bags.  These packages range in price from ¥650 - ¥900 which means altogether they would have been ¥5850 - ¥8100.  I think that's a pretty good deal.  Plus I love tea.  I'm enjoying the delicious Sakuraenbo now.

Even my local Daiei has 福袋 containing everything from tissues:

To jammies:

I really want to see the designer 福袋 in Harajuku but I'm not exactly rolling in dough right now.  Plus, they pushed back our payday due to the holiday.  Boo.  They may even be gone by tomorrow.  I'm not sure the official end date for 福袋 sales.

Anyway, I hope your 2013 is starting off nicely!