Young teenager - souvenirs from Japan ideas?

[havoc]

Son's off to Japan (school trip, would you believe?), he's wondering what sort of souvenirs he could bring back.

He's not massively into anime/manga right now (despite my best efforts*), and I can't persuade him to bring me car parts back.

...so I was wondering what else he might (a) enjoy; or (b) get some kudos/cool-points out of with his friends?

Any/all ideas welcome. Aside from geishas.

Thanks,
M.




* And to be fair, whatever he bought out there would be (I assume) entirely in kanji.

[Mammasaid]

Kit Kats in all the fantastic flavours that they do in Japan

[Carl_VivaEspana]

I would be after something from Nintendo that can only be acquired from Osaka.

[djsmith74]

Perhaps get him to bring some gashapon capsules back? They are absolutely huge in Japan and cover a massive range of genres / topics / interests, not just manga oriented as you can get mini cars, robots, day-to-day items, etc. So he can pick and choose what genre/topic according to what he knows about his friends & family:

https://japancrate.com/blogs/news/gashapon-capsule...

https://web-japan.org/kidsweb/cool/21/202112_capsu...

[//j17]

Simple - just tell him to look for things that make him double-take and think WTF? (and don't cost too much).

If they make him react like that you can bet the recipient is going to have the same reaction and it doesn't really matter if the reaction is a 'good' one, like "Why can't we have strawberry Kit-Kats here?", a 'bad' one like "Why would anyone want a tomato or wasabi Kit-Kat?!?!", a "This English makes no sense!" one, or just a "I have zero no idea what this is." one.

Given that it's hard to get a gift 'wrong' (though maybe not food with ingredients labels you can't read for the people with food allergies) and starts a conversation, which is really the point of these sorts of gifts.

[gotoPzero]

djsmith74 said:

Perhaps get him to bring some gashapon capsules back? They are absolutely huge in Japan and cover a massive range of genres / topics / interests, not just manga oriented as you can get mini cars, robots, day-to-day items, etc. So he can pick and choose what genre/topic according to what he knows about his friends & family:

https://japancrate.com/blogs/news/gashapon-capsule...

https://web-japan.org/kidsweb/cool/21/202112_capsu...

Came to say this, perfect gifts. We did this for a few people and they loved it.

It will be overload though, there can be 1000s to pick from.

[havoc]

Thanks all, some cool ideas there. Liking the pot-luck capsules...good way for him to use up any loose change at the end of the trip, if nothing else...

[3454.5]

I suspect they'll be pointed out to him and fellow students but the Daiso Stores have to be visited.
It's Poundland on steroids.

[gotoPzero]

Also find some of the stationary stores, you can get some cool stuff in those.

Daiso as mentioned above is also very good.

Google maps is very good in Japan.

[mikef]

If they go to Akihabara electronics district (they should), he will find gadgets that you probably can’t imagine. It’s a wonderland of cool stuff

[omniflow]

Don't give the kid any fixed ideas otherwise he'll feel obligated to buy what Dad said.

Tell him to just follow his instincts - if it appeals to him then buy it.

If he brings back a load of junk and regrets it then that might be a useful lesson for later in life when the sums of money are more significant.

Seriously, he's a kid going on an adventure, let him off the leash a bit and allow him to make the odd mistake or two.

[CraigyMc]

omniflow said:

Tell him to just follow his instincts - if it appeals to him then buy it.

Danger, Will Robinson. Soapland is a thing.

[Martyn76]

CraigyMc said:

omniflow said:

Tell him to just follow his instincts - if it appeals to him then buy it.

Danger, Will Robinson. Soapland is a thing.

Just Googled that!