Buy, Buy Japan.

Recently Kira overheard a friend telling me how the last three months of the year are always so hectic, and how she's dreading the big Christmas rush and the buying frenzy that it brings. "Gawd, I hate to shop. Hate it hate it hate it." While this sentiment was even a little strong for me, by the horrified look on Kira's face you would have thought my friend has just lifted her shirt to reveal a parasitic twin. On the way to the car Kira nervously whispered, "Okay, she was just joking about the shopping, right? I mean, is she some kind of weirdo?"

When a website asked me to write an article on traveling to Japan with my girls, it didn't take me long to realize what stood out in my mind. Although their willingness to adapt to a foreign culture was exciting, what really impressed me was their ability to sniff out a retail opportunity from five miles away. To them, the ancient temples of Kyoto were merely facades for the gift shops tucked away inside, and their bizarre internal radar expertly guided us from our hotel in unfamiliar surroundings straight to a seven story shopping complex.

Sure, Rigel and I came away with many rich memories of our trip, but through our daughters' eyes we came to realize that the true worth of the journey is measured by the number of crappy keychains you bring home. (You can read about Desperately Seeking Souvenirs on KidsCanTravel.)

Just so you don't think this post was a cheap way to get you to read my article, here are some of the treasures we scored:
iPod skins: Ask Kira about the trip, and the first thing she is likely to say is, "Their iPod skins rock." Hers is the 'angel' (front and back) and mine is the much more boring dotted version next to it.

Key Covers: These are everywhere in Japan. For some reason, of all the souvenirs that I bought, this is my favorite. It's on my house key, and makes me smile everytime I open my door. It's as if it's saying, "We all went to Japan, and all I got was this lousy key cover."






Cell phone charms: They're around two years ahead of us over there in terms of cell phone technology, and around fifteen years ahead if you're talking cell phone accessories. I've never seen so many cases, straps, decals or hanging-thingies. The gray ball on the one on the right lights up and flashes whenever a call is coming in. I barely know how to even use my phone, but with all these goodies hanging from it I look like a pro.

Cookies: These are so good you'll want to roll around naked in them. They're called Yoku Moku, and here in the States you can only get them at Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue, where they'll set you back $20 a box. We got them in Japan for $11 each, which is not bad considering each cookie is individually wrapped and packed into this beautiful metal box, which you can use later to hold all those keychains and cell phone charms you don't use anymore.

We bought around eight of these to give away as gifts but have eaten almost all of them so far. We've only given away one, to Rigel's sister, and that's because I forgot to hide them before she got here.

Jiji and Dust Bunny Keychains: We're all huge Hayao Miyazaki fans. Jiji is the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service and the Dust Bunnies are from My Neighbor Totoro. If you've never seen either of these movies you are dead to me.

There's a Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo which is basically a shrine to Miyazaki and his films. We wanted to go, but the tickets are sold out months in advance and the earliest date they had was in December. So imagine the glee when we stumbled upon a gift shop that stocked nothing but merchandise from all of Miyazakis movies - which is probably the only reason the girls wanted to go to the museum in the first place.

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tags: japan | shopping | travel | kidscantravel.com | studio ghibli

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