I love the gift bag idea so I think I am going to keep an eye out for items I can use in the bags and i'm going to keep it small, simple and light.

I calculated that I may need between 10 and 15 so I might make up 5 special bags and 10 standard ones.

Thanks for the idea

That sounds like an excellent idea! Unless you know exactly what your firends want for souvenirs, it should be much safer to give them many little things rather than one or two big items. Safe in the sense that they probably will like some of the items, if not all of them.

If I were to hit the weight limit on what I collect, I would have a mess when I got home. I have an ever growing collection of kyo-sensu and now a colelction of hashi has begun. I have about 100 folding fans, but they are not all Japanese.

Wow, that's a lotta sensu! No wonder I see less and less sensu around Japan these days!

I collect prayer boards from temples because they are cheap light weight and pretty, even though they are supposed to be left there =p, I have over 50 different ones

Hmm, that actually is a good idea, never thought of that... i do purchase charms for souvenir, but never thought of the prayer board... good suggestion, i will do that next time :)

Perhaps you are just making your own shrine with them, instad of leaving them at the temple where you purchased them.

I'd like to ask you people a question here.

As you all know, many of the things sold in Japan are not actually made in Japan. The 100-yen stores are the prime example in that regard. It's pretty difficult to find Japanese-made clothes like T-shirts as well.

Would foreign tourists care about that to any extent? Wouldn't their friends and families, who receive those items as souvenirs, be somewhat more pleased if they were made in Japan?

Thanks in advance.

from my observation, people don't care where its made, but the do want something that truly represent the country. Like t shirt for examples, the love ones with Japanese marking. I bought a load of tshirts that has the map of Kyoto and some with the shinsengumi flag, people love it. Next time I am not even traveling with any clothing and just buy everything there :)

we r actually talking pre-plaza era here. i always love to hear stories from ppl that were actually here during the bubble years. the only thing i can bring to the table in this matter is being in japan when the yen was under 90:1. needless to say there were no green cars for me then, and no, there r no green cars for me now either.

as for souvenirs, i must be the worse souvenir buyer there is. for me it ranks as number one of めんどくさい things on the "things-to-do-when-leaving-the-country list.
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come to think of it, having to go to shinagawa to get the re-entry permit might be even worse, but it is indeed tight between the two.