A Guide To Japanese Food Souvenirs: Sushi Socks to Tonkatsu Candles
Japan is known for its cute and quirky goods, from colorful consumer appliances to character-themed toothbrushes and toilet bowl cleaners. These “kawaii” (cute) products are not only visually appealing, but they can also help to relieve the stress and tension in people’s daily lives. Within this range of cute products exists a wide variety of food-themed goods, guaranteed to provide entertaining mementos for yourself, or gifts for friends and family. Here's a guide to some of the various wacky and fun Japanese food souvenirs you can find.
Things to buy in Japan: Fun Food-Themed Gifts
Sushi Socks and Towels
The sushi lover in your life is sure to get a kick out of these funky Japanese food gifts - a towel gift set that looks like norimaki and tamagoyaki sushi rolls, or socks that look like perfectly formed nigiri sushi when rolled up, including shrimp, octopus, salmon, and tuna.
Sushi Transformers
For the sushi lover who also loves toys and figurines, how about a transforming sushi souvenir? Made by the same company that pioneered the original Transformers toys, these figurines include both nigirizushi and makizushi that transform into warrior robots.
Food and Drink Phone Candles
Find your favorite Japanese foods in candle form, from tonkatsu pork cutlets to kare-raisu (curry rice) and even a cold frosty mug of Japanese draft beer. From a glance, it’s difficult to tell that these whimsical food-themed candles aren’t actually edible!
Mount Fuji Beer Glass
For the beer buff in your life, why not bring back an elegant beer glass shaped like the iconic Mt. Fuji? When beer is freshly poured into the Fuji-Yama glass, the frothy head of foam looks like the snow-capped peak of Japan’s most famous mountain.
Food-Themed Keychains
Keychains are a common and inexpensive souvenirs in general, but you can surprise your friends back home by bringing them back a keychain that isn’t just the usual piece of plastic stamped with an image or text. Japan offers keychains shaped like almost any food imaginable, including Kansai street foods like okonomiyaki and takoyaki and Japanese desserts.
Cooking Toy Sets
For the aspiring cook in your life, keep an eye out for inexpensive gadgets and toys that are not only kawaii, but can help step up their Japanese cooking game. This includes a home-version of a conveyer belt sushi setup, complete with nigiri sushi molds and a miniature working conveyor belt, as well as a futomaki kit that makes it easy to create sushi rolls in fun and attractive shapes. Other gadgets include toy shaved ice and mochi rice ball makers, soba and ramen noodle cutting machines, and sandwich bread molds shaped like cute characters. While these are not industrial cooking tools, they’re fun toys that are actually functional for making Japanese food at home, and make for an entertaining Japanese food souvenir.
Plastic Food Models
One thing you’re sure to notice in Japan are the plastic food models displayed for customers outside of restaurants. These models reproduce all sorts of dishes from tempura shrimp to omelet raisu in intricate detail. If you’re looking for a Japanese food gift, and want a plastic food model to take home with you, then Kappabashi in Tokyo, (also known as “Kitchen Town”) is the best place to find fake food samples or even try to make your own.
Food Magnets
If life-sized plastic food samples are a little too big for your suitcase, then instead you might be interested in a replica food magnet. Find everything from gyoza dumplings to fried tempura and onigiri rice balls recreated with perfect detail in miniature size for your fridge.
Food-Themed Smartphone Cases and Stands
With the rise of smartphones, Japan has seen a large number of phone accessories that look like food, including cellphone cases of everyday food items such as hinomaru bento, a packed lunch of white rice with a pickled plum (umeboshi) in the center, and nikujaga, a dish of Japanese meat and potatoes. Decking out your phone to look like yakisoba fried noodles or ebi-fry shrimp is a unique way to make your phone stand out while sporting your love for Japanese cuisine. You might also like cellphone stands shaped like dumplings, goya bitter melon, and fresh oysters, which make for a quirky souvenir that can double as a convenient phone holder when charging your device or watching videos.
Quirky Japanese Food Gifts Are the Perfect Take-Home Token of Japan
Cute and kitschy food souvenirs are a great choice for gifts and mementos when you visit Japan. From fun kitchen tools for cooking Japanese food to quirky clothes and accessories, you’re sure to find something for everyone on your souvenir shopping list.
