BabuSoge

For many people, shopping and making purchases are a consequence of traveling. We have been mindful of our buying habits during our recent trips. Within the US, we limit our souvenirs to just one fridge magnet. However, when exploring different countries, we allow ourselves to acquire practical items that are traditionally relevant in the place of visit and serve as mementos of our journey. Here are the things we brought back from our trip to Japan.

Kitchen Items

1. Knife: Blades ranging from knives to Samurai swords are very popular in Japan because of their unique smelting process that leads to thin and strong blades. Stores sell knives made out of stainless steel, and carbon steel. Carbon steel is a superior material in terms of hardness, sharpness, and ease of sharpening. However, we were told that the maintenance is tricky. Stainless steel would be ideal for beginners and amateur home cooks like us. In Kappabashi, knives are priced starting at 6000 Yen and go above and beyond 300,000 Yen. We are not chefs nor do we know a lot about knives but we had discussed before heading to Japan that we might want to see if something fit our budget. Near the Asakusa temple, there’s a street known as Kappabashi-Dori (Dori means street) which has several blade/knife shops, ceramic and pottery shops, and pretty much any kitchen item one may require. After hopping in and out of a few different shops, we came to the conclusion that our novice hands didn’t need anything fancy. We settled for a Japanese-style multi-purpose knife for 7000 Yen. We bought this at Union Commerce Cutlery on Kappabashi Street. They even hand-engraved our names on the knife!
2. Ramen Bowls: During our time in Kappabashi, we saw several ceramic and pottery stores with beautiful bowls, plates, cups, etc. for different purposes such as eating Ramen, serving sushi, making matcha, and even ones with groovy sides that were intended to grind sesame. While we didn’t buy anything right away, we took note of a few pieces and stores we really liked. Throughout our trip, we were on the lookout for similar items but we didn’t find anything that beat both the design and price of what we saw at Kappabashi. On our last day, we went back to the same store and picked up 2 Ramen bowls – one for Nitin and one for Sruthi. We do love making Ramen and other types of broth and noodles such as Pho and Curry Udon! We plan to eat them in these bowls and we will fondly remember our hunt for what we think are the best Ramen bowls in all of Japan!
3. Chopsticks: We had to of course pick up chopsticks in Japan. We saw several lovely designs but ultimately we decided to buy one set of Mew (Sruthi’s favorite Pokemon) and one set of Charizard (Nitin’s favorite Pokemon) chopsticks. These will be our “every day” chopsticks for whenever we eat Asian food.

General Home Decor

1. Plushies from Pokémon Center: Pokémon was a big reason for our trip to Japan. Pokémon was a component of all our dates when we started going out during grad school! And to go to the place where the Pokémon universe was conceived and developed was a big deal for us. We have a small plushie collection at home and we have added a Pikachu and Eevee to that.

Consumables and Eatables

1. Uniqlo: When Roger Federer became the brand ambassador of Uniqlo, we read up a little about their style of clothing and their USP (honestly, that’s when we had heard of Uniqlo for the first time! It was after all a big deal changing sponsorships from Nike to Uniqlo). It was very appealing to Sruthi who picked up 4 plain t-shirts of the same type in different colors in an attempt to reduce decision anxiety when dressing up for work! And ever since we’ve gotten back, Sruthi thinks that these t-shirts rank very highly in quality, convenience and price and has been regretting not getting a couple more.
2. KitKat: Japan’s love for KitKat is legendary and the craze has definitely caught on to tourists also. We got around 12 different flavors ranging from matcha and dark chocolate to sake and peach. This was mostly to share with friends and family.
3. Mochi: We tried several types of mochi in Japan and loved all of them. We brought back some Yatsuhashi mochi filled with matcha and red bean paste from Kyoto. These had a best by date of 7 days from the day they were made. We bought them on the penultimate day of our stay and finished them all within 2 days of coming back to the US. We shared these with our friends and family.

Note of Caution to ourselves as well as readers: This is typically how stuff accumulates at home! We have a policy of half-yearly de-cluttering during which we go over stuff we have at home and discard/sell/donate the things that are not in use or have gone bad. We have found that this is the only way we can enjoy our possessions and appreciate the value they bring to our lives! We know this is “Mary Kondo”-like advice; we have found this to be a very helpful habit to build! and we hope we can sustain it for the rest of our lives!