I’m thinking of traveling to Japan one day and I’ve been mentally compiling a list of things to bring back to the U.S. My list so far is: Green tea, Sake, Mirin, Kit Kats, Tonkatsu Sauce, maybe some higher quality Kombu. Maybe pottery? And that’s kinda it. I know there are probably a lot of food ingredients that are just way higher quality in Japan that you could never get here and I’m just curious what others think I should try to bring back food and ingredientswise? (I wish I could bring Japanese eggs back 🥲)
I’m sure there are other posts too about Japan and what types of gifts to get but if you have any other suggestions please share!!!
Edit: I’ve gotten so many responses to my responses and helpful answers and I just want to thank everyone for answering and helping! It’s so fun to check in at work and be like WHOA more people responded. Thank you again and have a nice day! 🙂
Second Edit: WOW This is the most responses I’ve ever gotten thank you all for taking the time to respond. I appreciate everyone’s responses and try to read them all!!
50 comments
Katsuoboshi! Here in Australia it’s quite expensive. But it weighs very little, and dashi is such a crucial element in japanese cuisine, plus it’s great on top of okonomiyaki/takoyaki, or simmered veges, agedashi tofu, etc…
Maybe also dried shiitake?
I think it depend on availability and price of Japanese ingredient where you live. For example I can get a gallon of tonkatsu sauce for cheap where I live, so I would not even bother buying it in Japan.
Just going to a grocery store and you might get ideas of things you want to bring back, that is if you understand what things are and how to use it as it can be challenging.
For sure I always bring back tea because I usually drink it daily and it’s much cheaper in Japan. I also remember getting furikake and shichimi.
The other thing would be alcohol, I do have a bias toward umeshu, but I also got some sake in the past.
For cooking things in general, I got knives, teapot, teacup, takoyaki plate (like a cast iron plate).
Spices!
We stumbled on a spice/furikake shop while exploring kyoto and they had some amazing premade blends which we brought with us.
Been using them since and they taste amazing
Also, Japan has many varieties of green tea (honcha, sencha, matcha to name a few) and they all differ by taste. So make sure to try everything and get what you like the most
Pro tip: you can take anything back in your suitcase that will fit, but only one liter of alcohol duty free.
Most Japanese food ingredients are available in the US at specialty grocers. I live in NYC and I can name five just in the city. I have one two blocks from me. But most of the alcohol products are not exported.
Next time I go to Japan I will try to find a few cooking classes so I know what to do with the ingredients I buy.
I tend to shop for green tea, ideally what is seasonally freshest when I’m there, beers I have trouble finding back in the US (Kyoto Brewing, I’m lookin at you!), sake (rice wine), salt, shoyu, whisky, and convenience store snacks I have trouble finding back home.
My area has a good selection of seaweed and reliable access to real mirin, so I just try to find things that I don’t have ready access to at home. Before you make a list, it’s worth seeing if you have a local or semi-local shop that carries anything so you aren’t loading a suitcase for no reason!
When I first came to Japan an old style sweet shop opened a few minutes from where I lived. I’m not talking Wagashi (the expensive refined confectionery) but the sort of sweets Japanese kids get. If you can find a place like that I recommend a visit. You can google お菓子のデパート to find the sort of the place i’m talking about.
Not the highest quality ingredients, but I wish I brought back nabe cubes and curry paste blocks. I used to live in Japan and nabe cubes saved me every winter. As for the curry I can buy it where I live now, but they only have the brand I don’t like.
But it really depends on what you’re going to do back at home and which ingredients you can’t get there. For sweets warabimochi powder is cool and easy to make if you like warabimochi.
But if you’re more into cooking you can buy high quality seaweed, katsuobushi or miso, for example.
So I’d first think about what I want and can cook and make an ingredient list after.
Yuzu paste. It’s a pain to find here.
I usually focus on the snacks, kit kats etc. The one thing I would say not to bother with on your list is the Tonkatsu sauce, as you can get bulldog on amazon or in pretty much any asian market in the US
I have traveled back with suitcases full of food and ceramics and spend more than one should on Japanese ingredients, but I don’t think there exists a better tonkatsu sauce than bulldog. It’s like Heinz ketchup — tough to go up from there.
Unless you are traveling to areas with regional specialties, I would recommend just hitting up the basement food markets (not the food hall) in the big department stores. Konbu, fancy rice (if you are a fancy rice person and have luggage space), condiments, et cetera. They will have a nice selection of ultra-premium quality ingredients.
Konbu I used to buy in bulk from one of the Tsukiji outer market vendors.
My general recommendation is to know what ingredients and pottery are available to you locally. If you live near a Mitsuwa, for example, there is a good chance you are returning with things you could’ve bought there.
Fancy miso, furikake that you can’t get where you are. Also small packs (1kg or less) of fancy rice.
I always buy some food things at train station shops that stock regional things for omiyage. I pick up whatever seems popular or interesting and figure it out later.
And boxes of Royce chocolates at the airport on the way home.
assuming you are USA-based, be careful bringing anything containing meat back, the rules are pretty strict. also fresh/dried fruits
I brought back some artisanal miso.
Blendy individual drip coffee! So good
Good memories of good times.
Tokyo Banana are absolutely delicious if you like banana but they come in different flavours!
Some of my faves that are hard to find here in the US without a Japanese market nearby:
100% buckwheat soba
Yuzu kosho (red and green)
High quality umeboshi (many in Japan and most here in the US have artificial sweeteners or other additives)
Individual sized Kikkoman flavored soymilks (soooo good and shelf stable)
Umeshu (plum wine- really good stuff is hard to find in the US)
Shochu/aomori
Dried mochi for yakimochi (it’s not sweet, it’s a hard, shelf-stable cake that when grilled becomes much like melty mozzarella cheese)
Regional products like salt, herbs, extracts are not to be missed!
High quality kombu
Good quality curry roux cubes/packaged curry (you won’t be able to bring it in to the US if it has meat in it though)
Aged dark miso
Another piece of advice: get Yukari Sakamoto’s *Food, Sake, Tokyo* and find online her latest updates (as some of the book is outdated)—that will give you a solid intro to reputable food businesses, where you can buy fancy ingredients.
Instant dashi powder. Dashi is used in almost every Japanese recipe, and depending on where you live it can be near impossible to find.
Depending on your country and stores, you’d be surprised on what you can find locally. My local, nothing special super market carries good green tea, cooking sake, mirin, and tonkatsu sauce. Also some stuff like tonkatsu sauce you can make on your own–the premade is more for convenience. Then there’s asian stores (more Korean/Chinese in my area). But a lot of things you can find online too. I think some people quickly discount the quality of that stuff, but while the price is higher it’s often the same brand. Between hauling it back and filling up suitcase space and paying a premium where you’re at, I’d rather pay the premium. Save room for more unique/specialty stuff.
A few things I miss from living in Japan: Togarashi and sansho in large quantities. Specialty soy sauce–most in the states is Chinese, too salty and strong. Especially a high quality dashi soy sauce to break out for higher quality dishes. Instant dashi (in the glass container). Anything yuzu flavored. Proper sake–you either get the good stuff at super high prices, or complete shit. Unique instant ramen.
I’d focus on local specialty stuff as well. Even in Japan when people bring back souvenirs for their family, they’ll pick up local goods. So look into what’s special where you go and plan to buy.
I like the Japanese version of Chinese soup bullion called 味覇 (ウェイパァー). I don’t even know how to spell it in English. Weipa? Wepa? Anyway, it’s great when making fried rice. I’ve only been able to find it in one Asian market and it was actually an off-brand made in the USA, so it may or may not be easy to get where you are.
EDIT: It’s also great for stir fried vegetables and sara udon. I’m sure it would be good in just about anything you’d find on the Osho menu. While not technically Japanese, like I said, it’s the Japanese style of Chinese food. Like “American Chinese” food differs from real Chinese food.
If you find random stand in a back alley with delicious meat on a stick, they will sell the marinade they use.
A lot of this you can find in the U.S actually! If i traveled i would try to get some authentic pottery or knives. Not sure on your location, but many big cities will have an oriental market with all the ingredients you could think of
For Sake, don’t buy a brand that you can buy here (Dassai, Otokoyama, etc.).
A lot of the flavors of Kitkats (wasabi, green tea, strawberry) can be found at the airport.
I bought potato chips from the Calbee store, and they have some unique flavors.
Sake!
I’m fortunate enough to live somewhere with easy access to a lot of Asian ingredients, so what I like to bring back are local specialty type foods, or artisanal versions of common ingredients. I also look for kitchen wares and utensils I haven’t seen before and seasonal/limited edition flavors of snacks. Also, a general tip for people in the US: there are a number of Asian grocery delivery services now that may be available in your area, some that are online-only. Worth looking into if you haven’t had much luck finding things in brick-and-mortar stores.
fresh high grade wasabi
Might want to check the custom laws on this…
Pickles! There are stores dedicated to just selling pickled vegetables and I’m so excited to go some day.
If you are near Boston, you should definitely check out Maruichi Japanese Food&Deli in Brookline before you visit Japan. They are extremely well stocked and you’ll find 80% of the suggestions in this thread at Maruichi (They even have a wide assortment of knives). Then just get 100x of the one thing you fall in love with in Japan.
Hopefully they are still open but check out the antenna shops in Tokyo. They sell stuff from far away prefectures. Like Hokkaido, Kochi or Okinawa.
There is artisan rice 1 kg (fresh harvest), citrus products from Southern regions, I liked the snow salt and ryukyu glasses from
Okinawa. And maybe Awamori or koregusu
This might be a terrible suggestion because it’s not really food but try and get your hands on specialist cooking utensils that are hard to get outside of Japan. So like their version of the pestle and mortar, special ginger graters, cooking chopsticks (seriously once you get the hang of them you have so much more control than with a spatula or a spoon), the little basket strainer on a stick type things, and so on. Also their tea mugs with no handles. They are lovely little bits of ceramic. And craft materials if you are into crafting of any sort. Just superior and more varieties of things available.
There’s a lot of food stuff in the US already, even online through retailers like [weee](https://www.sayweee.com/). So like many others have said, just be aware of what you can get at home without weighing down your suitcase! A lot of brands have good representation, like Bulldog, S&B, Glico, Ajinomoto, etc. But there’s a lot of smaller brands here, so if you really like a certain dish when you’re visiting, grab the harder to find stuff for sure! I personally love [Mitchan’s Okonomiyaki Sauce](https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/gp/product/B07DMTBFKN/), for example. Department store basements have a massive grocery, and that’s a great place to get high quality tea, miso, condiments, almost anything you can think of in one shop. Isetan is always my last top when I head out of Tokyo. No shame in lugging over a 1L bottle of a fancy shoyu for a friend (or yourself!).
Some souvenir things I usually get for my friends when they visit us here (well, before COVID…):
Interesting fabrics – tenugui and hand towels with a theme they’d like or something seasonal to when they are visiting, usually from second hand shops/department stores/hundred yen shops, and I pick up vintage fabric from second hand kimono shops for them if they’re crafty.
Crafts – I take people to my favorite small ceramics/glass shops, and we try to bring them to the larger recycle shops in our area for some more common every day things like sake cups and cooking chopsticks, etc. Everyone always loves this part of their visit, it’s such an affordable way to pick things up for people back home, too! Look for what are called recycle or reuse shops (pop in リサイクルショップ or リユースショップ into google maps) popular chain ones are [2nd Street](https://www.2ndstreet.jp/) and [Hard Off, Book Off (and a few other “Off” ones)](https://www.hardoff.co.jp/). Some cater to clothing, housewares, books, etc. Not everything is going to be super great quality, but hey, if you like it, you like it. 🙂
Tokyo Banana.
Where are you located? Is there an Asian grocery store nearby? You’d be surprised at what you can get locally, or within an hour drive. Much of the items I’ve seen here are perishable, not allowed through customs, and/ or available online or in person at most Asian markets.
Things I brought back/ recommend:
Locally produced goods- Example: I got a furikake that is only sold in Kyoto. It’s great and different than all the other furikake I can get here.
Hard to find items like specific cookware ( tamagoyaki pans, good quality kitchen knives, ceramics, etc…)
Fun items from Daiso / other 100¥ shops. They have a lot of interesting items that are pretty decent quality.
If you can, go to an Asian market near your home first. Take stock of what they have. This will help you plan and focus on harder to get items.
Consommé punch chips by Calbee and strong zero
Whiskey. Japanese whiskey then flog it for 4x the price.
Tokyo banana sponge cakes! They usually come in a pretty box with individually wrapped cakes and make for great gifts. You can buy them at train station stores or the airport. They have a short shelf life so make sure to enjoy them at least a week after purchasing.
Saving this post for my trip in march
Furikake is my favorite. Makes me want it rn with some rice and sashimi 🤤🤤
maybe mochi?
Georgia’s Cafe Au Lait coffee cans and then send a few my way.
Wasabi.
Not the green horseradish bullshit but honest to god _Wasabia japonica_ rhizomes.
You’ll need to apply for a permit from USDA, an [APHIS import permit](https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/resources/permits).
Back when I did this in in 2019, it was free and I received the permit (electronically) a few days later and printed a copy. Did a quick trip in Sept 2019; stopped at the grocery store by/in Tokyu Food Show the day before I left (typhoon), bought 3 rhizomes for ~2400¥, rinsed them and wrapped with wet paper towel and then a plastic bag to keep moist.
Flew back into LAX, ***declared that I had an agriculture product***, was asked about it. Told the customs guy that I have wasabi, he said, like for sushi, yeah, OK. Didn’t even need to show the permit (granted, Customs Guy probably thought it was the horseradish shit but I’m not going to play some “Are you really, _really_ sure you don’t want to take a look through my luggage” bullshit).
Ended up sharing it with friends when they ordered a sushi platter for a party…still have a little stub that I’m holding onto it for special occasions, like my solo sushi bday dinner (fuck you covid), until I can go back.
2 things:
Shichimi Togarashi spice blend
(If you drink) Kirin Chuhai Strong (short for shōchū highball)
I’m in the uk. I cook a lot of Japanese food, and get my ingredients from the Japan Centre in London; I’m sure there’s a similar place you can use. Store cupboard things like tsuyu, mirin, rice etc. are heavy – there’s a payoff between any discount you might be getting over what you’d pay in the US, and baggage space or excess weight payment.
The most successful thing I ever brought back was chiyogami – exquisitely patterned bookbinding paper. I bought several metres at a specialist shop and took it back as hand luggage in a tube; I then used it to paper the backs of all the exposed shelves in my kitchen and pantry.
Little, light packets of stuff abound. Fried rice seasoning, furikake, katsuoboshi, dehydrated miso, and so on. I’d be wary of liquids in bottles in hold luggage for breakage reasons.
Don’t forget Japanese Steele. Amazing chefs knives.
My personal favorite as I live in NYC and it tends to get nasty here with windy rain: Sturdy umbrellas. From my time in Tokyo and Kansai, I purchased 2 umbrellas, 1 at ~$6 and another was ~$15 (handle is made out of wood). Had them for 4 years and they are still going strong. I’m not telling you to buy those 7-11 umbrellas in Japan, but get one from a souvenir shop or department store. It’s cheap and a great investment compared to what you get in the U.S. expensive and flimsy.
This might be late but the one thing I wish I could bring back from Japan was a korokoro lint roller. You might think it’s just a regular lint roller but the positioning of the handle makes SUCH a difference. Ingredients are good and all but this is an improvement on your quality of life.
Hair on your blanket? BAM koro that shit. Table full of crumbs? BAM koro that shit. Lint stuck to your rug? BAM korokoro comes in clutch again.
I didn’t realize how much it made a difference until I came back and if I ever go again the only thing I will want to bring back is a korokoro.
FYI, all of this you can buy in Rakuten, they will pack it all in a larger box and sent to you. Also less cumberdome than bringing suitcases full of fragile items. You may want to think about it.
Strong Zero. The only ingredient you’ll ever need.