The Starbucks fukubukuro: One of the rarest lucky bags in Japan

Take a look at the special goods only available to special lottery winners. 

As we herald in a new year in Japan, it’s time to herald in a new set of fukubukuro (literally “lucky bags”), which is what discounted product bundles sold by companies at this time of year are called.

For a lot of people, the absolute champion of lucky bags belongs to Starbucks. This year, like previous years, the bags were sold by advance lottery, and securing one is no easy task — out of the 16 reporters who applied for one in our office, only two were successful.

Our reporter Masanuki Sunakoma was one of our two lucky lottery winners, who was given the privilege of purchasing a bag for 7,500 yen (US$65.16). He had to wait until New Year’s Day for his bundle to arrive, though, and when it did, he found it came in a Starbucks-branded cardboard box.

Opening a fukubukuro like this on New Year’s Day in Japan is just as exciting as opening a present on Christmas Day, because what’s inside is a mystery. The only thing Starbucks revealed about the bag was that it contained drink vouchers and goods like mugs and stainless steel tumblers, all valued at more than the price you pay for the bundle.

The first thing he saw when he opened the box was not one, but two Starbucks tote bags!

▼ The small and large tote bags were both made from recycled cotton.

This was a great start to the Starbucks haul, which is said to contain items that can be “shared and enjoyed together with others”, all based around the theme of “Connection“. So let’s get them all out and take a closer look at them, starting with the tumblers.

The first tumbler Masanuki pulled out looked strangely familiar, and upon closer inspection, he realised this heart-adorned product was a limited-time design from the Valentine’s Day 2020 collection.

▼ Fancy seeing you again!

Pulling out the next tumbler, he recalled that this was the Diamond Gradation Tumbler from the 2020 Christmas range.

At this point, Masanuki couldn’t help but wonder if Starbucks was offloading all their surplus stock from two years ago, so when he pulled out a box with “Let’s start the new year with ‘My Tumbler‘” written on it, he held his breath and carefully peered inside…

▼ Happy days! He lifted out a stainless steel bottle in a design he hadn’t seen before.

Pleased as punch with his new possession, he lifted out the next item, which was a small ornament from the “You Are Here Collection”.

Masanuki is here in Japan, so this tiny mug ornament was beautifully adorned with traditional icons like Mt Fuji, a pair of red-crowned Japanese cranes, and bright red camellia flowers. This little ornament made its debut in winter 2018, but Masanuki wasn’t able to get his hands on one back then, so he was happy to find it in his package.

Next up were some coffee beans, which are a staple item in Starbucks fukubukuros.

There was also a coffee bean voucher, which can be exchanged for a 250-gram (8.8-ounce) bag of coffee beans by 30 June…

▼ …and six colourful drink tickets, valid until 26 June.

Reaching deep into the box, Masanuki pulled out the final package, which was…

▼ …a set of two mini blankets that “connect” when you line them up next to each other!

So, to recap, these are all the items we received in the Starbucks fukubukuro. Not a bad haul, and definitely worth more than the 7,500 yen we paid for it!

As it’s a lucky bag, the contents may differ from box to box, though the value of goods remains roughly the same. Masanuki had absolutely no complaints with what he received, though, and he tells us that even the heart-adorned tumbler will come in handy, for those times when he really wants to charm the ladies in the bad boy fukubukuro outfit he scored recently.

Photos: ©SoraNews24
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