Take a look inside one of Japan’s most exclusive fukubukuro.

In Japan, one thing that many people look forward to doing on New Year’s Day is shopping for bargains and exclusive merch put out by their favourite stores in the form of “fukubukuro” lucky bags. And out of all the fukubukuro released in Japan one of the most popular is always the one from Starbucks. In fact, their bags are so sought after that this year they decided to make their lucky bags available only via advance lottery applications, in an attempt to stop people from buying them up in bulk to resell online.

To give ourselves the best chance of securing a lucky bag this year, three of our staff put in applications before the end of 2017, and our Japanese-language reporter Meg was the lucky staffer who received a notification from Starbucks telling her she’d won.

Even though she’d won, she would still have to hand over the 6,000 yen (US$53.22) purchase price, which she was more than happy to do. In previous years, Starbucks released a couple of bags at two different price points, but starting from last year, they decided to change things by releasing only a 6,000 yen version.

After stopping in to her local Starbucks to pick up her fukubukuro, Meg immediately opened it up and set everything out in a neat display, grinning from ear to ear with her highly sought-after bounty. The contents included a set of four drink vouchers to use by June for any beverage up to the price of 610 yen. That was 2,440 yen of the total purchase price back in her pocket already!

There were also two coffee packs: the House Blend, which usually retails for 1,050 yen, and the Pike Place Roast, which retails for 1,140 yen. Doing the math, the vouchers and the coffee brought the total value up to 4,630 yen.

Then came the gorgeous drinkware, with a mug from the 2017 winter range priced at 1,800 yen…

And a stainless steel flask from the same range, which usually costs a whopping 4,000 yen.

All these goods came to a total of 10,430 yen, which was far more than the cost of the bag, but there were still several more items that Meg couldn’t put a price on, literally, as these items aren’t usually available for sale.

▼ There was an original tote bag and a mini tote, both featuring the Starbucks mermaid logo.

There was also a beautiful little jar, designed for holding sugar, that Meg had never seen before.

▼ Meg loved the jar’s unusual shape.

The 6,000-yen Starbucks fukubukuro represents great value…for those who are lucky enough to get their hands on one.

Given that the types of fukubukuro, and their purchase methods, can vary from year to year, hopefully Starbucks will be able to make their lucky bag more accessible so that more of us can enjoy their wares in 2019!

Photos ©SoraNews24
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