It’s that time of year again: time to buy bundled discounted good from nearly all of Japan’s major retailers!

As with every New Year’s Season, stores of all shapes and sizes offer fukubukuro or Lucky Bags stuffed with discounted goods and/or limited edition items. And so, our reporters scour the retail landscape to peer inside these bags to see what’s to be had.

This year we start with Sachi Ojiya who had the unfortunate assignment of getting Village Vanguard for her Lucky Bag. We say “unfortunate” because, as the nation’s premier novelty goods store, they are not above throwing a practical joke or two in their bags.

So even when Sachi selected the sensible-sounding Cat Lucky Bag 2 for 5,400 yen (US$48) on her trip, she still couldn’t be sure what she’d get. So let’s take a look at the haul.

Village Vanguard “Cat Lucky Bag 2”

  • Smartphone friendly gloves
  • Relax shorts
  • Clutch bag
  • Socks
  • Blanket
  • Mug

Six items in total, and according to the Village Vanguard Website they have a total value of 10,000 yen ($89), so Sachi indeed made out like a bandit. And of course, everything was decorated with cats!

The clutch bag was Sachi’s favorite with the tabby jumping right out at you from the turquoise material.

The shorts were nice too, and even thought they were labeled Size L, they were stretchable and even slim people could wear them. Much like the many breeds of cat printed on them, these were pants for the masses.

And then… hey, wait a minute!

That’s no cat.  That’s a pig saying “Hot!”

According to the website, the Cat Lucky Bag 2 contains a “Kitten Mug by Natsumi Natsuko.” But even though Natsumi’s name is there, we can’t think of anyway a talking pig could possibly be symbolic of a cat, even when the Chinese zodiac is involved.

It seems that this was probably Village Vanguard’s joke item for this year, which means Sachi got off mercifully light.

So if you happen to be a cat fancier as well, the Cat Lucky Bag 2 will not disappoint. And if you’re into pigs — well then — you might just get lucky too.

Photos: SoraNews24
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