Donguri Kyowakoku delivers one of the best lucky bags of the New Year, with a very unusual Totoro.

Japanese retail chain Donguri Kyowakoku, which adorably translates to “Acorn Republic“, has 39 stores around the country, all dedicated to selling one thing: official Studio Ghibli merchandise.

After a year of bringing us stunning anime clocks, Canadian Catbus sweaters, and a dancing Kiki’s Delivery Service coin bank, the popular retail chain celebrated the start of 2020 as they always do, by bringing out a limited number of fukubukuro lucky bags for customers to purchase on New Year’s Day.

We were there in line to pick up one of the sought-after bags before they sold out, and when we opened the mystery bag up our hearts filled with love for the acclaimed anime house as we were greeted with smiles from some of its most beloved characters.

The 3,500-yen (US$32.36) bag contained the following items:

▼ A My Neighbour Totoro All Vacuum Insulated Delica Pot

▼ A Laputa: Castle in the Sky Pouch

▼ A Kiki’s Delivery Service Jiji Mini Towel and a Howl’s Moving Castle Hand Towel

And a My Neighbour Totoro Kurutoga Mechanical Pencil, a Kiki’s Delivery Service Friction Ball 3-coloured pen, and a Kiki’s Delivery Service DelGuard Mechanical Pencil.

▼ The star item, however, was the gorgeous My Neighbour Totoro Totoro Rail Puzzle Garden Set.

After reading the instructions on the back of the box, we fed some batteries into the Totoro figurine and assembled the puzzle pieces.

Then we popped the grinning forest dweller onto the garden path…

Et Voila! Totoro ambled around the garden as if brought to life, with a grin so infectious it brought a huge smile to our faces as well.

While the contents are said to differ from bag to bag, the fukubukuro from Donguri Kyowakoku are always one of the most popular at New Year, as they consistently offer great value for money.

The contents of this bag alone well exceeded the 3,500 yen spent on it, which is more than we can say for some of the other lucky bags we’ve come across this year.

Photos © SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]