
It’s not déjà vu, Mr. Sato; it’s just luck.
Every year of New Year’s “lucky bags,” or fukubukuro, brings a rollercoaster of ups and downs to the SoraNews24 team. We try to test out new ones every year, but we also find ourselves repeat customers of some shops (even if it’s disappointing).
Mr. Sato got relatively fortunate last year with a household electronics lucky bag from a shop in Akihabara called Tokka Bazaar, which only cost him 5,000 yen (45.79). He got a smart music lamp, a foot warmer, a calculator, an electric razor, and more!
▼ That’s worth well over 5,000 yen, especially if you’ve been dying to have some of this stuff.
This year, Mr. Sato decided to up the ante and buy a lucky bag worth 10,000 yen. He was pretty pleased with last year’s results, so he thought it was worth it.
Mr. Sato said he even checked to see if there was one worth 50,000 yen, but he was out of luck in that department. That may or may not have saved his wallet.
Well, aren’t you dying to see what’s inside? Mr. Sato was. He wasted no time in opening it, and his eye was immediately captivated by the large box inside. “This has to be good,” he thought. It could even be a laptop!
But when he excitedly took it out of the bag..
…
…
(ellipses intensify)
…
…
It was another foot warmer!
“It’s you again!?” Mr. Sato thought. After trusting the shop enough to double his paying price from last year, he felt betrayed.
Luckily, one of our writers was there to find the silver lining.
▼ “Look, they’re different colors!”
Oh well, time to move on. The bag also contained some other items of value, including this hair straightener.
The rest of the items weren’t that appealing; there was an FM transmitter for your car, but everything else was kind of random.
You probably don’t need this egg tray…
“I really don’t need this Moomin cup…” Mr. Sato thought.
Mr. Sato was out of luck this year, but he’s also looking forward to next year’s bag. Positive thoughts! Besides, you can get plenty of other exciting goods for less money in other stores…
Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]












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