The Colonel gives us more than we bargained for, despite a year of rising costs.

If you’d like to get your hands on a popular lucky bag, or “fukubukuro” as these New Year’s bargain bundles are known in Japanese, it always pays to plan ahead. That’s because many big name businesses like KFC actually accept reservations for their bags and sell them before New Year’s Day, so anyone who waits to buy one on the first day of the year is in danger of missing out.

▼ When we picked up our pre-reserved bag, for instance, there was a sign saying no more were available, as they’d all been pre-reserved.

Grateful to have planned ahead, we headed home with our 3,000 yen (US$18.94) bag, eager to find out what was inside.

The first thing we pulled out was an insulated bag, with an image of the colonel and the catchphrase “It’s finger-lickin’ good” printed in one corner.

▼ Handy for keeping the colonel’s chicken hot on trips home from the store.

Peering inside, the remaining items weren’t necessarily big in size but they were big in value, with the “Kenta Omikuji” appearing again, in line with previous years. “Omikuji” are random fortunes people receive at shrines and temples in Japan, and this little card gives you the same feeling of chance, as the front needs to be pulled back to reveal the “fortune” you’ve received.

▼ This year’s fortune gets you a discount on the below two sets, which can be used as many times as you like until 31 March.

The real bargain however, tends to lie in the “Special Ticket” vouchers, and we were curious to find out if the chain would give us more or less value for money this year.

Last year, the chain gave us vouchers that were equivalent to 3,900 yen, and after flipping through this year’s booklet, we were happy to report we received vouchers that amounted to 4,190 yen!

▼ This amount, also advertised on the in-store sign, means we got 290 yen more in vouchers this year.

In the current financial climate, where the weak yen and rising costs are making everything more expensive for everyone in Japan, we’d been half expecting to get less in return for our purchase, so we were incredibly impressed with this result.

It was a great way to start the year, and a fantastic way to generate warm feelings towards the chain, so we’ll definitely be visiting regularly with our coupons…and using the food to make more crazy KFC rice cooker recipes.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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