Japanese Lucky Bags 2010 – Lots of Pictures!

The days following New Year’s Day are huge shopping days in Japan. One of the biggest reasons for the shopping frenzy are the fukubukuro (Happy Bag, Lucky Bag, Mystery Bag, etc.) that many stores offer to kick off the New Year.

As we reported in our previous Takeshita Dori fukubukuro article, these bags contain items worth far more than what you pay for them. The catch is that you don’t know what’s inside of the bags. So, you might get $100 worth of clothing for $10 – but it might be clothing that doesn’t fit your body or your style. That said, for many the value outweighs the risk – and the surprise is part of the fun – so many Japanese girls look forward to the New Year sales. Popular shops and brands will often see people lining up hours – if not days – ahead of time. Fukubukuro are almost always in limited supply, so getting into the store before everything is gone is crucial if you’re a serious shopper.

While LaForet Harajuku famously starts their Lucky Bag sales on Jan 1st, many other shops – including Shibuya 109 – start theirs on Jan 2nd. We weren’t able to wake up anytime near morning on New Year’s day, but we were up bright and early on January 2, 2010 to bring you coverage of the Shibuya 109 morning madness – as well as pictures of Lucky Bags, shoppers, and shops all over Shibuya and Harajuku. There are 120 pictures of Japanese Lucky Bag goodness below, and another 40 photos in our related Flickr gallery. So, enjoy the pictures – and maybe next year you can visit Tokyo during New Year’s for a little shopping of your own!

BTW, as usual, you can click any of these photos to see them in high resolution.

Shibuya 109 New Years 2010
Shibuya 109 on the morning of January 2, 2010. Lucky bags, sales, and general mayhem.

Shibuya 109 Crowds
Lots of people!

Shibuya 109 Security
And lots of security!

Girls at Shibuya 109

Shibuya 109 New Years Sale
Girls with their purchases.

Girls With Clothing at Shibuya 109
The Japanese media is on hand to film the madness.

Huge Crowd in Shibuya

Smiling Japanese Girl
Lots of friendly girls here!

Mayhem in Shibuya

Japanese Security Guards

Behind the Lines
Sorting the fukubukuro and figuring out what’s inside.

Girls Trading Clothing at Shibuya 109

Organizing Her Purchases

More Security at Shibuya 109

Lots of Clothing

Big Crowds for New Years

Do you want to buy it?
Some girls were trying to trade or sell the Lucky Bag stuff they didn’t want!

Spiga Lucky Bags
Spiga girls!

Shoppers Leaving Shibuya 109
Shoppers leaving Shibuya 109 via the stairs.

Girls, Girls, Girls

Blonde Shibuya Girls
Everyone is moving in every direction.

Bowing to Customers
Japanese security guards bowing to a customer leaving Shibuya 109.

Happy Girls with Happy Bags
Happy Shibuya girls with Happy Bags. Their bag brands include D.I.A. and Gilfy.

Cecil McBee & WC Lucky Bags
Smiling Cecil McBee & WC by Chinatsu Wakatsuki girls.

Long Line for ANAP in Shibuya
Long line for ANAP Shibuya Lucky Bags.

Liz Lisa Fukubukuro
In line for ANAP with a Liz Lisa rolling Lucky Bag.

ANAP Shibuya
Around the corner, the front of the ANAP line.

Levi's Shibuya Fukubukuro
Fukubukuro at the new Levi’s Shibuya store.

Waiting outside Tutuanna
Girls waiting for the lingerie shop Tutuanna to open.

Line Outside of Girls Doors by LDS
Girls waiting outside of the Girls Doors by Love Drug Store shop on Spain Zaka in Shibuya.

Long Line for BAPE
Wow, the end of the BAPE line is half way down Spain Zaka.

More BAPE Line
More BAPE line.

Bathing Ape Line for Lucky Bags
Even more A Bathing Ape line.

Even more BAPE line
Here is the BAPE Shibuya store – seems like the line goes the opposite direction here. Not sure why.

Beauty & Youth Shibuya
Beauty & Youth Shibuya.

CA4LA Shibuya Line
CA4LA hat shop line.

B2nd Fukubukuro Guys
Fun B2nd guys with Lucky Bags.

Freak's Store Line in Shibuya
Freak’s Store Shibuya New Year sale line.

Freak's Store Shibuya Sale
More Freak’s Store staff being fun.

Random Long Line in Shibuya
Just more random long lines waiting for Happy Bags in Shibuya.

Beams Sale Guy With Robot Head
A Beams New Years sale promoter wearing a box on his head so he looks like a robot!

Shibuya 109-2 New Years
Big sale at Shibuya 109-2.

Shibuya 109-2 Sale Time

Lumine Men in Shibuya
The new Lumine Men in Shibuya had fukubukuro & sales.

Gemini Shibuya
Cute Lucky Bags at Gemini Shibuya.

As Know As de Base Shibuya
The As Know As de Base happy bag says “As Happy As A Clam” on the side.

Slapshot Shibuya New Years Sale

Urban Research Shibuya Lucky Bags
Inside of Urban Research Shibuya.

Royal Flash Shibuya
Fukubukuro outside of Royal Flash.

Hysteric Glamour New Years Line
Long line for Hysteric Glamour lucky bags.

Very Long Hysteric Glamour Shibuya Line
A view of the Hysteric Glamour New Years line from above.

AbaHouse Lucky Bags
Abahouse.

Roxy & Quicksilver Promotion
Roxy / Quicksilver having contests for customers.

Tommy Jeans Tokyo Sale
People waiting outside the Tommy Jeans shop.

Laundry Happy Bags

Smiling Spinbox Girls
Cute girls promoting Happy Bags at Spinbox.

Hiromichi by Hiromichi Nakano
Fun guys outside of Hiromichi.

GAS Brand Lucky Bags
Friendly GAS staff posing for a photo!

Year of the Tiger Pig at B6 Harajuku
It’s the year of the tiger now – which might be why B6 Harajuku has a pig with tiger stripes on their window.

Override Hat Lucky Bags
Lucky Bag!!

Lucky Bags at Love Girl Market
Love Girls Market.

WEGO Harajuku Sale
Cool girl peaking out of her scarf at WEGO Harajuku.

Edwin Harajuku Fukubukuro
Edwin Jeans in Harajuku had red lucky bags.

Graniph T-Shirt Bags
Graniph bags – bet they have t-shirts inside.

More Urban Research Goodie Bags
More Urban Research fukubukuro.

Freak's Store Staff in Costumes
Fun Freak’s Store staff wearing matching outfits and having a huddle while smiling for our photo.

Smile Shot Happy Bags

GGDC by GDC Harajuku
Guys waiting to get into the GGDC by GDC shop on Cat Street in Harajuku.

The Duffer Of St. George
Really cool guy looking into The Duffer of St. George shop on Cat Street.

Long Line on Cat Street
Another random long line waiting for fukubukuro at some store on Cat Street.

Nike Harajuku Lucky Bag Line
The Nike Harajuku store on Cat Street had a line to get in.

Aqua Silver Jewelry Lucky Bags
How about a mystery bag of jewelry from Aqua Silver?

iLL Store Harajuku
ILL Store Harajuku lucky bags.

Natural Vintage Harajuku

X-Girl Harajuku
Big sale at X-Girl Harajuku.

XLarge Harajuku
A line waiting to get into XLarge.

Cat Street Lucky Bags
Awesome guys selling fukubukuro on Cat Street.

Sale Cheap Discount Etc.
Big sale and Lucky Bags with ear muffs, gloves, and other warm gear.

Happy John Fukubukuro
Happy John guy with a megaphone.

Stone Market Lucky Bags
Stone Market had colorful bags.

Grand Global Happy Bags
Grand Global bags.

Upstart Harajuku
Big Lucky Bags at Upstart Harajuku.

Culture Medium New Year Sale
With a name like “Culture Medium”, the bags have to be good!

Code Headwear Harajuku
Want a mystery hat? Code Headwear has just the bag for you!

Aeropostal Harajuku
Aeropostal blue bags.

Womb Lucky Bags
Insert Womb joke here – if you dare.

GGD New Year Bags
Lots of bags, and a cute Japanese girl, at GGD Harajuku.

Stussy x Undefeated Harajuku
Big line for either the Stussy or Undefeated shop in Harajuku.

Doll in High Heels
Doll in High Heels cute Happy Bags.

Silver Bullet Harajuku Lucky Bags
Cool guys outside of Silver Bullet.

Harajuku Lucky Bags
More Lucky Bags than you can carry!

Jack Rose Harajuku
Jack Rose – do you have what it takes to wear what’s in these bags?

BBC / Ice Cream Harajuku
Long lines at the Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream shop in Harajuku.

FUGA Lucky Bags
More cool guys – this time at FUGA.

Supreme Harajuku
Long line for Supreme Harajuku fukubukuro.

Neighborhood Harajuku
Cool – and quite big – security guard at Neighborhood Harajuku. No line cutting here!

Kinetics Harajuku Sneakers
Lucky bags full of sneakers.

Yellow 96 Fukubukuro
Yellow 96 bags.

Phenomenon Harajuku
Another massive line – this one for Phenomenon. Some cool people in line and walking by.

Phenomenon Line
I think this was also Phenomenon, although it seems to go in the opposite direction.

LAD Musician Harajuku
The line for LAD Musician fukubukuro. Some of these line-waiters seemed a bit suspicious of our photo taking.

Long Line of Shoppers on Cat Street
This line starts on Cat Street and goes who knows where – but far away for sure.

Dicokick Harajuku
Cute Dicokick bags.

Banana Fish Harajuku Lucky Bags
Banana Fish had cute Lucky Bags out front.

SuiSuiSui Harajuku
SuiSuiSui bags.

Lump Harajuku
A small line for Lump Harajuku and the Design Festa gallery in the background.

Murasaki Harajuku Purple Happy Bags
Murasaki Sports fukubukuro.

New Year 2010 Sale Crowds on Meiji Dori
The crowds on Meiji Dori are crazy. This is between Takeshita Dori and Omotesando Dori.

Crowds OutSide Forever 21 Harajuku
Now passing Forever 21 Harajuku – they do have some kind of Lucky Bags they’re promoting.

H&M Harajuku Sale Crowds
Now passing H&M Harajuku – no New Year bags we can see, but we can’t see much except lots of people.

LaForet Harajuku Crowds
Getting closer to LaForet.

LaForet Harajuku
The entrance to LaForet isn’t too crowded, but inside it looks busy!

Crowds Outside of LaForet
More people flooding toward LaForet. There are lots and lots of Lucky Bags to be had.

Crossing Meiji Dori Toward Gap Harajuku
Crossing the street toward the old Gap Harajuku.

Vis Harajuku
Vis Harajuku bags.

Angelic Pretty Lucky Bags
Some girls just walked past us carrying pink Angelic Pretty Lucky Bags.

H&M Harajuku
A shot across the street at the crowds outside of H&M.

LHP (Lazy Hazy Planet) Harajuku
Cool girl standing outside of LHP (Lazy Hazy Planet). Inside, you can see Lucky Bags – and Banksy artwork.

Zen Mall Harajuku
ZenMall – Lucky Bags and a perpetual state of SALE!

Graniph Harajuku Shop
The Graniph Harajuku shop with lucky bags and cute bear t-shirt. A cute bear holding his own head in his hands?

A cute bear holding his head in his hands sounds like a good place to stop. But, in case 120 pictures wasn’t enough for you, we’ve got even more fukubukuro images in our related Flickr Gallery.

Everyone here at TokyoFashion.com wishes you a great 2010, and please do try to visit Japan this year if you can!

Comments are closed.

  1. i want to know what was inside the WEGO bags! :3
    and that guy on the left in the WEGO picture is hilarious!

  2. Oh my!! Next time I also should go to Shibuya 109, my bf would go mad haha, but I don’t care!

    It is fun to see that some brands are way more popular then others!

  3. balletbabe

    I just went to study abroad in Japan this past Spring into the summer and went sight-seeing in Tokyo and you pictures just brought back memories. I wish I had stayed there for a year so I could participate in this HOT MESS!!! It’s like Black Friday in America (well in here NYC where I live). Thanks for the pictures ^_^!!!

  4. Fukubukuro are just that fuk-u-bukuro because that’s what really happen when you buy one.

  5. This looks so fun (minus the line-waiting)! I want to go to this at least once in my lifetime.

  6. Pingback: 日本新年的福袋大戰 | Carvenus.com Tw

  7. tokyosista

    Dang that’s really cool to see something like this. I wish I could have been there to get some Angelic Pretty lucky bags or even Baby the Stars Shine Bright for my best friend (who is a lolita). :3

  8. Misterpearce

    First chance I get I’m running straight into Jack Rose and locking the door behind me. Even the bags themselves were awesome!

  9. Wow!!! Craziness!!! Fun!! I’d love to get a Lucky/Mystery bag!!!! And like Ting said above- everyone looks sooo trendy!!!

  10. If I have no enough money and time, I scare to go to Japan…especially Tokyo… too terrible!

  11. looks like they’re having fun!!!…..btw…how does the lucky bag system work?

  12. very interesting but it looks tiring.
    they patiently waiting everywhere. I’ll die if I waited that much to buy something.

  13. Pingback: Back to Tokyo; News Year’s Fukubukuro lucky bags — thefashionatetraveller.com

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  15. Counting the days for the 3th time, the energie is amazing the best way to start the new year!