A very rare follow-up based on some new information and some I didn’t report:

After I posted my last post, I learned that a group of Fukubukuro fighters in Hokkaido had lined up a few days before the fighting started in order to get the best chance at the bag they wanted from their favorite store. Being Hokkaido, it started to snow heavily and, being Fukubukuro Fighting season, everyone refused to give up their place in line. It got cold enough that store employees took it upon themselves to make sure that everyone in line was still okay.

After all, the dead can’t spend money and they lose their place in line. (Or they’re actually concerned about their customers, or both. Something like that.)

One thing I didn’t write about was the reaction of foreigners to the concept of Fukubukuros. For the first time I can remember, TV news interviewed several groups of foreigners during the rampage. The first batch were Russian or Eastern European men. They were caught peaking in the bags. This is not encouraged, but isn’t against the rules, especially with partially open bags. The trick is that the contents are hidden in smaller bags. (Not that I ever looked once myself…)

Almost to a foreigner, they seemed unimpressed. Many of them pointed out that they didn’t want to get stuck with a bunch of items they didn’t want. The Chinese woman figured out that her best best was to target make-up stores and accessories shops because those things could easily be given away as gifts and/or sold upon her return to China.

One store had clear, duty free fukubukuros that could not be opened inside japan. (Knowing the Japanese, there’s probably some kind of proximity alarm that goes off if it’s opened in-country.)

The most interesting foreigners were three German women, each with a different hair color. (Pink, red, non-photo blue.) They stood in line in Harajuku and explained how they loved Japanese cuteness and wanted to be that cute. (Only the one with pink hair was that cute.)

After a fairly peaceful Fukubukuro experience, they went to a cafe and opened their bags. They immediately began a small scale Great Exchange with pink giving red a plaid trilby hat in exchange for a bow headband.

The Japanese TV announcers seemed disappointed by the underwhelming response from foreigners, which actually made me laugh.