Omiyage: what gifts to give Japanese people when you visit them

In Japan, we have a tradition of giving omiyage—little gifts—every time we see someone or go somewhere and come back. When I went to Tokyo with Studio360, one of the producers asked me what she should bring from NY for her Japanese interviewees. And I gave her this list, which I thought I'd share with you since it might serve useful. If you're not from NYC, you can substitute NYC with almost any city or town:

1. Cookies or chocolate from a famous hip store in NYC.
2. Small coin purse or other portable accessory from a famous hip store in NYC. For 1 and 2, make sure you mention that it's from a small hip store in NYC.
3. If your giftee has never been to the US, even a cheesy Times Square t-shirt will do.
4. If they're techies, a sticker for their laptop with the Studio360 brand (if you guys have one) is good too. They all put stickers on their laptops.
5. Something with the Studio360 brand is okay. I sent my fixers Wired t-shirts once after reporting a story in Japan, and they loved it—because you can't buy it, it's like a collectors' item.
6. If you know they use Macs, iTunes gift cards from the US are a godsend because you can't buy American content on Japanese iTunes with a Japanese credit card.

Comments

[psiclopz]

Re #6: Using iTunes doesn't have anything to do with whether they use Macs or not...

Thanks,

Psiclopz

[cortana]

Good... i gave good omiyage then. Back when I took my first trip to Japan, I took the nice girl i'd never met who set things up so well for me; a denim Netscape jacket with a really cool logo actually embossed into the fabric. tech + hip store (AOL swag) + netscape. a winner!

[Randy]

4 - sadly, most net engineers here (tokyo) seem not to sicker their laptops.

when i go to a net eng meeting in the states or europe, it's now mostly macbooks. here in tokyo, it's black corporate thinkpads. dullsville.

maple sugar candy does well as omiyage, and is uniquely north american.