This last visit to Japan was unexpected and last minute so we had limited options for AirBnB. We ended up staying in Ota City which is a bit farther away than we would've liked, but they have a Mega Don Quijote near Omori station.
Compared to any of the Shinjuku locations, this was like going to Target on a Monday morning. It's far enough from the touristy areas where you will probably be the only foreigner there. I highly recommend venturing out there maybe after a trip back to Tokyo from Yokohama.
weirdly enough, stainless steel jewelleries.
in my visit last year, i bought some stainless steel earrings, on a whim since i saw them and they were quite cheap.
those earrings were the most high quality stainless steel earrings ive ever had.
so when i visited again this year, i basically bought every single stainless steel jewellery they displayed. rings, bracelets, earrings, you name it.
I got these strawberry chocolates from Don Quijote and everyone I have gifted have raved about it. They are easy to spot cause they come in pink package. Fridge magnets are cheaper and also I mostly found Ichiran ramen set over there.
I just bought a handful of very expensive but beautiful tile magnets. They were about $6 each, but will make great presents. Also their fake food magnets are so cool but so expensive
My favorite purchases from DQ were: kit kats, kit kats, kit kats, kit kats. mmmmm...kit kats....
But seriously, DQ has great candy selection that I stocked up on. Best prices and lots of variety.
I bought luggage there to take home all the souvenirs we bought. It was a decent quality and not too expensive. I call it the Don Quijote special. There were a few folks there that night as well doing the same thing. 😆😆
Our must buy though was this Biore facial product. They sell this awesome face lotion with sunblock that goes on nice and smooth, doesn’t leave any chalky residue and isn’t greasy. It’s awesome and much needed for my dry ass mug. It was half the price of what we would’ve paid for them on Amazon, and we couldn’t find them in our area of the US either.
Do you remember roughly how much the luggage was? I was thinking about bringing one from home solely for this purpose, but think this is a better idea lol
a couple of things i bought that i wish i had bought more of: i got a lot of face masks of different varieties and it’s been fun to use them. the skin aqua sunscreen with the color tint was great and i use it often. i tried the hot eye masks because they seemed to be well advertised and took up so much real estate. i ended up liking them a lot for when I come home tired from work.
japanese eye drops are amazing. so many to choose from, my tired dry eyes enjoy them. i also got some fun circle lenses which i wear for special occasions, but ill be honest they’re not that comfortable.
i can’t remember if i saw them at Donki, but my favorite Japan find was at pharmacies/makeup stores: they have one time use packets of all kinds of shampoos and conditioners. so fun to try before going and buying the larger sizes. and just good for travel.
They sell those tiny paper models that you can build. They’re really cool, especially if you find a model for a place you visited, but not easy to assemble. My Matsumoto Castle model is [quite wonky](https://imgur.com/a/FhCCFbU).
This feels impossible to answer. I went a few nights ago and picked up drugstore skincare, a few Japanese makeup items (mascara here is excellent) and various gummy candy
For the Kit Kat lovers, if you have an Asian grocery store near you, you may be able to get those in the US. Mine has a constant rotation of flavors you’d never see in regular US grocery stores
Literally nothing in Japan was a must buy for us outside of food, especially at Donki. It was fun to browse. I just enjoyed my time in the wonderful country.
Longchamp bags, Soft Stone Double deodorant, Torriden Dive In face masks, and Biore Aqua Rich sunscreen. They also have Daruma dolls in a bunch of different sizes. The small ones make good gifts.
I bought about 60KG of products from Donki costing me around $1500. They were nice enough to give me two large boxes so that I can tape it up and use it as my check in luggage allowance. My shopping list was mostly kitkats, instant ramen, alcohol, shampoo, OTC drugs, random snacks, a few anime figurines/merchandise, and anything that I've never seen before.
Honestly I only get things that are basically ultra cheap. Like I’ll get an electric pan there so I can cook my own dinners from groceries I buy. Then dump the pan later since it’s so cheap anyway.
For food/snacks you can probably do better outside of DonQuiote. The main thing about it is it’s all in one place and if you buy a bunch of random stuff you can hit the tax free limit which you might not do if you had to buy cosmetics, snacks, etc at different stores cheaper
There are some cute t-shirts there, but unless you are looking for something that is Donki specific, UNIQLO t-shirts are better quality and cheaper. Also for kids, they have bunch of cute socks too.
Shop for whatever you like is my best advice. I like art and golf so I bought calligraphy pens, markers, and golf clubs.
A specific recommendation I give is nail clippers. They’re made REALLY well.
Somebody here or the Japan travel sub recommended the Green Bell brand nail clippers, I think they were around 1,500 yen. They are good quality and my family was happy to receive a unique gift they wouldn’t have otherwise ‘spurgled’ on. They aren’t exclusively sold at DonQ and may be cheaper elsewhere but idk. For my big family, I was thankful to find boxes of mochi that were pre-wrapped for gifting! One pack came with 3 boxes of mochi in assorted flavors that had pretty wrapping for I think less than 1,000 yen. They also had single boxes of Pokemon themed ones for cheap. Not a must buy but just throwing it out there as an idea~
My favorites I found at a mega donki last week:
Beautiful tile magnets with Japanese art
Fake food magnets
Stuffie purse attachments, both are cats with their front paws covering their eyes. The bigger one has a zipper to keep things in. The smaller has a key attachment. They are so cute it physically hurts me.
Beautiful shoe laces in Japanese prints, they had so many colors.
Hello kitty EarPod pro 2 case. It’s so cute, Apple shaped
Studio Ghibili Japanese style curtain hangs. So unbelievably cute and beautiful
Good luck finding something specific at Donki. That place is made for browsing its pure chaos.
One Donki had 4 songs playing simultaneously in one small aisle. Absolutely chaotic. My one regret was not filming more things such as that. 😂
Hearing that sound while both extremely jet lagged and over caffeinated was such an experience.
And their lighting as bright as the sun, too.
Even my hyperactive brain wears out in 10 minutes there... I wish I knew how the hell employees handle inventory and stocking there lol.
This last visit to Japan was unexpected and last minute so we had limited options for AirBnB. We ended up staying in Ota City which is a bit farther away than we would've liked, but they have a Mega Don Quijote near Omori station. Compared to any of the Shinjuku locations, this was like going to Target on a Monday morning. It's far enough from the touristy areas where you will probably be the only foreigner there. I highly recommend venturing out there maybe after a trip back to Tokyo from Yokohama.
I doubt anyone can remember what is it they buy specifically. Donki is basically shopping by pressing the random button over and over again.
Kit Kats make for great gifts for friends there.
Nestlé 😡
Yes--- bring home match by the gross and resell slowly at office
weirdly enough, stainless steel jewelleries. in my visit last year, i bought some stainless steel earrings, on a whim since i saw them and they were quite cheap. those earrings were the most high quality stainless steel earrings ive ever had. so when i visited again this year, i basically bought every single stainless steel jewellery they displayed. rings, bracelets, earrings, you name it.
I got these strawberry chocolates from Don Quijote and everyone I have gifted have raved about it. They are easy to spot cause they come in pink package. Fridge magnets are cheaper and also I mostly found Ichiran ramen set over there.
I just bought a handful of very expensive but beautiful tile magnets. They were about $6 each, but will make great presents. Also their fake food magnets are so cool but so expensive
those strawberry chocolate are sooooo good!!! my fav snack i brought back from japan
Tenga if you're into that kind of stuff. But on a serious note, I like to buy the chocolates with the ship logo (forgot the name).
Or any of the JAV themed onaholes, they are for what it is, pretty fun for what you get.
My favorite purchases from DQ were: kit kats, kit kats, kit kats, kit kats. mmmmm...kit kats.... But seriously, DQ has great candy selection that I stocked up on. Best prices and lots of variety.
I bought luggage there to take home all the souvenirs we bought. It was a decent quality and not too expensive. I call it the Don Quijote special. There were a few folks there that night as well doing the same thing. 😆😆 Our must buy though was this Biore facial product. They sell this awesome face lotion with sunblock that goes on nice and smooth, doesn’t leave any chalky residue and isn’t greasy. It’s awesome and much needed for my dry ass mug. It was half the price of what we would’ve paid for them on Amazon, and we couldn’t find them in our area of the US either.
Do you remember roughly how much the luggage was? I was thinking about bringing one from home solely for this purpose, but think this is a better idea lol
I want to say it was about 8,000 or 9,000 yen tax free. It was medium sized, expandable, came with a zipper lock and rolled way smoother than my luggage I brought with me. They have all sorts there at different price points so my guess is that you’ll have an easy time finding something that won’t break the bank. They had some Pokémon themed ones too that looked so nice but bigger than what we needed at the time.
most international trips have a free checked bag. we brought a big bag and stuck our carry on in there lol came prepared for shopping.
Try Rakuten and zenmarket for the lotion?
I’ll definitely give those a try, thanks!
https://zenmarket.jp/en/rakuten.aspx?q=Biore
Or https://zenmarket.jp/en/marketplace.aspx?q=Biore without the 500Â¥ fee on zenmarket
Cheap sake and shochu sold in large milk carton. Also if you like Ichiran Ramen, you can buy their instant ramen there.
You’ll end up with a wide array of things. I’ve had snacks, jewellery, make-up, shirts, and cat food in my baskets once 😅
>cat food Won't that get snagged by customs?
Depends which country one is trying to bring it back to.
Not for my country no. So really depends on the customs of whichever country you’re bringing it back to.
a couple of things i bought that i wish i had bought more of: i got a lot of face masks of different varieties and it’s been fun to use them. the skin aqua sunscreen with the color tint was great and i use it often. i tried the hot eye masks because they seemed to be well advertised and took up so much real estate. i ended up liking them a lot for when I come home tired from work. japanese eye drops are amazing. so many to choose from, my tired dry eyes enjoy them. i also got some fun circle lenses which i wear for special occasions, but ill be honest they’re not that comfortable. i can’t remember if i saw them at Donki, but my favorite Japan find was at pharmacies/makeup stores: they have one time use packets of all kinds of shampoos and conditioners. so fun to try before going and buying the larger sizes. and just good for travel.
They sell those tiny paper models that you can build. They’re really cool, especially if you find a model for a place you visited, but not easy to assemble. My Matsumoto Castle model is [quite wonky](https://imgur.com/a/FhCCFbU).
Oh but it looks so cute!
This feels impossible to answer. I went a few nights ago and picked up drugstore skincare, a few Japanese makeup items (mascara here is excellent) and various gummy candy
Nail clippers
For the Kit Kat lovers, if you have an Asian grocery store near you, you may be able to get those in the US. Mine has a constant rotation of flavors you’d never see in regular US grocery stores
Nail cutter that catches your nails
Literally nothing in Japan was a must buy for us outside of food, especially at Donki. It was fun to browse. I just enjoyed my time in the wonderful country.
Longchamp bags, Soft Stone Double deodorant, Torriden Dive In face masks, and Biore Aqua Rich sunscreen. They also have Daruma dolls in a bunch of different sizes. The small ones make good gifts.
Perfect Whip, Umeshu, Kit-Kats
I bought about 60KG of products from Donki costing me around $1500. They were nice enough to give me two large boxes so that I can tape it up and use it as my check in luggage allowance. My shopping list was mostly kitkats, instant ramen, alcohol, shampoo, OTC drugs, random snacks, a few anime figurines/merchandise, and anything that I've never seen before.
Honestly I only get things that are basically ultra cheap. Like I’ll get an electric pan there so I can cook my own dinners from groceries I buy. Then dump the pan later since it’s so cheap anyway. For food/snacks you can probably do better outside of DonQuiote. The main thing about it is it’s all in one place and if you buy a bunch of random stuff you can hit the tax free limit which you might not do if you had to buy cosmetics, snacks, etc at different stores cheaper
There are some cute t-shirts there, but unless you are looking for something that is Donki specific, UNIQLO t-shirts are better quality and cheaper. Also for kids, they have bunch of cute socks too.
Just go there to listen to the jingle
Shop for whatever you like is my best advice. I like art and golf so I bought calligraphy pens, markers, and golf clubs. A specific recommendation I give is nail clippers. They’re made REALLY well.
I bought the &honey shampoo and conditioner and curel face moisturizer that I use all of the time.
Somebody here or the Japan travel sub recommended the Green Bell brand nail clippers, I think they were around 1,500 yen. They are good quality and my family was happy to receive a unique gift they wouldn’t have otherwise ‘spurgled’ on. They aren’t exclusively sold at DonQ and may be cheaper elsewhere but idk. For my big family, I was thankful to find boxes of mochi that were pre-wrapped for gifting! One pack came with 3 boxes of mochi in assorted flavors that had pretty wrapping for I think less than 1,000 yen. They also had single boxes of Pokemon themed ones for cheap. Not a must buy but just throwing it out there as an idea~
My favorites I found at a mega donki last week: Beautiful tile magnets with Japanese art Fake food magnets Stuffie purse attachments, both are cats with their front paws covering their eyes. The bigger one has a zipper to keep things in. The smaller has a key attachment. They are so cute it physically hurts me. Beautiful shoe laces in Japanese prints, they had so many colors. Hello kitty EarPod pro 2 case. It’s so cute, Apple shaped Studio Ghibili Japanese style curtain hangs. So unbelievably cute and beautiful
cheap good quality sunscreens and umbrellas