Christmas Shopping

This year I will be visiting home for Christmas. I have not been back to New Zealand for many years. The pandemic made it very difficult to go as Japan and NZ were two of the most closed countries in the world at that time. While now traveling is not an issue, it is very expensive. None the less, this year has given a good opportunity to be home during Christmas, so I decided to take it.

While I love the Christmas holidays, there is one thing I hate. That is, Christmas shopping. Being abroad, I usually feel less pressure about shopping for presents. It is often easier to buy something digitally when I can, and I don’t worry too much about trying to send things home. This year, I felt stressed trying to buy interesting presents as I will be able to give them out in person. I wanted to try and find presents that are unique to Japan, and that they can’t get back home. My family is difficult to shop for, and I can never feel confident about what most of them would like to get.

A lot of my choices ended up being cute animal themed. Japan is known for its cute products so maybe it is not so surprising. I was also trying to find products that could be practical and useful. Japan has a lot of convenient and well-designed products. I think these can have a lot of appeal to my family. I am going to bring a lot of different snacks too. The food profile is so different here, and the different kinds of snacks are always super interesting for someone who has never been here.

Even though I dislike shopping for presents so much, there is a good side. On Christmas day I get to receive many presents back. So, I am looking forward to that. Hopefully this trip all goes well.