Omiyage

I have already mentioned the deathly sin of not bringing a souvenir to your family or friends (and everyone else you are obligated to) after having travelled somewhere. It is a HUGE industry! Japanese feel an inherent urge to buy something to bring home. So each and every small town has come up with its own specialty. This leads to really artificial niches sometimes.

This is an omiyage (souvenir) special for Miyajima Island (Hiroshima) that is still understandable. Although I wondered, why its specialty is maple leaves, when everywhere else in Japan you can also find maple trees:

 

This is a funny omiyage. I went to a sumo match, and then I could buy sumo cookies:

  

This is an omiyage, which I do not really find original. It is from the Miyajima Island, where some deer run around and where the famous shrine is - so ok, there are cookies with deer and shrine motives:

  

 And one day we went on a field trip to a nearby military base. Guess what kind of omiyage one can buy there:

  

 BOMB cookies!

I cannot find words for this...

I did not take a picture of this, but when we went to a Shrine on Enoshima Island we discovered cookies with a Buddha motive on it...

Can you see how desperate Japanese must be for omiyage?