Unique Japan

Every year, my husband and I spend quite a bit of time trying to decide what to give our mothers for Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, we usually use our best gift ideas on their birthdays, and our mothers both have particular tastes that we don’t always understand. We don’t live close enough to know what they might immediately desire as a gift, and they have everything they need; literally, everything. The only thing left for us to do is to look for some gift ideas online. So presented here are the top three Mother’s day gift ideas in Japan.

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A well-known Japanese saying, “Hana yori Dango”, means pudding rather than praise. A direct translation is more along the lines of dumpling rather than blossom. It’s a perfect phrase for me since now is the time of year people spend long happy hours under the Sakura (Cherry) trees for Ohanami (Flower viewing), and I, for one, am heading off to the sweets store to check out some of the Sakura sweets.

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