There are things everyone miss after coming back from Japan. Some are obvious things like sushi, ramen, konbini, politeness, friends you made there, 100 yen shops, okonomiyaki and so on. But there are also things that are not so obvious and more personal. So, here's my list:

#1 Cheese chicken from Lawson

This is a memory of rushed snacks and joy of not expensive, tasty and filling food. It was a great snack, hot, neatly packed and so tasty. And it was meat and meat is so rare in Japan! For 108 yen I had 5 pieces of chicken in cheese flavoured and they were delicious (just for the record, the ones in 7Eleven were awful. Too much skin. And the ones in McDonalds were not so good and more expensive)

Cheese Chicken from Lawson XD

And the one from 7Eleven :/

#2 Notebooks

I don't mean the electronic ones or the dictionaries. I mean good old school paper notebooks. They were the absolutely best I ever had. Mostly in B5 size, but the texture of paper was ideal, the cover was hard and soft enough at the same time, the width was just right for it to not be too slim and get crushed in my bag and at the same time not too thick to be hard to carry around with me everywhere. Add to this the wide choice of sheet types, always with a place for the date and topic and with tiny dots you could use to draw a line. This is really something I wish I could buy here and the one notebook I took with me back home is a true treasure.

A sheet from standard notebook

#3 Calpis

If you ever go to Japan please give this drink a shot. It's everywhere and in lots of variation (not only drinks but also ice cream, cookies, bubble gum and other snacks) I have no idea what it's made of and I can't really describe the taste other than "sweet and milky" but this is my favourite Japanese drink.

Calpis is so popular that it was even in "100 basic Japanese words" on my app

#4 Sunshine Street

I was walking down this street so often and I really miss it now. The crowd, the shops, the commercials on the buildings, the noise from Arcades, the music playing from the speakers. This may not be the best most interesting place in Tokyo but it really has a huge sentimental value for me and I really miss the atmosphere of cheerful crowd that’s not in a rush, just enjoying the surroundings.

Sunshine Street

#5 Schedule stickers and masking tapes

Japanese people love pretty stationery and organising stuff and I love them for that. In every 100 yen store there was a whole shelf of masking tapes with pretty designs and schedule stickers and stamps for everything: birthdays, dentist appointment, dates, exams even piano lessons! And they were all so cute! Now I'm doomed to use printable a from the Internet and make them at home :(

Need some stickers for summer? Here they are!

#6 Phone accessories and pass cases

It’s sad that most of phone accessories available in biggest Tokyo shops were only for iPhone and newest Sony models, but it was still nice to just look at the cases shaped like Totoro or see the ones that were basically a mini clutch bag just for a phone. In every place selling phone accessories the variety was just so wast, that it would take hours to see them all. Same goes for those tiny pass cases: there are tons of them, one better than other!

Those are just the cases for Xperia. Wait till you see the iPhone "wing"

Pass cases

#7 Book covers

A really nice custom in Japan is adding a paper cover for a book purchased in a book store. It’s nothing big, just a plain paper cover, usually with the name of the bookstore, but the clerk is always neatly putting the book in it and wrapping it with rubber band. All this for two reasons- to protect the book from damage and to prevent others from seeing what I read. Because you know, maybe I don’t wish it ;)

Simple but cute - book cover from Taiseido bookstoret