fukubukuro
n.— «Grab bags, known as fukubukuro (lucky bags), are popular items in almost every store during the New Year holiday season in Japan. Some are especially large, such as one selling for Y15 million by the Takashimaya & Co. department store in Tokyo. That bag contains Y27 million worth of clothing, jewelry, a suitcase, a video camera and two round-trip tickets to Hawaii on the luxurious Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner. Fukubukuro are usually sold for price less than their contents as a New Year attraction.» —“Town scenes: Y15 mil. ‘fukubukuro’ up for grabs” Japan Economic Journal Jan. 2, 1988. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Astronauts returning from space say they experience what’s called the overview effect, a new understanding of the fragility of our planet and our need to reflect on what humans all share as a species. A book about the end of the universe...