Culture: Thank you gift for baby birth

Being pregnant in Japan, I have received loads of pamphlets, magazines and other information brochures about things to buy for babies. It’s been really informative to be honest, especially since I am far from home. The other day at the hospital, I picked up a magazine about “thank you gifts”. I found out that in Japan, people give money to new parents when their baby is born (which is nice) and in return, parents must give them a thank you gift worth 10% of the money they gave you! Japan is all about exactness, remember? I could not believe it though…
There are many types of gifts you can buy, ranging from cakes with the baby name written on it, to towels (Japanese people love towels) to kitchen dishes, etc. And we think Valentine’s Day is a marketing ploy!

So, here are some examples of cakes with the baby name written on:

Or if you can get crab and shark fin, if you prefer:

Or a set of tupperware:

It’s up to you really 🙂

The most incredible one for me is a bag of rice that weighs the exact weight of your child at birth and that’s swaddled in nice fabric! If I had to do such presents, I would go for that one!
Boy or girl version:

Little baby Sae who was born on the 25th of November 2013 and weighed 2973g 🙂

And now, for those who want to push things to the extreme…

Now imagine a second if we did this back home: in France, you’d give a 3kg Camembert as a thank you present… and in Ireland, a bag of spuds 😀 There’s a business idea!