We don’t normally do a lot of shopping when we travel, whether it’s to other cities or countries. But occasionally, we do pop in to Uniqlo so Chris can see if they might have something he likes that he cannot easily get in the U.S. Uniqlos (Uniqlo is pretty much the ONLY store he shops at!). When we were in Denmark, we popped in to get an additional layering shirt for me because I was so cold my first two days there; we also got Kaia a puffer vest as an extra layer just in case. When we were there, though, we barely looked at anything other than layering items because we just wanted to get in and out. But what I wish we had done while there was to look at any potential region-specific shirts they might’ve had. Uniqlo makes region-specific print shirts in countries where they have a presence. For example in Japan, you can get shirts that call out specific cities like Tokyo or Osaka. In Hawaii, you can get shirts that have illustrations of Hawaiian specific foods, like spam musubi, poke bowls, and garlic shrimp. In Hong Kong, they have a fun limited edition shirt where the Hong Kong skyline was recreated using mah jong tiles (very culturally appropriate!). And when we were in the Philippines just over a week ago, they had shirts that I was compelled to buy that spoke to the local food!

When we saw the lineup of shirts while in Manila, I was super excited to see a “Mickey Mouse in the Philippines” theme that included Mickey Mouse in Davao eating durian, plus another Mickey Mouse in Binondo (Manila Chinatown) getting sugar cane juice from a sugar cane stand. It was like these two shirts were calling out to me, so I eventually decided to get both; where else was I going to get a shirt with durian on it?! It would be a rare goodie, and once again, a situation of “if you know, you know!” Most people either love or hate durian, but regardless, no one would assume they’d pass by someone on the street wearing a shirt with this loved/hated fruit on it. And with the sugar cane, I have loved sugar cane juice since I was introduced to it in the Vietnamese markets and malls of Westminster in Orange County, California, during my high school years. Most people know and recognize refined sugar, but sugar cane is the real deal, completely unrefined and pure right out of the freaking cane! I felt like this shirt was beckoning me to buy it! For Kaia, we got her two shirts that she selected: one was just a Hello Kitty shirt (not region specific, just Kaia specific!), while the second one was Mickey Mouse with mango (Philippines specific, definitely!).

While I probably don’t need more print shirts, especially after our Philippines trip, I will likely still want to stop by Uniqlo in other countries when we pass them just to see what the local prints are. It’s a fun way to get something “unique” and for the specific country you visited, but in a global store you recognize.