The Animal Crossing Ichiban Kuji is coming out in Japan on March 17th, and the prizes are drop-dead adorable! It’s a great excuse to bring back my Japan Envy series! Let’s take a closer look at the prizes you can win, and at the end I’ll share ways for you to purchase these awesome items for yourself!
Tickets for the Animal Crossing Ichiban Kuji cost 620 yen at 7-Eleven and Ito Yokado locations in Japan. Purchase a ticket and you’ll win one item from the prizes available. One of my favorite things to do in Japan is check out all the different lotteries going on! Here’s what you can win in the Animal Crossing Ichiban Kuji:
A prize: Timmy and leaf cushion
B prize: Tommy and apple cushion
C prize: Mugs (3 designs)
These mugs might be my favorite prizes in the whole kuji! The handles are even leaf-shaped!
D prize: Animal Crossing amiibos (11 designs)
It’s a little odd to have Animal Crossing amiibos as prize items in a kuji, and there are so many of them! But it would be a great way to fill out your collection if you don’t have them already.
E prize: Hand towels (5 designs)
These hand towel designs are amazing! I especially like the light blue coffee design in the bottom left!
F prize: Mini plates (4 designs)
Last prize: Pastel marine teapot
The last prize is special: You have to actually be the last person to buy a ticket for the Animal Crossing Ichiban Kuji in any given store to get the last prize. Since they’re extremely rare, they’re also really expensive to purchase second-hand!
Double chance campaign: This leaf pillow featuring both Timmy and Tommy will only be awarded to 50 random winners! The campaign ends on June 16th.
Speaking of second-hand purchases, I wanted to provide a little information on how to get some of these items. Kuji, or lottery, prizes can be particularly hard to purchase outside of Japan, because you’re not buying an item directly, but rather going to a specific store and buying a ticket. Aitai Kuji is one store that allows people to purchase tickets for kuji outside of Japan – simply select the number of tickets you want to buy, and they’ll show you what random items you’ve won right away! They even have a listing for this Animal Crossing Ichiban Kuji, but be quick, because they’re likely to sell out fast! To see how it works step by step, check out this post.
If have your heart set on a specific item, you can also purchase them outright. One way to do this is through shops like Aitai Kuji – they have the Tommy apple cushion, Timmy leaf cushion, mugs, and teapot available for preorder currently.
You can also go straight to the Japanese resell market. I like to use Yahoo Japan Auction with a forwarding service such as Buyee. Buyee is one of the easiest services to use, because it’s a Yahoo Japan Auction partner, so there are lots of instructions in English right on the Yahoo Japan website.
Buyee can get expensive, because they charge a fee for every item you bid on, as well as a fee when they receive the items on your behalf and ship them out to you. From Japan is another option, but I haven’t personally tried them yet. Mandarake’s international site also gets kuji items from time to time, and you don’t have to deal with using a forwarding service!
Keep in mind that you’ll need to search for listings in Japanese on second-hand sites. To look for the Animal Crossing Ichiban Kuji items, search for 一番くじ どうぶつの森. If there’s a specific prize you want, add in the letter and 賞! For the A prize, for example, it would be A賞. If searching for items in Japanese is too daunting, you can try Otamart, which lists products in English and ships through From Japan. Since the kuji launches on March 17th, start looking at second-hand sites from that date. The resale prices might be really expensive, so shop around until you find a deal that you like!
Which items from the Animal Crossing Ichiban Kuji are your favorites? Let me know in the comments!
