All About Japan

8 Ways to Do Personal Hygiene at the ¥100 Shop

Shopping Health Cheap ¥100 Life in Japan Travel Hacks
8 Ways to Do Personal Hygiene at the ¥100 Shop

You can do plenty of personal hygiene at the ¥100 shop. But while most cheapo products in Japan hold up pretty well, ¥100 hygiene tends to come with a few trade-offs. Decide how far you're willing to go in the give-and-take, and watch out for those products that may even be overpriced!

8. Toothbrushes

8. Toothbrushes

If you're in a pinch, you can pick up a toothbrush from the ¥100 shop—but this is one where you probably want to spend the extra on a proper brush from a drugstore. However, if you're looking for something to get at the cracks and crannies of your drains and faucets, these will do the trick!

7. Shampoo & Body Soap

7. Shampoo & Body Soap

Body soap and shampoo are available for a mere ¥100—but you're not exactly getting Estée Lauder, so these are really only for those budget crunch moments. However, the clear bottles can be quite nice if you want your suds to look a little more artistic in the bathroom!

6. Ear Buds

6. Ear Buds

You can get ear buds aplenty at the ¥100 shop. They actually tend to be comparably priced at drugstores, though, so don't just assume that the ¥100 box is the cheapest around.

5. Body Towels

5. Body Towels

You can pick up a body towel for just ¥100. The key here is the texture—and each package will have a little hole so you can get a feel and find the one that's right for you.

4. Nail Brushes & Pumice Stones

4. Nail Brushes & Pumice Stones

¥100 can be enough to keep your nails clean and remove some hard edges. You might want a stone with a little more friction, but these can work in a pinch.

3. Face Masks

3. Face Masks

The Japanese classic—face masks! Japanese people will wear face masks when they have a cold, largely to avoid coughing on other people on congested trains and other enclosed spaces. They're also popular during hay fever season to keep pollen out, though they never seem to work as well as you'd hope. While you can get more advanced versions at drugstores, for a basic mask, these will do!

2. Nail Clippers & Tweezers

2. Nail Clippers & Tweezers

While you may want to spring for better tweezers at a drugstore or convenience store (cheap tweezers have a bad habit of being pretty useless at pulling), there's nothing wrong with a simple set of nail clippers, particularly if you want a travel set.

1. Band-aids

1. Band-aids

It's always good to have band-aids around the house. The ¥100 versions stick fine, but they don't really breathe, so you might want to upgrade to drugstore versions if you've got an injury that's going to need to be covered for more than a day or so.