Omiyage question
 

I have my omiyage to take with me to Japan. But can I wrap them at home and bring it in my check-in baggage? Is that allowed? Or do I have to spend some time during my vacation in Japan finding wrapping paper & tape? Or can I just put some ribbon around it and call it a day? Is that appropriate?

Thanks!

The wrapping and presentation is very important....I do wrap ours at home and put in our baggage but nice if not beautiful wrapping is all important

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2004.html

Aloha!

HT has it right. Wrapping is very important.

But, if you are bringing things like snack type food, it does not have to be wrapped...in all of my years here and hundreds of omiyage received, I have always received that sort of thing in just the bag from the shop. That is also how omiyage are sold here....put into a simple bag.

Gifts, on the other hand, in the sense of something nice, beyond a simple token souvenir, should definitely sport lovely wrapping.

So it really depends on what you are bringing and in what sense you are giving it.

If you do wrap, it is fine to wrap at home. We travel with wrapped gifts every time, no trouble.

Doesn't omiyage mean a gift (i.e., "souvenir") you give when you *return* from a trip?

Yes, that is exactly what omiyage means.

> Doesn't omiyage mean a gift (i.e., "souvenir") you give when you *return* from a trip?

It doesn't have to be a gift you bring when you "return" from a trip so OP's use of omiyage is not wrong. Omiyage, from the 2 Kanji's used, I understand it means "products from the country/area" so a person from US can bring a US product as Omiyage to Japan.

Wrapping elaborately or not, depend on to whom you are givig it (anyone important, your superior?, maybe not OP's case but I don't know) and it's up to you, how much nicely you want to do it. If it's something already packaged, putting a ribbon may be sufficient. Also you can do it your way to show them that's how you do it in your country. Well that's how I see it, an opinion from a Japanese.

Thank you for this explanation, kappa, from a Japanese perspective. I see that sometimes the term "omiyage" also gets used to mean "gift" in a more generalized sense, not even involving travel.
I remember being fascinated at the omiyage available at Vancouver airport for Japanese visitors to take home with them: six sets of pens bundled together, for example, so that everyone would get the same thing and no one would be left out--you'd get six for the price of five. Also, I heard somewhere that if you are travelling abroad, and someone gives you a gift of money for the trip, you are supposed to bring back an omiyage for them valued at one-half the cash gift. And that, in case you forgot to purchase your omiyage abroad, at Narita you can conveniently buy gifts on returning to Japan representing the country you just visited, France, Italy, etc.
Here's an ethnographer who tells us more than we probably want to know, but it is very interesting: http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/csacpub/Mono19...fts-2_c-2.html