Iwakuni

If you're on an extended trip and you miss something from home that you can't find overseas, the Marines know how you feel — there's a store on base with American brands of daily essentials like deodorant and toothpaste, along with electronics, Japanese souvenirs, and CDs/DVDs. However, it's only open to U.S. active duty personnel, reservists, and retired members of all service branches; everyone else will have to make a friend on the base to get in.

The most distinctive Iwakuni souvenir is the ishi ningyo, a doll made from stones under the bridge. The stones, in turn, are made of smaller pebbles glued together by excretions from a species of cricket. Honestly. If you'd prefer not to creep out your children, you might omit the fact that the dolls are meant to represent the souls of workers who died in the construction of the bridge.

There is a covered shopping arcade near JR Iwakuni Station, Naka-dori.