“It hurts a little,” Roy Yamamoto admits, turning a coarse green towel over in his hand. “But afterward, I feel really clean.”
The 43-year-old from Osaka buys Korean scrub towels every time he visits. He first saw them in a Korean TV drama, where bathhouse regulars scrubbed themselves pink and looked oddly happy about it. “At first, it felt strange,” he said. “But now I love that refreshing feeling.”
Now he’s the one smiling, browsing a whole shelf of them at Daiso’s 12-story Myeong-dong Station store in central Seoul. There’s green, pink and yellow, and even a glove-shaped version. Each costs 1,000 won, about 70 cents.
His wife Anna, 40, is not converted. “I don’t really like them because they hurt,” she said. “My husband says you get used to it, but I don’t understand how people enjoy it.”
She picked a yellow one anyway.
Welcome to Korea’s new souvenir run. Daiso, the country’s go-to budget variety store, has joined beauty chain Olive Young and fashion platform Musinsa on tourists’ must-visit lists. Alongside the sheet masks and serums Korea is famous for, visitors are now filling their bags with towels, socks, bowls, pens and vitamins.
The numbers back it up. Daiso’s sales on overseas cards rose about 60 percent in 2025, after a 50 percent jump in 2024. Seoul welcomed 8.23 million foreign visitors in the first half of 2026, up 21.3 percent from a year earlier, and their card spending rose 56.8 percent to 5.62 trillion won, according to Seoul Metropolitan Government data. In the city’s neighborhood shopping districts alone, foreign visitors spent 308.2 billion won in the first nine months of the year, up 80.5 percent.
Those citywide figures don’t break out Daiso. So AJP went to the Myeong-dong store to see what was in shoppers’ baskets, then checked whether the same kinds of items were cheaper on Coupang, Korea’s largest online shopping platform.
1. The scrub towel: Pain is part of the package
Koreans call it the itaeri towel, or “Italy towel.” Despite the name, it is pure Korean bathhouse culture. You soak in hot water, then scrub off dead skin with this small, scratchy cloth, a ritual known as sesin. The towels are light, cheap and easy to pack, and the classic green one is as recognizably Korean as a soju bottle.
Sou Takahashi, another Japanese visitor, discovered them through God of Bath, a Korean comic set in a public bathhouse. He bought his first one on a summer trip with his girlfriend.
His first review? “It felt like I was peeling my own skin off.”
He’s a fan now.
Quick take
Daiso: 1,000 won (about 70 cents)
Online: from 720 won on Coupang
Verdict: Online is about 28 percent cheaper, but at this price, buy two in the store and test the scratch level yourself.
2. Fluffy socks: Cuteness for under $1.50
Adeline, 23, from Shanghai, never leaves Korea without socks. These aren’t ordinary cotton ones but thick, fuzzy “sleeping socks” made for padding around the house in winter. Many come with animal faces, ears or cartoon prints.
“Korea has so many cute socks,” she said. “They’re really soft, and there are so many different characters and colors.”
She stocks up on socks and T-shirts on every trip, for the designs and what she calls good quality.
“For less than two dollars, it’s such a good deal.”
Quick take
Daiso: 1,500 to 2,000 won a pair
Online: three pairs for 7,900 won on Coupang (about 2,633 won each)
Verdict: Daiso wins, by 24 to 43 percent a pair.
3. Kitchenware: The 3,000-won bowl
Dorothy Liu, 48, came from the Czech Republic with her 68-year-old mother. She arrived with a plan: a folder of Daiso products she had saved from Instagram, which she checked against the shelves as she browsed.
“I see Daiso products much more often on Instagram than Facebook,” she said.
The kitchen aisle was the jackpot. Korean meals come with a separate bowl for rice, another for soup and a spread of little dishes for side dishes, so tableware is serious business here.
“In the Czech Republic, a bowl can cost more than 30,000 won,” Liu said. “Here, you can buy something really pretty for just 3,000 won. It’s hard to believe.”
Mother and daughter filled their basket.
Quick take
Daiso: about 3,000 won a bowl
Online: a five-piece set for 12,900 won on Coupang (2,580 won each)
Verdict: Online is about 14 percent cheaper per bowl, but you have to buy five. With a suitcase to think about, buying just the one you love is the real deal.
4. Vitamins: Come for the K-pop, stay for the packaging
Jenny and Juli, both 23 and from Taiwan, came hunting for health products promoted by members of the K-pop group ALLDAY PROJECT.
Daiso’s health shelves are stacked with vitamins and supplements in small, travel-friendly packs, often at a fraction of what specialty stores charge. For the pair, the mix of K-pop endorsement, bright packaging and low prices made them perfect gifts.
“The packaging is so pretty, and there are so many different products,” one said. “They’re perfect for gifts.”
They came for specific items and, like everyone else in Daiso, left with more.
Quick take
Daiso: 3,000 to 5,000 won
Online: one supplement listing at 8,940 won on Coupang
Verdict: No fair fight here. Ingredients, doses and pack sizes vary too much to compare. Read the labels, and check what your home country allows you to bring in.
5. Stationery: A year’s supply in one basket
Eliza Ito, 30, from Japan, treats Korean stationery as an annual restock. Her basket held about 10 highlighters, 15 pens and a pile of sticky notes and stickers, enough to last until her next visit.
“Korea is famous for cute stationery,” she said. “Just looking at all these different characters makes me happy.”
Tucked among the pens was a box of Bichobi, a Korean snack of chocolate sandwiched between two rectangular biscuits. That one won’t last a year. It was going back to her hotel.
Quick take
Daiso: 5,000 won for a 12-color set
Online: two 12-color sets for 5,700 won on Coupang (2,850 won each)
Verdict: Online is about 43 percent cheaper per set, if you need two and can wait for delivery to a Korean address.
The bottom line: More than a bargain
Daiso isn’t always the cheapest. Coupang often wins on unit price, especially for bundles. But at Daiso you can touch the product, buy just one and walk out with it today. For a tourist with a flight to catch, that counts for a lot.
Foreign shoppers are becoming a bigger part of Daiso’s business. The chain’s overseas card sales jumped 130 percent in 2023, 50 percent in 2024 and about 60 percent in 2025, according to previously reported company figures. Daiso’s 2025 revenue rose 14.3 percent to 4.54 trillion won, and operating profit climbed 19.2 percent to 442.4 billion won. Those totals include Korean customers, though, so they don’t show how much of the growth came from tourists.
What the shoppers in Myeong-dong did show is that price is only part of the appeal. Yamamoto found his towel on TV. Takahashi found his in a comic. Liu shopped from her Instagram, and Jenny and Juli followed their K-pop idols.
The best souvenir from Korea, it turns out, doesn’t have to be luxury or even beauty. It can be a pair of fuzzy socks, a pretty bowl, or a scratchy green towel. And if it stings a little, as Yamamoto would tell you, that just means it’s working.
How we compared: AJP compared prices at Daiso’s Myeong-dong Station store with Coupang listings for similar types of products, not identical items. Delivery fees, membership discounts and promotions are not included. Dollar figures assume about 1,450 won to the dollar.
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