In January my brother will be visiting Japan for a few weeks. He definitely will be making me jealous with loads of photos, and trees are obviously nearly impossible to bring back. What kinds of bonsai related items would it be worth him picking up for me there which can’t be easily obtained here in the states? Thanks!
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the “nearly impossible” is many times worth trying ;-
(though that depends on the luggage allowance and bags of your brother)
Not sure there are really that many things you can not get readily in the states, so not sure it is worth the time to go shopping fr the in Japan
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How about getting him to find out details of the various bonsai training schools for you should you wish to go over there to do a course?
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On a recent trip Korea I found tools and ceramics were significantly cheaper than they are in the U.S. Japan may be similar - it is worth a shot. I was also able to get a few trees back by almost bare-rooting, packing in sphagnum moss, and packing them tight in a hard-sided tupperware (often the plastic rice canisters do great). I could fit three shohin size in one canister and just packed it in my checked back. All are well after an immediate re-pot after the 15 hour flight home.
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grab all the tools you may need. Cut paste, various types of cutters etc. Will be much cheaper there
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not sure if it is really that much cheaper imo. You pay about 3 US$ more for some Kaneshin scissors in the US vs. Japan. If you are at Omiya bonsai village ok, but it is not that in Japan there are corner stores everywhere carrying bonsai supplies. So factor in the effort and cost to get it (or have it shipped somewhere if you buy online). But ymmv.
Do you not have to quarantine imported trees? Or did you simply sneak them through?
It was in my checked bag…they scan those, right? It was the customs agent’s call…I didn’t try to put them in my carry-on, but I wasn’t really hiding anything. But yes, they were “sneaked” through. 
I did check to make sure there were no invasive species issues with my plants, and since I bare-rooted and since I put them in some new akadama before I transported I wasn’t worried about soil-born issues either. The UK may have different regulations; islands run their ships a bit tighter. I know Hawaii is strict.
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Thanks everybody. If it was me going, I’d definitely try to sneak some trees back, but I’m not going to ask my brother to do this. Maybe I’ll have him look for some nice ceramics for me depending on the pricing. Will see if the hand made good stuff is any cheaper. Maybe I’ll track down some nice hand made shears or cutters for him to look into. Thanks!
Would it be worthwhile to track down some seeds for hard to find species out here?