As Chinese tourists flock to Japan for the first time, it's not just shopping they leave with. Many are taking home new, positive perspectives of an often vilified nation.

"Shop clerks were so kind," said Zhang Yingxi, 21, a university student from Beijing as she showed a Hello Kitty doll she bought. "I was surprised."

It changed her image of the country for the better, Zhang said, as she had learned extensively about Japan's invasion of China and not much else.