2004aug02.

Toys in Japan.

Because real estate is at a serious premium in Tokyo, most of the toy stores I visited were five or six stories tall, each usually organized by type of toy. What I liked most about toy stores in Japan was that there was a wide variety of toys, crazy things that I had no idea they were still making. It seems like Japan has a superset of the toys that are available in America.

(You may also enjoy Arcades in Japan)

Rabies Trade Stimulator. (Tokyo)

This was one of the first things that threw me off balance in Japan. This game costs about five bucks USD. You stick your hand in the orifice, where many small packaged bits are flying through the air as if by magic. From there, I don't know what happens, but I think they're numbered one through four and you get a prize from the shelf that corresponds to the number. Or a mechanical raccoon emerges from the bottom of the machine, chomps on your hand, and you get rabies! All the big winners get rabies.

You're probably wondering why I didn't buy that raccoon with the do-nut. So am I. I think I was just overwhelmed at that point, and my luggage was very heavy. And I was tired. And my feet hurt.

Dr. Kitty, please report to room THEHOSPITALISONFIRE, thank you. (Asakusa)

"I'm afraid ... I'm afraid we've lost the patient."
"What should I do with this morphine?"
"Give me that ... [SFX: INJECT] oh yeah ... Dr. Kitty goes sleepytime now."

Silly ole' bearrrrRRRRRRR AHHHH!!! AHHH!!!!. (Ueno)

This is Gloomy the bear. I took this shot because at the time I thought Gloomy had only appeared on a single website. As we shall see in the future, I was completely wrong. So wrong.

The monkey drools because it has a lot of money. (Ueno)

Another mysterious product (i-bloom.com). This is a banana SERIES. You can get a regular banana. Or you can get a red banana. Etc. Somehow this makes money for you. Or for the monkey. I think it's some sort multi-level marketing thing, but with bananas as the token product to keep everything above board. "Your sub-affiliate will purchase 20% of his weekly green banana quota from you. Then your double diamond super-affiliate will put the silver banana on the bottom peg ..."

Demi Moore IS Petunia Pig IN The Last Pig-Headed Female Action Hero III. (Shinjuku)

Again, this was something that I initially mis-interpreted. Originally, I thought someone had taken a plastic pig's head and placed it on top of some stupid action hero figurine.

"Tee hee, Dr. Kitty, I think I need a chest X-Ray ..." (Shinjuku)

And then I looked over a bit.

Umm. (Shinjuku)

And there was some more.

Err. (Shinjuku)

And more. Disturbing. That's the word I was looking for. Close enough. [see more of this nonsense here]

next page (pg 2)