Thank You Pikachu For Making Me Feel Old

For starters I feel really quite young.

 When I was a kid and would look up to 30-somethings I would think, "Man that's old!"  For goodness sake it was a couple months before my 9th birthday when my Mom turned 30, which--Oh my goodness, I just realized this--I was 13 when my Mom was my age.  How's that for perspective?  Maybe being single at 34 with a boat load of questions about my life makes me feel young.  I don't know.  But then people are constantly mistaking me for 25, which I'll take as long as I can.

And then life throws a bucket of cold water on you to remind you that time is passing whether you like it or not.  For me I got soaked with ice water when I found a toy at Walmart showing the number 20.

"Why the freak is the number 20 on a Pokemon box!!??" I didn't exclaim this out loud.  Instead I screamed this within the confines of my mind.  A quick Google search later and I found out that the game Pokémon Red and Green came out on February 27, 1996, a year before the anime.

It wasn't until my senior year of High School, 1999, when I learned about the phenomenon through my obsessed three younger brothers.

We watched the show.  We collected cards.  They actually played, I just like collecting things.  I had many debates with my friends whether Pokemon is a legitimate anime, because a lot of purest wanted nothing to do with these Pocket Monsters.  Kiki's Delivery Service is the first anime I watched.  Miyazaki was gaining huge popularity in America.  Gundam Wing came out in March of 1996 as well, making strides on Toonami with 1992's Sailor Moon.

Yes, Sailor Moon is 24 years old. (Technically Sailor Moon was a middle schooler, so 12+24= 36.  Let that sink in.)

Most of the cards I've collected I've given to my siblings.

I've kept some of the holos.

This is my all time favorite card: Promo Holo Ancient Mew.

Scanning the card into a JPEG made it really dark.

Here's a picture that better shows the colors.

From ToyWiz.com: "Pokemon promo card ancient Mew - given issued out to attendees at the Pokemon Movie in 2000. Ancient Mew is Holographic on both sides and has an amazing illustration of the elusive Mew on the front of the card. The back of the card is wonderfully illustrated with energy balls consisting of grass, fighting, and fire, water, colorless, lightning and psychic."

Apparently it's an ultra rare.  Cool.  I got two on opening day.

Still Pikachu's 20.  20!!  Where is the time going?

My Japanese Treasures

 What's the point of going on a trip if you don't bring back a few treasures?

I bought a lot of gifts for my family.  Every time I bought something special, there was a box to go with it.  My little duffel bag was packed full, mainly with gifts.  I did buy a few Kokeshi dolls on Enoshima, which I collect.  And the Mickey Mouse bowl came from Tokyo Disney Sea.

 I found these cute toys on Enoshima as well.  I love this Hello Kitty, and the little bunny under Autumn leafs represent the fact that I visited in October.

 I got these from the shrines I visited.

 And this Snoopy came from a character shop.  I love how popular Snoopy is in Japan.  I saw Snoopy goodies and items everywhere I visited.

 Kiki's Delivery Service playing cards :0)

 And I found this really cool charm on the Tokyo Skytree.

This is my favorite item I bought.

The interesting thing about Tokyo was how every place I visited offered to wrap each individual item I was gifting in a big.  They simply asked "gift?" and away they went, which made gifting very nice and special, only I had to open each bag to know what was inside.  A couple stores even gave me extra bags with sealing stickers.

And this is it!  The last of my Japan posts!

Snoopy Dance :0)