Last fall a coworker of mine named Sidd took a vacation to Japan. He had studied abroad there when he was younger and has a deep love for the country and its people. Knowing that my fandom of Japanese culture veers between low-key otaku and hardcore weeb depending on what day it is, Sidd asked me if I'd like him to bring anything back with him from the land of the rising sun. Of course I jumped at the chance to get some authentic souvenirs, but I didn't want to just give him a list of video games to bring back. I enlisted the help of Adam Bickman2k for some ideas. I'd like to thank Adam for his suggestions because without them my list of requests would have consisted of "Game Boy games" and "Godzilla stuff."



First up is something I didn't actually ask for, but no Japan haul is complete without KitKats. Here we have Matcha flavored in a fancy looking box. I may or may not eat them because candy is really not good for you. After that is a pair of daruma dolls. These good luck charms were something Adam told me to ask for and I'm happy I did. The little one is solid and the big one is hollow but they are both very nice.


Next up we have a few sets of chopsticks. I have plenty of of chopsticks that I have bought at Asian grocery stores over the years, but these are nicer than anything I have. I particularly love the Manekineko themed pair and I hope that eating with them will help me to attract money and people, as the packaging promises.


If I could have requested merchandise from Japan about five or ten years ago, I would have asked exclusively from video games. Lately though, I've gotten away from collecting import games, keeping only a select few in my collection and emulating anything else I wanted to play. However, knowing that they wouldn't take up too much space I asked Sidd to grab some Game Boy games. Even though I'll probably never play them, I can if I want to because the Game Boy is not region locked. I must say I am very happy with the selections he made. I did not ask for any specific titles because I didn't know what he would be able to find and would rather be surprised. I really like the sleeves they came in and the tags on them, so I'm going to leave the games in them.


Last but not least is the aforementioned "Godzilla stuff." Again I didn't ask for anything specific but Sidd delivered big time here. There's a keychain, a postcard and magnet in the first picture. At this point I should mention that Sidd gave me all of this stuff at our company Halloween party last year, and I was dressed as Dr. Serizawa from the first Godzilla film. I held the postcard when I posed for pictures. The crown jewel of this whole haul is the Godzilla "bobble" doll. I suppose it's intended to be placed in a shop window because it came with signs Godzilla can hold that say things like "Open" and "Welcome" in both English and Japanese. It will look amazing on my mantel next to the daruma dolls.


I am very grateful to Sidd for rounding all this stuff up for me and traveling back with it. I will treasure all of it forever. I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by what was in this bag and to say that was is a major understatement. I'm a simple man, I like Godzilla swag and video games, but again I have to shout Adam out for the further suggestions. I hope one day that I can visit Japan myself.

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