My son wanted to go to an awesome retro gaming store called Super Potato. It’s in the Akihabara section of Tokyo. (Photos were taken with permission.)

The Virtual Boy is an old retro game that never quite got off the ground. My son was excited to try it out for a couple minutes.

We had heard about the Virtual Boy (it’s famous in the gaming world) but had never seen a real one.

Henceforth, no comments from me. Let’s just stroll around in this Super Potato store and have fun.

Beat Takeshi designed this video game in the eighties. It’s reputedly the “worst video game ever.”

For some odd reason, I really wanted the New Zealand Story game, and I’m not even from New Zealand.

This is still Yodobashi camera. This store sells electronics, but there is also a toy section.

Licca Chan doll….Licca dolls are from Fukushima. One can visit the factory (although my friend told me it is kind of boring.)

Believe or not, I would have LOVED this when I was a kid.

Altogether now…big sigh…….so cute

Can’t forget that I am a Woman of Power

Popo Chan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The exclamation points say it all.

Popo’s money and Popo’s snack

(The money is way overpriced. One can buy better toy money in Daiso, Japan’s version of the dollar store.)

And anyway, when I was five years old, I wasn’t happy with coins that had bears on them. I wanted the real stuff.

Life-size Licca doll

I got one of these doll heads when I was six and I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!

But this is a little creepy…….

Here we are at a store called Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara in Tokyo. (I received permission to take photos.)

It’s a fun store.

I remember my cousins telling me in 1981 that the Star Wars people would keep on making movies until the year 2000. The year 2000! Amazing, I thought. The year 2000 was certainly far, far in the future.

Marvel…I (ahem) actually know quite a bit about Marvel because my brother loved Marvel.  My favorite character was Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman.

Spidey

Ninja legos

I have no idea who this little guy is…..Pikachu? Yeah, I think this is Pikachu.

😉

Our favorite hamburger shop in Fukushima City, Futaba Burger, went out of business so we all craved real American style burgers.

So in Tokyo, Husband took us to Brozers, a cute burger cafe.

Such adorable decorations

The above photo is my son’s burger.

This one is mine.

Surprise! Pineapple burger!  My taste buds are in heaven.

These photos are still from our day trip to Tokyo.

We are walking towards a shrine, but now I can’t remember its name. I asked my husband, he can’t remember either, and told me I had to look it up.

Here’s the thing: If I look it up in English (key words: Beckoning Cat Shrine Tokyo) I only get links to a different place, a cat temple that we went to last year. It’s far more impressive than today’s shrine, so it’s way more on the English internet, I guess.

So I have to look it up in Japanese (on Google Japan version) and I find it (using same key words in Japanese) immediately.

To be honest: Living in Japan, I rarely look up things here in English. Doing it in Japanese will give me much better information. (Although when my niece was here, she was extremely talented at looking up interesting things in Japan in English, so I think there’s a knack to it.)

So anyway, last year we visited a temple that claims to have created the Maneki Neko (beckoning cat.) This year we went to a shrine that claims to have created the Maneki Neko (beckoning cat.)

What’s the difference between a temple (おてら）and a shrine （じんじゃ）?

Otera (Temple) is Buddhist.

Jinjya (Shrine) is Shinto.

As you can tell, the English translations of “temple” and “shrine” are not anything like the words that Japanese people use. I’m sure the first westerners to Japan were like “Okay, this  place we’ll call a…….temple! And this we’ll call….hmmm…let me see…..a shrine!”

It’s easy to get a temple (Otera) and a shrine (Jinja) confused with each other…but there are ways to tell them apart. The best way is to turn to the nearest Japanese person and say, “Excuse me, is this an Otera or a Jinja?” Ha Ha Ha

Cat Shrine in Doll Town

Cats are beckoning us. By the way, cats are NOT prayed to. (At least I don’t think so.)

Cherry blossoms…….

This is where the observant pray. I don’t know the god of this particular shrine. I’d ask my husband but I’m sure he’d tell me to look it up, and I’m too lazy.

Okay, I am NOT NOT NOT an expert in Asian religions, but Shinto is solely Japanese and there are many gods relating to nature.

Buddhism came to Japan through China (originally from India) and is based on the teachings of Buddha.

They are separate religions, but these days Japanese people tend to be very easygoing about religion and many people here follow both religions.

I myself am not a follower of either Shinto or Buddhism.

Cute handsome son and cute handsome husband.