I finally have something worth writing about: I bought a Famicom.
My wife and I took a short trip to Wakayama city yesterday out of boredom. We went to a shopping center that looks like it was new and exciting at some time in its past but now struggles to get anyone to come anywhere inside except for the grocery store and pachinko parlor. On one floor, there was an open "recycle shop," or secondhand store. I wouldn't have gone in there, but there was a giant poster of a portrait of Art Garfunkel (only 500 yen!) at the front of the store. This piqued my curiosity, so I had to go in.
I think I may be addicted to Japanese thrift stores now. I've always liked the ones in my home country, too, but the Japanese ones seem so much more exotic, like the store that sold the mogwai in Gremlins. This store didn't look like that or have a slightly offensive Asian stereotype working there, but it was filled with old musty Asian relics and curiosities. A snakeskin shamisen leaned on a what looked like a real painted antique Chinese curio; painted tin advertisements for National appliances and Sapporo beer hung crooked on the walls; metal pencil cases decorated with cute cartoon penguins from the 1980's and selling for 80 yen a piece rusted away on pegged store shelves. It was a sensory overload of old stuff that seemed, at least to a foreigner like me, mystical.
And then I spotted that yellowed red and white plastic box sitting with several toys, the one that I dreamily envied in magazines as a child when all I had was that clunky grey square box. It was the Nintendo Famicom, the Japanese version of the NES, my childhood best friend.
I've never really considered myself a "gamer," but I have always been obsessed with Nintendo products, if just for their design aesthetics. I think my admiration stems from nostalgia. I received the NES Deluxe Set (NES, R.O.B., two controllers, Zapper, Gyromite, and Duck Hunt) as a Christmas gift from Santa Claus when I was four years old. I didn't really want one, nor did I even know what it was, but Santa thought I needed one. In other words, Dad wanted one.
Some of my best memories from the next few years of my childhood are of my heart beating as we pulled into the parking lot of Toys R Us or Lionel Toys, the closest of which was at least an hour and half from my hometown. Lionel was the best because they had a separate enclosed section behind a glowing blue neon sign of "The World of Nintendo" in which all the shelves and glass cases were designed to have the same plastic grey and red color scheme as Nintendo products. It was all so futuristic and so 1980's that I couldn't help but get "Nintendo anxiety," as I'm sure it's diagnosed now, when we pulled into those parking lots.
My childhood was dictated by Nintendo. Christmas was more about anticipating the next piece of Nintendo ephemera to be released than being with family. I reserved a Game Boy Camera and Printer, only to arrive at Babbage's and find out no one else wanted one. Nintendo Power was my Bible--really, I snuck it into church and read it during sermons. I have a Virtual Boy.
Nintendo is probably responsible, in some part, for my interest in Japan. I never had an explicit interest in Japan or the Japanese language until after I met my wife, but I used to drool over Nintendo games and accessories released only in Japan. The Japanese writing emblazoned on the title screens were so much more aesthetically pleasing than block letters. The red and white Famicom was one of those forbidden Japan-only fruits, so you can imagine the emotions that came rushing to the surface when I saw one sitting in a recycle shop.
My heart jumped when I saw a price tag for 1500 yen (about 18 USD). There was a cartridge of "Senjou no Ookami" (you may remember this gem as "Commando") for 20 yen (25 cents). The RF adaptor was missing, and the Famicom itself was pretty grimy, but I grabbed it and practically ran to the checkout counter.
As I don't have an RF adaptor to hook it up to the TV at the moment, I have no idea if the Famicom works or not, but even if it doesn't, I don't care. I'll put it on a shelf and display it for the world to see, to show my pride as a kid shaped by (warped by?) Nintendo Co. Ltd.
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