Sanrio. Famicom. Pocky. Words that meant nothing to me as an American born child raised on Dennis the Menace and Fruit Roll-Ups. That is until I was exposed to a world of Japanese culture by my elementary school classmates. It's amazing what you learn from kids whose point of reference is a tiny island on the other side of the world. Today I want to share with you the "exotic" foods and entertainment I never would have discovered without these globe trotting friends.
Returning to school to start the 3rd grade in 1991, I saw the usual cast of characters assembled in front of the classroom door, waiting for the bell to ring. Then there were these 2 kids I'd never set eyes on before, talking to each other in Japanese. During roll call I learned their names were Shuta and Hiroyuki and they had just arrived from Japan over the summer. We struck up a friendship while discussing Nintendo and one day Shuta invited me over to play some video games I had never heard of. "You don't know, Famicom?" Absolutely zero idea what he was talking about, but I was curious to know more.
It turned out Shuta lived in my neighborhood and I recall the first thing we had to do when entering his amazingly clean house, was to take our shoes off. Next his mom brought us a plate of what I could only describe at the time as a "cold rice bar". She then cut it into rings revealing some kind of meat and vegetable chunks wrapped in what I knew was seaweed, thanks to a short lesson on Japanese food the year before. Finally Shuta's mom said what was very obviously one of the few English words she knew, "Eat". I let Shuta take the first bite and feeling under pressure shoved one of the rings in my mouth. It actually tasted really good, kind of salty and sweet at the same time. As you may have guessed, this was my first experience with Sushi and I have been a fan ever since.
For dessert we got Pocky. Which was like a long cookie stick coated with chocolate or strawberry flavored icing. You've probably seen this in your local grocery store hiding in the "Ethnic Foods" aisle. It wasn't a filling snack, but really it was just fun to pretend you had one of those long, fancy cigarettes like The Penguin used to smoke. That would have been a great promotional tie-in when Batman Returns came out the following year, don't you think?
After our snack, Shuta turned on the TV and pulled out a strange device from the entertainment center cabinet. "Famicom", he said as he plugged in the controllers, "This is Japanese Nintendo". I was confused and mesmerized. The game cartridges were rectangular instead of square, had Japanese writing all over them and you didn't insert the game into the front of the console, just plugged it into the top like a piece of bread into a toaster. The game selection was also unfamiliar. Where's Mario? What about Link? All I saw was some guy I later found out was called "Bomberman".
I also noticed the graphics were way better, like WAAAAAY better. "Wow, everything's fancier in Japan, I was thinking to myself. It turned out the impressive graphics were due to the fact that this was Super Famicom aka Super Nintendo in all it's 16 bit glory. Shuta gave me the controller to play, but I was really thrown by all the Japanese text on the screen and the fact that I now had to work with 6 buttons, instead of 2. Still it was a magical afternoon and soon I was asking my Mom to take me to the Japanese market in town to see what else I was missing out on.
The place always smelled heavily of fish, but I wasn't looking for Red Snapper, I wanted exotic Japanese treats. Up to that point all I had ever experienced was Botan Rice Candy, where the special feature was that you ate it with the wrapper on! It was a cube of sugary gel packaged in a thin rice paper that looked like plastic, but would melt upon contact with your tongue. As a result, I began eating Starburst candies with the wrapper on too, but that's beside the point.
I had recently seen the short-lived Americanized (by way of Australia) Ultraman TV show, so I instantly recognized the character on a rectangular box. I couldn't read the Japanese characters, but I could easily interpret the fact that it came with a toy. I convinced my Mom to buy me this mystery candy and excitedly opened it up on the ride home. There inside was the Japanese equivalent of a M.U.S.C.L.E. figure (which ironically is from Japan originally) with a single color plastic-rubber figure in a dynamic pose.
Eventually I found another candy which came with a fully painted Ultraman in a squatty, cartoony style. Soon I was asking all my Japanese friends about the history and learned there was a whole Ultraman family: Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace, Ultraman Leo. It was more than I ever imagined. I never saw any of these original Japanese shows, but that just added even more mystique to the character. Soon I was introduced to a Japanese icon with a lot more merchandise for sale.
By 5th grade I was still pretty interested in the weird world of Japanese pop culture and so I was always bugging the Asian kids in class to explain the back story of the characters that appeared on their school supplies. I buddied up with a Korean girl named, Irene who opened up the world of Sanrio to my young mind. Everyone has heard of Hello Kitty, who is the Mickey Mouse of the Sanrio brand, but it turns out there was a whole universe of cutesy characters based on other animals. What was even more exciting was that Irene taught me how to appreciate Pochacco, Pekkle and Zashikibuta by drawing them.
My favorite of the bunch was a frog character called KeroKeroKeroppi, mostly because he was the easiest to draw. Irene told me about a Sanrio store where she got all her pencils, erasers, and fancy stationary and I just had to see it for myself. I remember every item was carefully packaged in these plastic bags, making even a simple pen feel like a work of art. I amassed quite a collection of Keroppi swag and soon I was sketching him all over the place. Although I had to add my own masculine interpretation to the mix.
Young boys like guns, violence and super powers, so that's what I added to my "Keroppi-verse". I created "Ultrakeropp" based on Ultraman, "The Keroppinator" was inspired by the media frenzy of Terminator 2: Judgement Day and I would keep them all in my tiny, pocket notepad. Eventually I got mad at Irene for a very childish reason. For her birthday, I bought Irene a gift basket of school supplies of her favorite character, Pochacco, but when my birthday rolled around, I got nothing! Nada! Whatever the Japanese word for "bubkus" is! This caused me to feel betrayed by Irene and Sanrio, which led to me trashing any Keroppi related merchandise in a fit of rage.
From this point on my only connection to Japanese imported culture was my high school fascination with The Guyver anime and to a lesser extent the Manga that inspired it. It basically took the concept of Iron Man and combined it with the organic "living suit" element of Spider-Man's black costume, so I can clearly see why it appealed to me so much. Plus, the 1991 American movie "starring" Mark Hamill is a campy classic I pretty much memorized line for line during the summer of 1996.
Meanwhile Pokemon, Digimon and other nonsense words associated with cutesy monsters were suddenly the hottest thing in town and I politely declined to give them my attention. Some old wounds are slow to heal. Still, those magical elementary school days spent exploring the ideas of another culture so different from my own have a special place in my heart. I'm grateful that American born products like He-Man, Cool Ranch Doritos and Atari aren't my only frame of reference.
So tell me, what foreign imports caught your attention in your youth? What non-American entertainment, food or toys did you enjoy while everyone else was relying on KMart brands?
Bother me on Twitter with your childhood pop culture memories @hojukoolander
