Traveling Frog (旅かえる) became a fad overnight in my friends. Although the game is in Japanese, language seems not a barrier to them. My friends keep updating where did their frogs go and what souvenir their frogs bring back home almost everyday on social media.
They say that in the game, they can get the feeling of parents when their kids are away from home.
Okay…But why is getting that feeling attractive to you when you don’t have kids?
As a curious people, I downloaded the game immediately and named my frog Nya.
似乎是在一夜之间，朋友们都开始玩旅行青蛙。虽然这个游戏只有日语没有中文版，但语言丝毫没有成为障碍，每天都有人乐此不疲地在朋友圈更新他们的青蛙儿子／女儿去哪了带了什么土特产回来。
据他们说，这款游戏能让你提前体会到空巢老人的感受。
我不太理解为啥没有孩子的人会有兴趣体会空巢老人的感受，并且这还成为了一个爆点。于是作为一个好奇心很强的人，我马上去下载了这个游戏，并且给我的青蛙儿子/女儿取名字叫Nya(为了方便下文描述。最近云吸猫吸多了。。)。
One of the photos Nya sent back
The game looks nothing special to me at first glance. I didn’t even save the first photo Nya sent back.
I played the game inactively for the following days. I would only open the app when the notification showed up on my screen such as 'Nya is back home'. Nya will bring back one photo taken during the trip and some souvenir (mostly food). Normally he/she is writing something at the desk, reading a book in the bed, or eating something at the table.
Well, that’s me….
但是，我觉得好像也没什么特别的呀，甚至Nya发回来的第一张照片（天守阁还是名古屋城）我都没有存下来。
接下来的几天也就这么放着，系统提醒Nya回来了我就去看一眼。它会带回来一张旅途上的照片，一些土特产，然后就在房间里要么写字要么看书要么吃东西。
这一点倒是让我想到了我自己。
I travelled more that 50% of my time in my first job for couple years. I got the chance to travel around Asia, Europe and the US. When WeChat and smartphones were not popular, I was a big fan of postcards.
I sent postcards home from every destination I visited as long as there was post office. Sometimes the recipient was my dad, sometimes my mom. You know the delivery date can vary on the productivity in different countries. Once several postcards with my mom as recipient arrived in the same week. My father was quite unhappy and thought I like my mom more than him...
When I was finally back home, I gave them the souvenirs, and showed them some photos I took. Then I just turned tired and wanted to take a nap in my room.
我的第一份工作，也是我做了好几年的工作，一半以上的时间都在外面出差。借着出差的机会也在世界各地好好游玩了一圈。微信和智能手机还没有那么普及的时候，我很热衷于寄明信片。收信人轮流写我爸和我妈。各地邮局效率不同，有一次给我妈的连续寄到了好几封，我爸还老大不高兴...
等到回家了，把照片给他们看看，把纪念品给他们，旅行的疲惫就都涌了上来，很快就去房间躺平等着吃吃喝喝了。
One of the photos Nya sent back
Actually when I saw the photos taken by Nya, I wanted to ask him just like a mother would -
Who’s the other guy on the photo? How did you meet each other? Maybe you can bring him/her home sometime in the future…LOL
To be honest, I’m still not a big fan of the game today, maybe I never will be. I don’t know how long the fad will last. But I know for sure that I will keep the game in my phone for a very long time.
其实我现在看到Nya发回来的照片，出于老母亲的八卦心理，也很想问哎呀这个娃是谁呀，你们怎么认识的啊，有机会叫他／她来家里玩啊。LOL
不知道这个游戏会火多久，也许我永远都不会跟网上写攻略的人那样热衷，但我觉得这会是一个在我手机里存在很久的游戏。