Weekends are always busy for me. I have a lot more work than usual on weekends and I also have to take the kids to places and of course I want to play with them as well. It leaves little personal time. I'm ok with this for the most part. I could do without the work, but unfortunately I didn't buy into Bitcoin early so I'm not rich and money is necessary. Oh well.

Today when I was driving my kids between places, my oldest was in a teaching mode. I wrote (mentally, but later on a notecard when I had a moment).

I've never played Pokemon before. I was just outside the target range when it was first released upon the world, so I missed it. Plus I never had a Gameboy, so even if I had been aware of it I had no way to play it. Over the years I've watched it from the sidelines and picked up bits and pieces about what it is from students I teach but I never really felt much urge to try it myself. Even when Pokemon Go took the world by storm and everyone was walking around with their face glued to the screen looking for Pokemon in the real world, I never felt all that much interest in trying.

My oldest also hasn't been interested in it so far. But then for Christmas I bought him Pokemon Violet. His elementary school teacher of all people suggested it, saying if he is already playing games this would be a good one to encourage reading, as the game itself has a lot of text. Hmm...ok, I thought and decided to give it a shot for his present.

He loves it. It did take some time. I also bought him a used copy of Megaman 11 (titled Rockman 11 here). It was only ¥500 yen and I knew he loved Megaman, so I figured it would also give him something with a bit more action to play when he got bored of Pokemon. And for a few weeks, that's all he played! At the time I wrote on Mastodon:

That toot may make it look like I was frustrated. I wasn't. I just found the situation kind of funny.

But soon after that he beat Megaman 11 and grew bored with it so switched to Pokemon, and it was love at first sight. Since that time he's been completely obsessed!

So anyway, on this drive he was trying to explain all of the Pokemon world to me. The names were all in one ear and out the other and I retain nothing at all of what the game world. I'm sure the names are all gibberish in English too, but for me they are extra gibberish being in Japanese. Or maybe they didn't change the names in the English version so they are gibberish everywhere? But anyway I'm glad he's so excited about something, especially something that involves reading. I'm sure I will hear much much more about it all in the coming weeks and months. Already he has started begging me to buy him Pokemon cards. I may have created a monster...

Do any of you guys enjoy Pokemon? What do you find appealing about it?

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.