Ojisan Zukan

After searching high and low across Japan for my favourite capsule toy, Ojisan Zukan (おじさん図鑑), I found him in a small store in Akihabara, Tokyo. Sarah and I must have looked at over 5,000 individual machines across the Kansai and Tokyo regions without luck. I don’t care what anyone thinks but I love Ojisan. I go in for the more realistic Gachapon (see Famicom Gachapon below too). After coming across him I had to drop about 2,400 yen (about $30 CDN)  to get the remaining Ojisans, don’t judge. Naturally I ended up with lots of duplicates, but I’m comfortable with that. The chances of getting all five in a set on your first run-through is below 5%, or something, so it comes with the territory. Some shops sell the complete set but no such luck here. I suppose if he was going to be hiding anywhere in Japan, Akihabara would be it, with the endless supply of manga, anime and toy shops.

Ojisan comes from a Japanese book that translates as “Uncle Encyclopedia.” My understanding is this book is an encyclopedia of the various types of old men in Japan. I will never know because I can’t read Japanese, but the idea is awesome.