GUESS WHO JUST FUCKING LEARNED, AT THE AGE OF 35, that the really cool console I had in middle school. Was in fact a Japan-only release and that is why no one has ever fucking known what I was talking about when I was nostalgic about the fUCKING WONDERSWAN
I used to tell a fun story about how I was the first person I knew in Georgia to get a GBA and that mine came with packaging that read "Not for sale outside of Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia" and how I assumed it was Hawaiian because it did play English language games.
I just had to message my own husband like. "So, remember how you didn't know what a WonderSwan is and how I thought that was weird because you love video games?"
Well, at least one person on my timeline only knew the WonderSwan existed because the Digimon game was WonderSwan exclusive and contained kind of important lore about a character who was in other Digimon media
I can read some rudimentary Japanese but I played a lot of games barely understanding them. And the answer is A. my dad gave me the games I got and B. we did have a Japanese store next to a restaurant we did a lot of shopping at. I got a lot of little Pokemon/Digimon/Gundam toys and stuff from there.
Which is also related to how I read Japanese... at a very childish level.... because I need to note that I am half Korean. I am not Japanese. But my dad knew some Japanese from when he was in the Navy ?_?
Just like you don't question where your dad got the Japanese-language console that no one will recognise at all for the rest of your life until a chance meme on plurk brings it up ig
Yeah, I. I.... knew Digimon and Pokemon and Gundam were all Japanese, but like. It's sort of obvious that I knew that, because. Gestures at the store. I'm kind of impressed I knew Gundam was though because I got into it in part because of a Taiwanese kid I knew????
we grew up in a place so white that the only black person I'd ever seen was Micheal Jordan on television until I was like... 9. so we didn't get any multiculturalism lol
I grew up in a mostly white/Asian/Jewish area (Georgia is a strange place) but we saw enough Black people that I wasn't. Like. Weird about it. And then my first high school was like 90+% Black and I continued to not be weird about it so I guess I did okay LMAO
No I got very lucky in terms of early exposure and education about the existence of like. A planet full of different nations and cultures. I WAS kind of a weirdo about being Asian and that being cool but that was partly the times and tbh partly a personal thing (being Asian and othered, but also mixed and othered by fellow Asians....)
Personally, I could have used less messaging that Japan was THE cool Asia and the rest were just Japan knockoffs, but like. At least I knew about them.
YOU WOULD THINK. THAT BEING KOREAN. WOULD HAVE NEGATED THAT. But no, it combined BADLY with the othering from Asian classmates and the general sense of imposter syndrome I already had
I assume that if it had been a Korean grocery and restaurant, it would have been different, BUT.... then again, video games... and Japanese franchises.... so who knows
WELL IT'S EASIER TO READ THAN JAPANESE, IS THE THING