POPULAR CULTURE DIGEST

#8). Sanrio store. All hail consumerism.
Tokyo invasion explosion of the 90s. Picture your Japanese school girl in a school girl skirt, pig tails, and knee-high socks (a strategic and shameless plug for SEO alert, search engine optimization for you sub-par Internet-savvy folks). She’s skipping along merrily to her favorite Sanrio store after school (a candy land of wonders). There she sees a plethora of goodies, the assortment of Hello Kitty memorabilia, Pochacco, Keroppi, that adorable duck whose name currently eludes me (Pickle?), etc. My personal fave was Badtz-Maru. He was a bit edgier, maybe a tad dark especially for the seven-or-so year old that was me at the time, but he had a badass, rebellious demeanor that I have to say I though was pretty cool. I liked all the characters though. It was like a 31 flavors ice cream parlor -- a flavor for every mood and personality. There was Hello Kitty for when I was feeling a bit girly and sweet. Pochacco was for the athletic tomboy in me at the time. Keroppi, well Keroppi was probably for the geek in me (I don’t know, I associate a frog as something a geeky person would gravitate to). Pickle (Pickie-Bickie?) was just an all-around adorable and quirky duck for all my neurotic quirks (a close top favorite of mine however unmemorable his name may be). There were other characters like a Scottish dog or something for the preps. I can’t remember them all but eh, who cares.

If you actually read this, thanks for lending me some self-indulgence but I'm sorry I can't give you back the 1 or so minutes you wasted.