Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Monday, Mar. 26, 2007 - 12:41 a.m.

So, I got the bitchinest present EVER last night. :) I went to dinner with Jonny-C, his sig-o Tom, and our mutual friends Jen and DY last night, and we went to have curry at Curry House in Little Tokyo. After dinner, we walked around a little at Japanese Village, and as we were looking in the window of a gift shop, I laid eyes on a Doraemon alarm clock.

Now, I spent 5 weeks in Japan when I was 16 years old, and 4 of those weeks were spent living with a family in Nagoya. The youngest kids in that family were 6, 8, and 10 years old, so every day, we all got together to watch the coolest anime cartoon series ever, Doraemon. Every day. Like, I knew all the words to the theme song, and it was in Japanese. Just in case you need a demonstration of what a challenge THAT was, here it is on YouTube. :)

Back in the day, I totally loved Doraemon. And he was huge. Like, bigger than Mickey Mouse, and believe me, that's saying something. He was even bigger than Hello Kitty. People gave me all kinds of Doraemon gifts, and I bought stuff myself. I have a little ceramic Doraemon figure keychain about 1.5" tall that I hang on my Christmas tree every year. I have a little Doraemon piggy bank, Doraemon ceramic water glass for brushing my teeth, clear plastic bag with Doraemon and his sister Dorami, a Doraemon pencil box (my favorite until now), Doraemon notebooks, another Doraemon keychain, and a score of other Doraemon paraphernalia. I even had a t-shirt. But that was all a long time ago, and I hadn't seen anything Doraemon since leaving Japan. I didn't even know until yesterday that he was still on the air in Japan until 2 years ago. So when I saw a Doraemon alarm clock in the store window, I sort of, um, went a little nuts. Like, I'm pretty sure I suddenly turned into a 10 year old. I know there was squealing, and a cry of "Doraemon!!!" about 3 octaves higher than my normal speaking voice, and I'm pretty sure jumping up and down and flailing of hands were involved. And then there was the singing of pretty much mostly forgotten Japanese-sounding syllables, only one line of which I know for sure was actually correct Japanese. My friends all kind of froze and looked at me like I'd finally snapped. Except for Tom, who looked at me in a quizzical, somewhat bemused but mostly amused fashion.

I decide on the spot that I absolutely HAVE to have that clock and literally bound (while bouncing) into the store to find out how much it is, which prompts a tiny little woman to come over and find out if I need help, which I think was polite speak for "can you please come out of the window display before you wreak havoc and break something?" She got another clock for me and put batteries in it so I could hear the alarm - which was the theme song music and prompted another shriek and more bouncing, jumping, and flailing, which drew the attention of the other sales lady and the two polite and quiet Japanese customers on the other side of the store. I told the lady helping me I'd take it, and Tom stepped in and bought it, then handed it to me as a partial thank you for working on the website for his movie, and we all left the store.

It is, without a doubt, one of the coolest presents I have ever gotten in my entire life. I love it. I have listened to it several times today, just for the sheer joy it brings me. TB is laughing at me, but I don't care. IT FREAKING RAWKS.

And here, without further ado, it is. I have an image with better depth, but you can't see Doraemon as well, and frankly, he's the important part of the image, which is a self-portrait for 365. :)

For the record, Doraemon wears a round gold bell on his collar and has a pouch in his tummy, both of which have been replaced by the clockface in this clock figure. He's a robotic cat, for those of you who won't click the link, and he has no ears because one night when he was sleeping, a mouse chewed them off. So he's totally terrified of mice and complete rot when it comes to chasing them. But that pouch of his leads into the 4th dimension, so he can pull anything he needs out of it, putting Felix and his measley bag of tricks to shame. Doraemon can also change shape and has a propeller he can attach to his head and fly. He sometimes bails his little friend Nobita out of trouble and sometimes causes the trouble in the first place, and his theme song is addictively cheery. :) The clock part wouldn't work when I got batteries into it today, but TB took it apart and found a little piece of metal wedged into the spring, which he removed, and now my clock works perfectly. :)

Peace out,
Katie

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