POP! Arrrrrr!

I ♥ those crazy Japanese.

First they sell us the Pop-Up Pirate game, a favorite around the office. (Engineers are like children, only larger.)

Then my co-worker Dave goes to Japan and takes this shocking (if under-lit) photograph of a Pop-Up Pirate arcade game:

After much searching, I found a better picture of the game here, in a photodiary of someone's trip to Japan. (It's at the very bottom of the page.) "How cool is that?" Very cool. Arrrresome.

Disturbingly, I also found a story (which I'll not link to) of Pop-Up Pirate turned into a drinking game. Sounds fun, but with my history it could only end badly. Ah, who'm I kidding? Who wants to join me?

The Japanese marketing juggernaut has also created the Hello Kitty® Toaster, a toaster that sears the image of the cutesy cat onto every single piece of toast you make! Now available in the United States, I first saw one on the shelves a few weeks ago. I was dumbstruck, and stood there for a while, amazed.

UPDATE 2004-11-21 23:04:51 UTC: I'm informed there's also a Hello Kitty® vibrator, which is totally unsurprising. This comes, after all, from the same country that's (absolutely NOT safe for work) made ballet into porn.