Yay, vacation! I’ll begin at the end, and the funky souvenirs we got. They’re not Hawaii-themed: it’s hard to buy into the tourist-industrial complex for a place once you’ve really lived there.
Item one we’re calling Sushiman: a solar-powered nodding plastic ikura (salmon roe) sushi. And yes, this toy really does work!
Apparently, this also comes in shrimp, egg, and salmon versions. We thought ikura was the best. Oh, as an added bonus, it has fairly interesting Japanese-English warning label translation on the package:
- In order not course the danger of asphyxial, Please do no to put the spare parts into the mouth.
- In order not course the danger of swallowing, forbidden to give the toy playing by the Children who are not enough 3 years old.
- In order not course the danger of asphyxial, please do not cover the plastic bag on the head or face.
- In order to avoid accident, please safekeeping the toy that make sure the children who are not enough 3 years old not reach the toy.
- Please do not shake and haul the toy.
- Please do not use the sun energy battery tough and don’t throw it away.
Fun for the whole family!
Item two outdoes Sushiman by at least two orders of magnitude, because of its sheer geekery. It’s a Hallmark ornament depicting Kirk & Spock’s dramatic battle of kal-if-fee in “Amok Time” (also known as the episode where Spock goes into heat). What makes this ornament awesome is that it plays the theme music from the scene.
Hallmark’s website has a video with the music (it would have totally have racheted up the excitement of the video to do a few zooming in and out shots). Seriously, this is a really cool toy, and Yan & I are going to have to have a discussion of who gets to keep it in their office.
As far as I know, these things are on sale at Hallmark stores everywhere: we got this one at 40% off. Seriously, you might want to consider looking for one of these. I have to say, it’s on par with the Tauntaun sleeping bag in terms of sheer geekery- though if it was animated, it might eclipse that… I’m sure it smells better, too đŸ™‚