Do You Ochazuke?

Do you know what ochazuke is? It's a common Japanese "leftovers" dish made from rice and random Japanese stuff (nori, umeboshi, etc) with tea (o-cha) poured over it. It's a cheap, quick and easy meal, made even quicker and easier by the advent of instant ochazuke packets. In this case, instant ochazuke packets with Piplup faces in them.

That's right, it's Pokémon ochazuke! Each package contains 4 packets of instant ochazuke (2 Pikachu, 2 Piplup) and a random sticker with 80 kinds to collect (I got a decidedly lame Pokéball).

So, what exactly differentiates the Pikachu and Piplup versions? It's these little...things with their faces on them! I'm actually not sure what they are made of. They don't really taste like anything.

Let's try it! I've made my own ochazuke before, but I've never used the instant packets. I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Almost ready, just need to add tea. I used Lupicia's Fukamushi Sencha "Matsuri", a pretty standard Japanese green tea.

Looks totally delicious, right?

Actually, yeah, it is. It's surprisingly hearty and filling, and who can resist eating things with adorable baby penguins on them?

As a big fan of both eating effigies of cute characters AND fast, cheap meals where the only other needed ingredients are rice and possibly heat, I give Pokémon ochazuke 9 poffins out of a possible 10 poffins. It loses 1 point for giving me a crappy sticker.

New contest! Want to win your very own brand new package of Pokémon ochazuke? All you have to do is sign up for the Lavender Town PokéNews mailing list*! Just be sure to include your address and you will be automatically entered in the drawing. The winner will be randomly chosen from all users who have provided their address on June 18th. I'll even throw in some tea as well!

*Please only sign up if you actually want to receive the email newsletter!

A wild Oddish appeared!

Use Stun Spore, now!

I found an Oddish in my kitchen! Apparently it had been hiding there for quite awhile. When I noticed it, it ran outside. I managed to snap a photo before it scampered away.

My Legendary Pokémon Pinball High Score

I can't reminisce about Pokémon without fondly remembering the many hours I spent playing Pokémon Pinball for Game Boy Color. I still pick it up from time to time, and it's just as fun as it ever was.

:)

But that's not important. What is important is my utterly freakin' epic high score.

THAT IS 81,532,998,600 POINTS, SON

The game has a save feature, and this saved game went on for over 6 months. I didn't tally it, but I'm pretty sure I got at least 50 extra balls. I never did complete the game's PokéDex (even though it was technically possible to get all of them in just the one game—even Mew), but who cares? I got 81,532,998,600 points.

I've never been great at action video games. I suck at Smash Bros. I run into gophers all the time in Mario Kart. Duck Hunt...forget it. In fact, 99% of my video game experiences before the age of 12 involved me mashing buttons for a few minutes, losing, then hurling the controller to the floor before tearfully declaring, "I hate this!" and walking away with the bitter taste of shame on my palate. Even though it didn't happen until I was well past the age for it to actually matter, getting this epic high score helped heal a lot of that old hurt.

(By the way, if someone feels like emailing me with evidence that they got a much higher score than mine, just be aware that you are going to ruin a fairly large chunk of my life.)

Pokémon Sighting!

Who's that Poké—omfg, it's Shaymin

I made this a couple years ago, when I first started playing Pokémon Diamond. Shaymin is a legendary hedgehog Pokémon who lives in flower patches and curls up in them to resemble a flower.

In other words, the cutest damn thing on the planet. That is, until they made that weird alternate form that looks like a cranky puppy.