Bananas

This trip is BANANAS. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

Seriously. Japan really enjoys bananas. This country has many sweet stores dedicated the (in)famous fruit with all things bananas. We even saw a store named Tokyo Banana with a giant banana in its storefront window wearing a big polka dotted bow on its head.

Also, Pete and I bought a banana-shaped cat hat for our cat, Sanchez. 

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Some of you seemed concerned. Others are probably thinking “Yeah, that sounds about right.” Let me explain. 

Remember gumball vending machines? You place a quarter in the slot, crank and turn the handle, and out comes your gumball?

Well, Japan has thousands of those machines all over the city. But instead of the anticipation guessing what color gumball you’ll receive, the anticipation is for a small plastic toy. To play, you insert 200 to 500 Yen (about $2 to $4 USD) in coins, crank and twist the handle, and out comes your GACHA. Toshi, our food tour guide, told us that Gacha Gachas got its name from the sound the handle makes when you twist it to get your prize. 

Each Gacha machine has a theme. Anime characters are popular in Gacha machines. So are Pokemon, Power Rangers, Hello Kitty, Marvel or DC super heroes, American or Japanese TV cartoon characters....the list goes on and on. And they’re not just geek chic. We even found one along a sidewalk that had plastic figurines of famous Tokyo landmarks.

One day walking around Tokyo, Pete and I noticed a Gacha machine that had fruit-themed cat hats. Obviously, we stopped in our tracks. Strawberries, pineapples, peaches, pumpkins, pears, bananas, and all of them were amazing. We knew we had to try our hand at this Gacha. 

And as if it were “meant to be,”(I don’t really subscribe to this mentality, but some people I know love it 😉) out came our banana hat for Sanchez. 

Why was this meant to be, you ask? Because one of our many MANY pet names for Sanchez is Sanny Bannanny. Plus, yellow goes perfectly with his midnight black fur coat. 

 He doesn’t know it yet, but Sanchez is going to love(hate) it. 

😁