お茶の間留学

This year will be the 'Year Of Gaming!' for me. When I was a little elementary school kid I was fascinated with video games. My neighbors had a game console and we wasted hours in the basement (freezing our butts off on the cold concrete floor) shooting asteroids, firing missiles and fighting aliens. As I got older I grew more interested in building the ultimate shuriken (throwing stars) or watching boxing movies and imagining it was me taking punch after punch and then coming back to destroy the World Heavyweight Champion.

Inevitably I grew up, discovered girls, developed a love of books, got educated, graduated and got a job. I left video games behind.

Then I moved to Japan.

When I got here I lived alone in an apartment that was a shoebox compared to the house I'd been living in. I couldn't read or speak Japanese at that time so TV was not much entertainment. I needed something, so I got a game console. It was okay, DVDs, CDs and games all playable on one device was pretty cool, but it didn't really grab me. The games were alright, but my attention was more on my new job, new acquaintances and new environment.

Fast forward ten years and I'm married, my wife is newly pregnant and we are in nesting mode. What do we need? We need a TV, a DVD player, a sofa, a crib... the list was long and fun to shop for. One item that managed to get on the list was a new game console. I figured it would be good to have since we were going to be home so much more and USB was an option for TV and Movies. Then I put in my first FPS (First Person Shooter). Wow!

game console：ゲーム機

butts：お尻

asteroids：小惑星

Inevitably：必然的に

grab：心をつかむ

acquaintances：知り合い

nesting：巣作り

a crib：ベビーベッド