Age yourself: Which of these do you associate with your childhood?

[OtterMan68]

Which of these was popular when you were young?

Livestrong bracelets

Tickle Me Elmo

Beanie Babies

Swatch Watch

Mood rings

Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots

Metal skates with key

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I am actually unfamiliar with all of these. They might not have been so popular here in Japan when I was a child. I have a vague recollection of Tickle Me Elmo. At least Elmo sounds familiar to me. Also Beanie Baby sounds vaguely familiar.

One of the main things I remember from the US when I visited was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That was extremely popular when I visited there. Also G. I. Joe and He-Man.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Swatch watches I remember but only after I became a teenager. Don't remember those being popular as a kid.

[D_Bone_Steak]

Yeah! 80's and early 90's kid? You remember the same stuff I remember about the States. What's weird is I got sent off to Japan and didn't make it back for a decade for all my younger adult years. What part you live at?, I was living all over the Honshu area.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak Yep, especially an 80s kid! I am originally from Shizuoka but my father moved to Yokohama for a while when I was around 7, then Singapore and Hong Kong, then US for high school and uni and some time after, then did some traveling for my work, then finally returned to Japan but in Tokyo, then moved to Kyushu where I live now after I married my wife.

My mother is American despite my father being Japanese, so what little relatively brief time I spent in the 80s and early 90s in the US was during vacations to visit my American side of the family.

I remember a bit of a sensory overload since the things designed for kids seemed so much wackier and more colorful, like toys in toy stores that were extremely bright and colorful (like neon green) and often advertised as radioactive. 😂 I was kind of a video game junkie back then so I mostly liked to play video games on the NES/Famicom.

[D_Bone_Steak]

Fuck yeah S-NES was a game changer with the games. But even that NES/Nintindo was a game changer...

Crazy... I lived in Yokohama for a couple of years but honestly, if it wasn't for my Japanese girlfriends I probably wouldn't have gotten around at that time. Learning the train system sort of freed me up, but at the time I was still sort of limited by things like knowing what the hell the green train or the red train was. Once I learned to get to Shibuya or the places in it like Kabukicho, and back to the Yokosuka area I had it mad and started to have fun living in Japan/Nippon. 😂 There was a big punk rock scene while I was there... took any part in that?

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak Shibuya and Shinjuku were often my favorite places to hang out although I missed the punk rock scene. Mostly I was into EDM when I was going to a lot of music festivals and clubbing.

NES/SNES/Genesis were my favorites. I lost a lot of interest in console games after that era when 3D games started to take over.

[D_Bone_Steak]

Here too... I remember I had all 3 of those systems hooked up... I sort of dropped out of gaming around the Sega-CD time and don't think I'll ever return to gaming the same as before even though I have two PS5's sitting in my house.

Shinjuku... yeah, I used to hit that place up every Friday to go to Fridays. All night karaoke romps after that with even more drinking. That's the place with that big ole crosswalk that's always shown on TV and the statue of the dog that never left his owner even after death right? ... I want to make sure I'm getting my memories right. There would be street bands playing out there and to whole thing. It was cool.

You ever go to places like Henedecho when the hookers were ultra-legal after 10pm before they got more expensive than 3sen yen? I have a question about that... why was it that the dude we called the stick man... would walk down the street banging two sticks together before we were allowed to go bang girls? You might not know, but if you know, let me know... I've always wondered about that. He'd walk down the street just banging two sticks together and then the red lights would turn on behind him and the girls would come out. Later on that whole scene started to suck... first the price for a girl went up to 10man yen and then it almost got outright banned. It was like gone overnight... but you could still find the action if you know what I mean.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak Shibuya is the one with the dog statue (Hachiko) and the famous crossing but Shinjuku is the one with Kabukicho. I really enjoyed both for the night life but Shibuya was probably my favorite.

I've never been to Yokohama as an adult and also lack much knowledge about brothels in Japan. The sticks and prostitutes coming out into the streets rather than staying inside might have something to do with laws in red light districts, since even children and families can cross those streets in the daytime. It might be illegal for prostitutes to tout on the streets until 10 PM there.

[D_Bone_Steak]

What a time to be alive... most people on this site don't even believe that I used to bang a girl, get a drink, then bang another and repeat the process about 3 times, and then go home and go to sleep. I did that for years while living there every night. Most just simply don't believe me. Japan can be pretty wild though. I lived in Hollywood California and that shit was lame compared to the partying I did in Japan. The price of weed sucked though... I was getting charged shit like 10man or $100 for a single gram, plus it was like ultra illegal. We'd have to wait until the club "shut down" for the public and then everyone started smoking blunts like it was normal. Japanese get wild... it's just really hidden away from the conservative types. I miss that conservative stuff too though TBH... I could just hold up a hand and shake it at any salesman types and they'd leave me alone... nobody got in my face about anything. People there just really minded their own business.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak I've had some people express a similar disbelief over my clubbing experience. For example, I could just show up at a club and Japanese women would approach me and flirt and I could get dates this way even though I'm not particularly good-looking or rich or anything. I think its a culture shock to a lot of Americans, especially, that it's not common for Japanese women to approach men. I found it so much easier to get dates and girlfriends here compared to the US; in the US, I actually had to try and work on my game.

[D_Bone_Steak]

Yes! I used to just get a drink at the bar and then stand up on the wall and I was like super stud-2000 with all the girls on me.

When I came back to the states... I was in the Pacific beach area around San Diego... these chicks literally just passed by me and started dancing with old-looking fat dudes with no hair. It took me a while to adjust to the difference. They were mid at best looking chicks too... not that hot. My whole strategy of just have fun and let the girls pick you up flopped when I came back to the States. I had to learn a whole new set of rules. It was so different.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak Same -- world of difference for me! In Japan, I could usually do reasonably well just having more fun chatting with everyone and going to the center of the dance floor. I still used the same strategy with some tweaks in the US but with far less success, only able to get a girlfriend here and there.

[D_Bone_Steak]

My success rate hit the floor when I came back to the States. I was still just as buff with the same job credentials... shit was just so different. I'll put it like this, I went from being the hot meat they all want to grab up to looking like a predator that just wants to take advantage of poor women.

Meanwhile, I'm just confused looking around like WTF is going on? Why did she just call me names?

It was just a major culture shock... on top of that, I had to start speaking English again. I was still saying stupid shit like "Nanji desuka" out of the blue. I must of been the most out-of-place white man on the face of the earth at that point. Especially because I'm saying that shit to people that have no idea what I'm saying.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak I've now lived in both the US and Japan so long they I tend to muddle things up as well in my speech and also sometimes make the mistake of bowing to Americans and offering firm handshakes to Japanese. 😂 It seems like we have a lot of similar experiences in this regard.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

* [that] I tend to muddle things up [...]

[D_Bone_Steak]

Same for sure. I do the same shit. I'm not even Japanese and I find myself doing stuff like bowing but keeping eye contact to show them that I plan on doing damage. Your Japanese side knows what I mean by that. Americans just look at me like WTF? What was that?

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak 💯 The eye contact thing was one of the most difficult things for me to get used to. When I went to the US as a freshman in high school, one of the girls tried to bully me by writing my name in Sharpie in her textbook and claiming I did it.

Then the teacher tried to scold me so I did like a Japanese student and bowed and apologize. Then she asked me if I did it and I replied, while avoiding looking her in the eye, "No I did not," but she didn't believe me because I didn't look her in the eyes. She shouted at me, "Look at me in the eyes when you speak!"

I ended up getting suspended but the teacher caught the girl later writing my name in her textbook. Then she confronted me and asked why I didn't look her in the eyes, and I explained how this is considered rude and aggressive in Japan, and she started actually spending time after class getting me to sit down with her and make eye contact.

That helped me a lot but when I returned to Japan, people said I make eye contact too much so then I had to get used to avoiding it again. 😂

[D_Bone_Steak]

All that little shit does make a difference. When I first started to learn how to speak nihongo it wasn't like some college student does. I used rolled R's and -masu was reduced from most of my verbs. "Nan Da raaa" was how I approached most of the street fights I got into. Let's just say more than a few times... I had Japanese people telling me that I'm very rude and shouldn't be that way. I talk too aggressively. Little stuff like saying "Omae ha" to other people instead of "Anata ha" would get me hemmed up. I mean shit I was learning from people that actually talked that way and then the Yakuza movies just reinforced it.

I didn't really figure out how wrong I was being until I actually took a Japanese course for the easy credits when I came back to the States. I was saying shit like "da" instead of "desu" just because and the teacher actually brought me aside (this is in America) and gave me a reaming about talking that way. I was being tought on one side to be ultra-aggressive and on the other side to be... I don't know how to put this... submissive or talk like a chick.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak Oh, trilling in Japanese is almost always used for fighting words! We call makijita with rolling-r sound. I could definitely see that being a big source of misunderstanding. 😅 I only use when I'm absolutely furious and want to get in a fight. "Omae" and "Kisama" could also become big problem. That is kind of fun to think about the misunderstandings!

"da" instead of "desu" is not so bad. It is very informal but not considered hostile in any way, like street slang. I can see how a formal course would discourage it though.

[D_Bone_Steak]

I had a hard time when I started formal school. I could spell/write their kanji's but then when I had to give a speech or read out something I wrote... teacher be mad. She seemed to be feeling like I was just shitting all over Japanese. ... but how do you tell a teacher that not everybody speaks like a girl? ... or some underlying trying to find a job or something like that? I don't think she understood my case.

I failed that class because some butthole parked behind my garage and I couldn't drive for the finals. That was the end of my scholastic attempts at Japanese. Although 6 years later I was right back in Yokosuka doing the same shit... wife was military (American) and I ended right back in the same crowds. Could read and write, but I don't think any locals respected my words. My wife is Asian looking so they'd assume she was Japanese (she's not) and then wonder why I was doing all the talking in a Taxi cab or something like that. I don't think my wife could even learn a second language. She doesn't have that kind of brainpower and I'm just speaking from experience with her.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

@D_Bone_Steak That class didn't sound so fun to me and there is definitely a difference in masculine and feminine way of speaking. My kanji isn't so good in my case having spent my teenage years outside of Japan. I often require my wife's help (she is Japanese) to read kanji.

[Curmudgeon]

these examples are certainly generational markers. For Gen X Boys, I would definitely say "The Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots"
--plastic, not metal or wood like earlier generation's toys

--Pre widespread internet use for Pre-teens of that 1970's and early 1980's era

[Anonymous]

I don't know if beanie babies were popular, I really don't know when they were most popular, I just know I got a lot of them as gifts. Still, I don't recall actually seeing them in stores much growing up. Everything else in the poll I either never had or never even knew existed.

[rosemilk]

i know most of those, but beanie babies for sure!

[TenderFantasy]

Benie Babies.

You should have also included this:

Tomagotchi Virtual Pet

[DaBiggestBird]

I don’t remember what was popular but a big part of my childhood was Hot Wheels, I had tons of them and were probably my favorite toy back then. A special one I had I called my “Legacy Corvette” since I had since time had a name, but then my dumbass brother had to go and lose it while turning our room into a bird house. Hopefully it doesn’t randomly appear in the next 5 years and I can find it sooner

[OlderAndWiser]

When I was a kid:

[ChicoFromThe305]

If you remember silly bandz you are at the top, if you knew how to tie em together, you were a legend

[PBandJ_Nerd]

Lots of people in elementary school collected them. I only had a few but that was it. Then later on in middle school came loom bracelets.

[ChicoFromThe305]

Yea I think I confused the two, the looms are the ones that you tie together lol

[7Phoenix7]

I remember all of that except the metal skates, haha. Good memories

[NathanDavis]

never had any of these...

[exitseven]

Roller skates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKcpodt0YCU

[BCRanger10]

I never had any of these, but if anything, I guess Beanie Babies. My sisters were ob... sessed with them.

[4ngelic]

beanie babies (litterally had a hugee collection when i was 3-4 years old) and swatch watches

[HighValue]

I associate the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, N64, G. I. Joe's, and Ninja Turtles with my childhood.

[jennifer_bloom]

I’ve always wanted a tickle me Elmo. Might buy myself one when I return to Canada.

[PBandJ_Nerd]

Pretty much all of them except metal skates, we had heelys shoes.

[WhiteSteve]

I STILL have four vintage Swatch watches, I love them, lmao

[LemonJuicee]

Beanie Babies and mood rings were pretty popular when I was in elementary school, along with Silly Bandz

[douride2]

I have seen or heard of most of those but don't recall any from my childhood.

[Sapio99]

I was born in 1990, but for some reason I had all of these growing up.

[jamesgoldman]

I don't recall any but hey I started working when I was 8 so guess it passed me by

[Zestyassmf1997]

The livestrong bracelets and the swatches stood out most to me.

[Iron_Man]

Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots And I bought it as an adult

[LiamJHayden]

Of these I remember Beanie Babies from when I was little.

[Paris13]

Mood Rings Hit Me... xxoo

[Nikki1989]

I have never owned any of them.

[Massageman]

I've seen them all, but only owned the skates.

[DagonbroughtMehere]

They were made of Wood when I was a Child.

[aceleon]

none of them.

[Booklover_90]

Beanie Babies. 😊

[LavLavLuv]

Swatch…