Let's play!

Asobo!

Japanese kids get Christmas presents, but they also get money on New Year's (otoshidama) from relatives. The Pumpkin Princess got about 5000 yen (60 USD or thereabouts?), and the Pumpkin Mommy and Daddy decided she'd like Legos and took her to ToysRUs.

After buying her a box, the Pumpkin Daddy decided he liked Legos, too. He wanted to buy more and suggested making another trip to ToysRUs the next day. But I remembered my parents had mentioned my younger brother's Legos and how he hadn't really seemed very interested in reclaiming them. My mother had thrown them all in a random old box (I think it was the box my old tape player/ radio came in, I'm not really sure). Based upon my hazy memory, there were no fewer than five good sized sets. I clearly remember a Castle set, a Space Station set, and at least three sets that made cars or helicopters that ran on electric motors or some kind of keywinding mechanism (I think they might have been part of a series called "Technic" but I am not sure. They had a zillion little gears and shafts and pistons each which I could never figure out but my brother put together effortlessly. This is might be part of why my brother is currently an engineer and I am not.)

The Pumpkin Daddy sorted through them and we found some things in there that weren't Legos, including but not limited to a Connect Four piece, two Barbie shoes (unmatched. Probably belonged to me), a couple pencils, a wax cast Donkey Kong figure, address labels printed with our old address in the US, two Matchbox cars (one made in Japan, the other made in, get this, England!) and a molar (eeew? It was filled, and I think I might have had a molar with a filling in that shape, but I'm not sure).

He tossed the non-Lego objects (including the tooth but not the instruction booklets) in the trash and the Legos in a large plastic tub and hauled them to the bath area, and washed them with hot water and dishwashing detergent to remove the 20+ years worth of dust on them. The Pumpkin Daddy asked if it was American dust that was coating them, but I assured him that it was Pumpkin City dust, as my brother had played with the Legos well after our move to my parents' current house.

Then they were laid out in the sun to dry. It'll be interesting to see how much the Pumpkin Daddy gets into the gears and shafts and pistons, being an engineer type himself.