{"id":1088,"date":"2025-06-23T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2025-06-23T08:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:00:14","slug":"our-reporter-tries-nuikatsu-for-the-first-time-but-is-he-too-old-for-this-otaku-lifestyle-hobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=1088","title":{"rendered":"Our reporter tries nuikatsu for the first time, but is he too old for this otaku lifestyle hobby?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

P.K. and Pok\u00e9mon Pansage make their nuikatsu debut<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start things off with a little Japanese linguistics lesson about katsu<\/strong>. If you\u2019re a foodie, you might know katsu as the word for \u201ccutlet,\u201d especially pork cutlets, which are some of the greatest things in life. But today we\u2019re talking about a different katsu<\/em>, and this one is used to talk about life in a different way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This katsu<\/em>, written with the kanji character seen above, refers to a lifestyle or life activities<\/strong>. You can combine it with all sorts of other words to talk about different categories of lifestyle activities, including one that our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun<\/strong> recently dipped his toes in for the first time: nuikatsu<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the nui<\/em> part mean? It\u2019s short for nuigurumi<\/strong>, which means\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026stuffed animal, or plushie<\/strong>, to put it in anime\/video game-merch jargon.<\/p>\n

Nuikatsu goes beyond just collecting plushies and giving them regular squeezes, though. The core nuikatsu activity is taking and sharing photo of your plushies living their best lives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

P.K. was recently beckoned into the nuikatsu world by a circle of friends he\u2019s made playing Pok\u00e9mon GO<\/em>, and so of course their cuddly creatures of choice are all various breeds of Pok\u00e9mon<\/strong>. That suits P.K. just fine, as he has a favorite Pocket Monster species, Pansage<\/strong>, who P.K. respects for his laid-back innocence and aversion to wearing shirts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So when P.K. and his Pok\u00e9-pals had a recent meetup in Osaka and decided to go get some Osaka-style okonomiyaki for dinner, it wasn\u2019t long until everyone busted out their nuigurumi<\/em> for a nuikatsu photo session. \u201cYou try it too, P.K.!\u201d his friends encouraged him, and so P.K. put his photojournalism-honed skills to use\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026and snapped an impressively high-level nikatsu photo for a first-timer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was a lot of fun, and P.K., who\u2019s been a father for more than a few years now, felt a rush of youthful energy\u2026which also brought some mixed feelings with it<\/strong>. Most of his friends at the table are a fair bit younger than he is, and a lot of them are women, and so P.K. started to feel a little self-conscious about indulging in nuikatsu, going so far as to say he thinks he looks \u201ccreepy\u201d in this photo where he\u2019s smiling while snapping a picture of Pansage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It might be hard to imagine that P.K., who if you remember, has engaged in no fewer than two wrestling matches<\/a> in our office (one against Hello Kitty, no less<\/a>), gone around and asked each and every one of his coworkers for a hug<\/a> when he was feeling cold, and dressed up in a full-body bear suit for a Starbucks run<\/a>, would every feel awkward or embarrassed, but those were all things that took place behind closed doors or with his face (and expression) covered. Apparently smiling with glee while taking photos of stuffed animals in public is a line he\u2019s not sure if he\u2019s ready to cross, so he\u2019s not sure whether or not he\u2019ll be continuing down the nuikatsu path. It\u2019s something he recommends trying at least once, though, and if you\u2019d like to put his mind at ease, let us know if you think it\u2019s OK for him to look as happy as he wants while posing with Pansage, and we\u2019ll pass your approval on to him.<\/p>\n

Photos \u00a9SoraNews24<\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P.K. and Pok\u00e9mon Pansage make their nuikatsu debut. Let\u2019s start things off with a little Japanese linguistics lesson about katsu. If you\u2019re a foodie, you might know katsu as the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}