P.K. and Pokémon Pansage make their nuikatsu debut.

Let’s start things off with a little Japanese linguistics lesson about katsu. If you’re a foodie, you might know katsu as the word for “cutlet,” especially pork cutlets, which are some of the greatest things in life. But today we’re talking about a different katsu, and this one is used to talk about life in a different way.

This katsu, written with the kanji character seen above, refers to a lifestyle or life activities. 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 recently dipped his toes in for the first time: nuikatsu.

So what’s the nui part mean? It’s short for nuigurumi, which means…

…stuffed animal, or plushie, to put it in anime/video game-merch jargon.

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.

P.K. was recently beckoned into the nuikatsu world by a circle of friends he’s made playing Pokémon GO, and so of course their cuddly creatures of choice are all various breeds of Pokémon. That suits P.K. just fine, as he has a favorite Pocket Monster species, Pansage, who P.K. respects for his laid-back innocence and aversion to wearing shirts.

So when P.K. and his Poké-pals had a recent meetup in Osaka and decided to go get some Osaka-style okonomiyaki for dinner, it wasn’t long until everyone busted out their nuigurumi for a nuikatsu photo session. “You try it too, P.K.!” his friends encouraged him, and so P.K. put his photojournalism-honed skills to use…

…and snapped an impressively high-level nikatsu photo for a first-timer.

It was a lot of fun, and P.K., who’s been a father for more than a few years now, felt a rush of youthful energy…which also brought some mixed feelings with it. 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 “creepy” in this photo where he’s smiling while snapping a picture of Pansage.

It might be hard to imagine that P.K., who if you remember, has engaged in no fewer than two wrestling matches in our office (one against Hello Kitty, no less), gone around and asked each and every one of his coworkers for a hug when he was feeling cold, and dressed up in a full-body bear suit for a Starbucks run, 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’s not sure if he’s ready to cross, so he’s not sure whether or not he’ll be continuing down the nuikatsu path. It’s something he recommends trying at least once, though, and if you’d like to put his mind at ease, let us know if you think it’s OK for him to look as happy as he wants while posing with Pansage, and we’ll pass your approval on to him.

Photos ©SoraNews24

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