Tracie’s plushie shinkansen is probably going to retain the title of Most Bestest souvenir, but for the synth geeks in the audience today’s purchase would be the clear winner:
Yes, it’s a Gakken SX-150 Analog Synthesizer, possibly the world’s most famous ultra-cheap synth. Yes, you can get them in the US, with some effort, but somehow that’s not nearly as cool as pulling one off the shelf at the bookstore in Kyoto Station, buying it from the polite young clerk using a mixture of broken English and broken Japanese, and then waltzing back to hotel room, past the smiling and bowing bellhops, bearing it under my arm. Yes, I’m feeling a little bit smug about it all.
