Little did I know ....

My own blog taught me something. Earlier, I posted a link about a fun game. I had no idea that I'd stumbled across a cultural icon completely unknown to me.

I later learned that the Japanese have for years enjoyed the antics of one "Doraemon," the crazy character popping up in the game I mentioned earlier. The little guy's had his own TV show, series of feature-length films and books in production since 1979.

Here's a summary of the plot as I understand it: Doraemon is a kind of a robotic cat from the future that lives with a nerdy kid named Nobita. Doraemon and Nobita hang around with the kid's friends, dodging bullies and having all kinds of crazy adventures.

Apparently, Doraemon has a time machine stored in Nobita's desk at home, which means there is no end to the trouble they can discover. When they're in a reach pinch, Doraemon springs out some kind of fantastic futuristic device from a small pouch.

You really have to see the Robo-Cat in action. Go here to see the next big adventure; head here to see the blasts from the past. Follow these steps to see trailers for all 25 Doraemon films:

• pick a number from 1 to 25
• select "go" when it pops up in the center of the screen
• click on the fourth set of characters from the top as they appear in a left-side column

Enjoy the show!