The Pocky Game

The pocky game is a game that involves a Japanese snack called Pocky. It’s similar to a game of chicken or the nervous game played in America, however it tends to be more innocent. The game starts with two players. They can be any gender, however I recommend not playing with family members or strangers. Pocky is a cracker stick covered in chocolate. A box of Pocky will have many sticks. In America, Pringles has a similar product without chocolate called Pringles Stix. These Pringles Stix are savory and very flavorful. Pocky’s flavor comes from the chocolate coating, as the cracker stick itself is bland.

Below is an image of Pocky:

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The pocky game rules are simple. One person holds a pocky stick in their mouth, and another person does the same with the opposite end. Each person takes turns taking a bite of the Pocky. The person who loses is the first one to break the Pocky stick. If both people playing are very stubborn, the people will end up kissing. This game is popular in Japan among couples, and in mainstream anime or manga. People in America, weeaboos, are often drawn to the game due to its romantic nature.

On my trip to Japan,the first week was sightseeing. After each day, we’d come back to a Youth Hostel in Tokyo or a traditional Japanese Hotel in Kyoto. One day we came back a bit early and we weren’t incredibly exhausted like we usually were after walking 10 miles a day. We had pocky that we bought in Asakusa and we decided to play the pocky game. I didn’t know what it was, and two people did. The only people who actually tried the game were guys, which was hilarious. They ended up getting pretty close too. We basically spent the night watching a rerun of Dragon Ball Z and eating Japanese snacks until we fell asleep. The Pocky game was really fun, and we tried very hard to stifle our laughter. The walls of the hotel were very thin, and we could even hear people below us and above us talking in low voices. I’m sure our loud raucous laughter was annoying to the people staying around us, but we were very hyped from seeing new sights in Japan.

This is the only time I’ve ever seen the Pocky game being played, which is ironic since it actually happened in Japan.