{
  "id": 14465364,
  "title": "My Tamagotchi Diary",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/my-tamagotchi-diary",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-14T14:00:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Paris Review",
    "slug": "the-paris-review",
    "url": "https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/10/14/tamagotchi-diary-angie-sijun-lou/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On December 24, 2025, Angie Sijun Lou and her boyfriend ventured to Don Quijote in Shibuya, a massive discount store that operates 24 hours a day. The store was filled with shelves and displays, presenting a bewildering array of toys, clothes, and gadgets. While they searched the aisles, the couple considered numerous purchases, including a samurai sword, an epilator, matcha-flavored potato chips, lychee jelly cubes, and a Kuromi keychain. Ultimately, they left empty-handed.\n\nOn the following morning, the boyfriend presented his girlfriend with a dark brown sweater featuring vertical stripes. He had acquired the present during a previous visit to Don Quijote, having taken advantage of the store's late-night hours and floor-to-ceiling displays. The boyfriend carefully unwrapped the gift, and upon opening it, the girlfriend discovered that it was a Tamagotchi Angel, a limited-edition digital pet. The toy featured painted wings on its glitter case, suggesting a higher maintenance level than standard Tamagotchis.\n\nThroughout the day, the boyfriend read the Wikipedia page about the Tamagotchi gameplay aloud as they traveled to Mount Aso. The game involved raising a Tamagotchi until it reached the afterlife, where it would join the league of angels or descend to hell. The girlfriend contemplated naming the Tamagotchi after a biblical angel, ultimately deciding between Gabriel and Uriel.\n\nIn Fukuoka, the couple stayed at a budget hotel chain targeted at Japanese businessmen. The hotel's spa attendant refused entry to the girlfriend due to her tattoos, prompting her to sneak into the facility at night to bathe in the darkness. Despite her reservations, the girlfriend remains optimistic about the upcoming year, planning to adopt healthier habits such as eating more vegetables, responding to emails promptly, waking up at sunrise for journaling and exercising, and caring for her Tamagotchi. She intends to train the digital pet in various activities, such as jumping over stars, feeding it pie and candy, cleaning its waste, and turning off the lights at bedtime. The girlfriend will monitor her Tamagotchi's metrics, including Angel Power, Hunger, and Happiness, and occasionally discipline the pet, which resulted in a reduction in its \"Happy\" hearts.\n\nOn New Year's Eve, the boyfriend and girlfriend visited a Shinto shrine nestled inside a cave on the coast of Kyushu. As they approached the shrine, they discovered that it would close shortly after they arrived. The only employee present was a monk who sold saltwater taffy made from water collected from a breast-shaped stone inside the cave. According to Japanese mythology, the sea goddess Toyotama-hime transformed into a cave after giving birth and provided nourishment for her child through the water streaming from her breasts. The girlfriend purchased the taffy and consumed it alongside a sip of Coca-Cola. However, shortly after, her Tamagotchi emitted a piercing shriek, prompting her to provide the pet with candy.\n\nUpon returning to New York City, the girlfriend learned that her apartment's heating system had been inoperable since Christmas. Her landlord had been attempting to fix the boiler in the basement, while consulting YouTube tutorials. While walking to the grocery store in the morning, her hair froze into icicles due to the cold weather. The girlfriend's Tamagotchi appeared to require increasing levels of care, possibly due to its transformation into a teenage angel with a spherical body, four legs, and puffy red lips meant for pouting. The boyfriend became concerned about her reduced feeding frequency and shared a screenshot of Google's AI response to the question, \"Can I feed my Tamagotchi only once?\" on the following day.",
  "summary": "Angie Sijun Lou’s diary of raising a Tamagotchi, which partly inspired her short story in issue no. 257, “Bubble.”",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}