Fukushima resident was well into her senior years before she ever held a controller.
Video games have now been around long enough that within some families they’ve become a multigenerational hobby. However, for Ushi Ando, playing games isn’t something that she does with her kids, or even her grandkids. No, for the 100-year-old resident of Inawashiromachi, Fukushima Prefecture, weekend gaming sessions are a source of family fun that stretches across four generations.
Given her age, Ando obviously didn’t grow up playing games. As a matter of fact, she was around 70 years old by the first time she ever even held a game controller, an event which took place while she was visiting her grandchildren at their home in Tokyo some 30 years ago. While there, Ando enjoyed playing one of the iterations of Tetris for the Nintendo Super Famicom (known as the SNES overseas).
▼ Though the Game Boy Tetris is arguably the most famous version of the game, the franchise had multiple releases on the Super Famicom as well, including 1994’s Super Tetris 3
A few years later, the grandkids had moved on to newer consoles or other hobbies, so they gave the system and their games to Grandma. Ando has been an avid gamer ever since, so much so that she wore out not only her grandchildren’s old system, but even the one she purchased to replace it. She’s now on her third Super Famicom, continuing to play the games on physical cartridges and with the original hardware, eschewing the options of emulation or digital releases on newer platforms.
Ando plays games for about two to three hours every day, with Bomberman being one of her current favorites. “Playing games and moving my fingers keeps me feeling energetic,” the centenarian gamer says. “I can’t just be sleeping all day.” Not only does her hobby keep her mood happy and her mind sharp, it’s also a way for her to bond with her four-year-old great-grandchild who comes to visit on the weekends. Granny still has her gamer skills, too, as when her grandchild makes mistakes or loses to her in versus play, Ando makes sure to give her pointers and examples on how to improve.
The continuing joy Ando gets from her hobby brings to mind the words of legendary manga creator Kazuo Koike, who credited otaku-grade levels of passion for pastimes as a key factor in being happy through one’s senior years. And should Ando be looking for more Bomberman friends, we think we know one guy who’d be game.
Source: Fukushima Minpo via Livedoor News
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