With Tamagotchi you began with an egg but only needed to wait five minutes for it to hatch into one of the pets. In that way, it reminded me of the ‘90s handheld virtual pet, Tamagotchi. You start by setting up a profile using pics and physical stats, but the difference is that you’re also assigned an egg. Initially, I found it similar to other gay hook-up and socializing apps like Grindr and Scruff. I downloaded 9MONSTERS the next day, joining approximately 150,000 active users in Japan and 300,000 worldwide. Maybe I’d had too many drinks, but I didn’t get it eventually, he told me to just give the app a try. He described it as a game, though his explanation was convoluted. I first heard about 9MONSTERS from a guy I met in Tokyo’s gay district, Shinjuku Ni-Chome. According to 9MONSTERS, a gay hook-up app popular mainly in South East Asia, I was definitely a wolf-specifically a Muscle Wolf Level 11, by the time I left Japan after about a two month stay.
