To be honest, I actually liked pokemon before it was 'officially' in the U.S. It was here, but it had just arrived. My parents had bought me my Christmas presents, and two of them were Electronic Japanese Charmander and Pikachu. My parents really didn't know what they were, but they were cute, and I was young. Little kids are easily entertained, so I guess they used it as a way to shut me up and make me happii. XD
Well after getting them, I thought they were so cute that I made my parents buy the games for me! But again, I was young, and didn't know what I was doing (7-8 yrs. old at the time). It probably wasn't till Yellow came out that I really understood how to play the game. Until then, I just thought the monsters were cute and watched the show. XD