A：「昨日はどこに行きましたか」
B：「ずっと美術館にいました。本当に素晴らしくて、古
代エジプトの世界のとりこになリそうです」
Toriko ni Naru
(Kairo de)
A: Sakujitsu wa doko ni ikimashita ka.
B: Zutto bijutsukan ni imashita. Hontoo ni subarashikute, kodai Ejiputo no sekai no toriko ni narisoo desu.
(In Cairo)
A: Where did you go yesterday?
B: I was in the museum the whole day. It was so wonderful I think I'm hooked on ancient Egypt.
* * *
Toriko ni naru means to be enthralled by something, to lose one's heart to someone, to be captivated, hooked, or enslaved, etc.
Cairo by day...the strange contrast of people in Arabian dress and others in Western dress, shops with signs in Arabian characters that read from right to left, a torrent of automobiles, clouds of dust, ultra-modern buildings on the banks of the Nile. Cairo by night...the heat of the day gone, moonlight on the sacred river; the city's ancient history seems to come back to life. An hour's drive at night brings one to Giza and its three pyramids-graves for three kings who lived 4,500 years ago. Though exposure to the elements has taken its toll on the pyramids, standing under the starry, night sky it's as if the three kings are talking to me. I'd like to know so much more about the world they inhabited and about what they used to think about. Watashi wa sukkari korera no toriko ni natte shimaimashita (I've become completely captivated by them.) I'm especially interested in the hieroglyphic alphabet.
Me: "I'd like to study about the connections between hieroglyphics and kanji." Friend A: "A Japanese teacher interested in hieroglyphics? Hierogurifu no toriko ni natte Nihongo wo wasurenaide kudasai ne" ("Don't get so caught up in your study of hieroglyphics that you forget Japanese. " )
Friend B: "May be the spirit of some ancient Egyptian is trying to communicate with you." Me: "I have that feeling too. Dakara kodai sekai no toriko ni natte shimatta no kamo shiremasen ne" ("That's probably why I've become so captivated by the ancient world." )
Some other uses of the expression. There is a Russian folk song titled Darke Eyes which begins, Kuroi hitomi no wakamono ga watashi no kokoro wo toriko ni shita (Young boy with dark eyes, he's taken my heart away. ) The song continues, "With outstretched arms, I want to embrace you." As the expression is thus found in the lyrics to a song, one might in fact say the expression is a literary one. When using it in conversation, one is thus advised to do so while perhaps telling a joke. One could also reveal one's romantic adventures to a friend with, "Boku wa sukkari kanojo no toriko da yo" ("I've become her total slave.")