Japan, A Foreigners Perspective

Heyo. Over the weekend I had a chance to visit the new PokePark Kanto. I paid ¥15,000 for the エリートトレーナー (Ace Trainer for English) ticket which included free ride tickets, a meet and greet with Pikachu and Eevee, original goods, guaranteed entry into the stage gym show (usually you have to win a lottery to get in) with premium seating, and unlimited entry into the Pokémon Forest which is an immersive walk from Route 1 to an original town known as Sedge Town.

I arrived at 7:20am and there was already a line forming even though the park didn’t open until 10am. I went early because the moment you enter the park, you can sign up for various additional activities like visiting the shop, a meet and greet with a random mascot, and the gym show (if you don’t have the Ace Trainer ticket). Thankfully, I was able to secure reservations for everything. I went to the shop first and then walked through the Pokémon Forest before spending the rest of my day in Sedge Town.

The walk through the forest was probably my favorite part of the day. The area is pretty big and if you’re trying to find all the Pokémon then you’ll spend 30-45 minutes walking around. Some are hidden quite well and I’m sure I missed some.

The rides were cute but nothing special. A merry go round and one of those slowly rising and lowering plane rides but the planes were Pikachu. The food was also a little underwhelming. Expensive but somewhat mild tasting. There wasn’t a lot of flavor and not much Pokémon theming either. Events like healing Pokémon at the Pokémon Center (if you bring a plush, Nurse Joy will heal it for you. She healed my friend’s Pichu) and buying Pokeballs (if you buy 10 you get a Premier Ball for free) were fun ways to pass time until the reserved events started.

The gym show was very cute. It told a story about Pikachu and was quite interactive. The meet and greets were also quite fun, though maybe geared toward the younger fans. I met Pikachu and Eevee, and during the mystery mascot I met Clefairy (the days offering was Clefairy, Slowpoke and Psyduck though on other days Pokémon like Growlithe, Dragonite and Lapras also are in the rotation).

All in all it was a cute day made more special since it was tailored to my interests as a youngster and throughout my entire life. Even now I’m still booting up my Pokémon games so having a park dedicated to Pokémon was a dream come true.

One thing that I had missed in the rules but was quite important was that the park is CASHLESS. You need to bring credit cards, or have apps like PayPay in order to purchase things within the park.

While I did almost all the things one can do in the park, I still plan on returning again. It’s a place to be enjoyed with friends and I want to share my experiences with them. In the end, that’s what Pokémon is all about for me.

NOTE: SPOILERS FOR SDR2x2 though this is only my recollection of it so it may not be perfect. I played the entire demo in about 8 minutes.

This breakdown WILL include some info that was not included in the livestream’s playthrough of the demo. There was additional content in the demo that was cut for the livestream.

To get into the event I was given a student ID which had my name, birthday, number and SHSL TALENT.

This intrigued me a little because my SHSL talent was “Alchemist”. I was unaware of any alchemists in the DR franchise so I asked my friend who was also attending. She got “Yoga Master”

We looked around on twitter and saw other fans talking about their skills as well. Bread baker, vtuber, BUBBLE MASTER. At one point I wondered if we were getting new cast members with new talents, but it’s probably nothing.

Still. Until further notice I am the SHSL Alchemist.

And yakiniku to finish the day. Not bad at all.

Been awhile since we've seen anything like this. To be released in September.

I don’t know what to do with it.