Journey of Pocket Monsters: PokéJungle @ Pikachu Outbreak!

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Today we are very excited to announce a new PokéJungle project!

We are incredibly fortunate to have two members of staff reside in Japan, the home of Pokémon. As some of you may (or may not?) expect, Pokémon is absolutely huge in Japan.  Almost everywhere you turn you can expect to find something Pocket Monsters-related, from station signage to vegetable juice drinks. It’s everywhere.

Because of this, we wanted to try something new for the site, and as such we’re proud to announce our Journey of Pocket Monsters project. Based on Instagram (for now) we will post daily photographs and stories on anything and everything Pokémon-related we find in our daily lives. In addition to this we will have accompanying articles for special Pokémon events hosted in Japan right here on PokéJungle.net.

So please, go follow the Journey of Pocket Monsters Instagram account and enjoy the journey! You never know, you might catch a giveaway or two! Let us know what other exciting projects you’d like us to undertake next… a Pokémon merch store? A subscription box?! Maybe one day…

PokéJungle @ Pikachu Outbreak 2017

As some of you may be aware, Yokohama is currently home to Japan’s 2017 Pikachu Outbreak event and yesterday we were lucky enough to attend.

Upon arrival at the nearest (ahem…) station to Yokohama’s Red Brick Warehouse Park, it was obvious that this event was hugely popular. Crowds of people filled the streets, every single one of them playing Pokémon GO despite being an almost 15 minute walk from the Kanto Park area. As we walked nearer and nearer the crowds became even larger and and it soon swelled to become a sea of cardboard Pikachu hats.

At the Red Brick Warehouse Park only Pokémon from Kanto could be found and, as such, it served as an excellent spot to find the previously unavailable (in Japan) Mr. Mime. The park itself held a few stalls selling Pikachu goods, refreshments, one specifically for the Pokémon GO Plus accessory and a few Pikachu-themed vending machines serving Pikachu vegetable juice drinks. Let’s not forget the giant inflatable Pikachu too! After walking around Mr. Mime finally appeared and after catching HER—yes, a FEMALE Mr. Mime (Miss Mime if you’re nasty)—we decided it was a good time to move on to a different area.

Next, we headed to the World Porters building in Minato Mirai. Along the way crowds thickened and it was possible to catch a glimpse of several smaller event locations as well as the Pikachu blimp in its land form. Inside the building crowds were gathering for a Hawaiian dance which involved three humans dancing with two giant Pikachu. The dance itself wasn’t all that entertaining, but the Pikachu prancing about in leis and grass skirts? Priceless. These type of events are the kind of thing that gives a sense of scale to just how big Pokémon is in Japan.

After more browsing and catching Pokémon in GO, we finally headed towards the Johto Park near the Cup Noodles Museum. Upon arrival, we spun the the special Pokémon Park Gym and picked up the badge and proceeded to catch as many Johto Pokémon as we could. The Johto Park wasn’t filled with any stalls, but instead held a few special replicas of PokéStops and Gyms from Pokémon GO, and also a special GO-themed WiFi hotspot truck. The park was probably the nicest area of the event as the crowds were much more relaxed and you could really feel a sense of community, even with everybody having their heads down in their phone. The view also particularly nice, looking out on Tokyo Bay with cruise liners and passenger boats passing through.

Finally, we decided to head home via Minato Mirai station. Just before passing through the ticket gates we noticed yet another giant inflatable Pikachu and moved towards it, discovering a small Pikachu goods pop-up store and a wall of Pikachu heads.

While we didn’t stick around for any of the scheduled events (parades, stage shows, etc) besides the Hawaiian dance, we did get a good taste of just how crazy these Pikachu Outbreak events are. If you ever happen to be in Japan next year, definitely be sure to check it out as it’s an experience you won’t forget.

Be sure to follow our Journey of Pocket Monsters Instagram and stay tuned for our next look into a Pokémon event here in Japan. Thanks for reading!

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter! While you’re here why not also visit our forums and come along to have a chat?

 

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556 thoughts on “Journey of Pocket Monsters: PokéJungle @ Pikachu Outbreak!”

  2. Old original sketches of my starters. Thoughts?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e8994a68c271bf3a706a1b31655c021e539f10285528076793c125e72b81015e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2380c708c7e96bd2ba088cc6f6c61a305e0407ca7ffb84cc6d779e2a62c0a744.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b6a349e3a07abde9863f6c0602f3b629d79c6a4f9407ba3be6d38005c310fb4.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98232496dfaf211ea853f57232b2d2e2df062f30476cf209b0f4f6d4bb4c88cb.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a80e168c2329f429a377f795ec0df29a47708bf7ccd095ed7ca8438c80e284e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6cecca9b7df4b45269b6f79e4604eb6344acd110d8ca2859e9a9b455ba214caa.jpg

    Reply

  3. Damn never knew Pokemon was that big in Japan, but is not surprising considering that even the All Nippon Airways has Pokemon themed aircrafts lol

    Reply

  6. Anywhoooooooo so when do you guys think Virtual console stuff will hit the switch and what titles would you be excited for?
    i’d say 3 from GBA SNES N64 and GC

    Reply

  8. ANIME COMMENTS/CONCERNS UNRELATED TO POKEMON COMING LOL: So I’m rewatching the Bleach anime……..So far I’m up the Bount arc and seriously thinking about whether I want to watch it or skip. I know it’s not the greatest, but it’s honestly not that bad either…….Either way with me doing this I can’t help but think about how I really hate how Bleach ended……It had such great potential, but due to it’s rushed ending it felt like a mess. There are so many confusing things that REALLY needs to be explained and so many characters that we are left to wonder what happened to them after the final battle. It really sucks. Also I can’t help but think about how much I don’t like the look of Ichigo’s outfit at the end or his Bankai. I don’t mind his Shikai, but his Bankai is so boring looking and I can’t stop thinking about how I really prefer his Fullbring Shihakusho way more…….This is my beef about Bleach which was really my first anime love hahahaha

    Reply

    • I skipped all the fillers. Sometimes fillers are fine, I’ve never minded the Dragonball ones, some are just poor to the point it’s like they are trying to be bad. Bleach ones are largely not worthwhile imo. What I hate about the anime is where it ends, I haven’t read the end of the manga yet but I’ll assume it’s just as annoying. I really liked Bleach, a shame it lost alot of popularity in Japan so was cut short.

      Reply

  9. This is all so cute. I like the effort japan uses towards Pokemon. I mean a Pikachu blimp thats just awesome. I think most America has done is have a Pikachu float for Thanksgiving (Think thats the holiday). My home country definitely doesnt do a single thing for pokemon :P.
    I do have a question, what type of food were they serving? Were they Pokemon themed? Were there any other pokemon represented besides pikachu? Whats the weather/season? Looks fun and seeing how pokemon is like the only game series I play. I want to join in. MAybe one day

    Reply

    • They weren’t really serving that much food. I can’t remember to be honest! Mimikyu and Ditto were both around in a few places, but they both represent Pikachu anyway.

      It’s actually summer right now, but we just went on a slightly rainy day. We originally planned to go on the first day of the event, but the heat here was insane so we rescheduled for the better

      Reply

  10. 1 hours 45 minutes ago: Hmmmm, let’s check some conspiracy theories out! Maybe I could do something cool with the evil team!
    Now: I’ve gone to far… help

    Reply

  11. I need some comforting please…. I know things man… I just wanna forget em..
    I’m never going to touch the dark web

    Reply

  12. Can I be annoying and ask you guys to review these? It’s a concept for another fakemon concept (inception) I’m doing as an alternative to Acid/Base. It’s a BW style refresh, too.

    http://pasted.co/93445a94

    Also damn I wish we got cool events like that, imagine all the streetpass you get offa that! It looks really cute and fun too so I’m definitely jealous ?

    Reply

    • Sounds like it has a poteential, but the trio sounds off. In my opinion, they don’t really work so well when they’re suposed to work together. Either make them the opposites of each other or make it more subtle. Just my opinion.

      Reply

    • 1) The spinner? What does that mean?
      2) I kinda want to know how these Pkms look like and what are their dex entries so we can criticize them better (I’m talking about Debutaunte and Aarrogaunt)
      3) Fatelle is very interesting and has a good name. Do you have more information about it?
      4)Oh your spider is based on the whole stuff that when you see a spider you day is gonna be bad but the next one is gonna be good. That’s a good concept to be based of even though you apparently took the literal meaning :p
      5) The name “whatt” is weird
      6) “Based on a ‘lightbulb moment’” ngl that’s cool lol
      7) Also basing your three legendary Pkms directly from Greek mythology seems a little weird, has GF done anything similar?

      Reply

      • 1) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_spinning

        2) I defo need to add more detail on them, it’s all in my head rn because it was just the info I’d written at the time.

        3) Yup, but it’s mostly up in my head rn and will be put in its dex entries.

        4) Decided taking it literally would be more interesting for design choices than the good luck/bad luck idea, at least imo. But a luck spider could be fun tbh

        5) It’s a play on ‘What’ (it’s dim minded as well as literally dim, so it’d probably be asking a lot of questions) and ‘Watt’ (it’s a light bulb :p)

        6) Thanks! The concept itself was definitely a light bulb moment

        7) Closest I can think of is Reshiram and Zekrom literally being yin and yang personified, but even then they have a twist on it. Mines will too, but I need to sort the concept properly before sharing it

        Reply

  19. Dang I just had a fantastic game in Overwatch. It came down to stalling the point each time.
    I was on Hanamura and we almost called the first point. We were so close but I was the only one left. I saw torb and zen coming in which could both destroy me as Tracer. I blink backwards to try to get into a good position to throw the pulse bomb but I underestimate the distance and accidentally blink off the map and we lost.

    Then we couldn’t defend just barely

    Reply

  20. 2018 has a potential to be an amazing year for nintendo. I hope for Smash Switch, Maybe a XD Gale of Darkness like post apo title and maaaayyyybe just mmmmmaaaaaayyyyyybbbbbbbeeeee Overwatch for Switch

    Reply

  23. I think what they really need to do next is give us a form that has a wow factor to it. We need new Alolan forms is what we need now. Lycanroc Dusk is cool and all (I actually like it), but it lacks that oomph to really get peeps excited. Half of the fun of mid gen games is seeing new forms and areas that weren’t in the original games. It doens’t have to be super grand, but if the next form is just Mimikyu out of it’s disguise then that’ll be kind of disappointing.

    Reply

      • Only if they fix it’s move sets. Did they really think that giving it only 1 move that works for it’s different types was a good idea? At least let it learn Thunderbolt, Flame Thrower, Psychic, and Shadow ball via tm…..I mean god……

        Reply

          • It shouldn’t make a difference. Who cares if someone has a Baile form Oricorio with Psychic? lol

          • There are plenty of Pokemon that have moves available to them that aren’t their types tho. I have a Nidoking that has Thunderbolt for example. That doesn’t exactly make much sense does it? lol

    • I would be much more excited for Duskanroc if it wasn’t event only. At this stage I’m highly dubious about the possibility of new Alolan forms.

      Reply

      • Yeah the event only thing is a weird choice. I do wonder what their reasoning for that is. It could have been something special for Ash AND been something normally obtained in game.

        Reply

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