National Geographic Traveller India – July 2019

JULY 2019 | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA 99

SEANPAVONEPHOTO/ISTOCK EDITORIAL/GETTY IMAGES

(PHONE),

ENCHANTEDFAIRY/ ISTOCK EDITORIAL/GETTY IMAGES

(TOKYO)

FACING PAGE:

CATLANE/ ISTOCK UNRELEASED/GETTY IMAGES

(PIKACHU),

HANNARI_ELI/SHUTTERSTOCK

(FOOD),

CRISHANU/SHUTTERSTOCK

(BALL)

I

MAX seats taken. Popcorn tub in hand. 3D glasses on.

I’m all set for Pokémon Detective Pikachu.

But when I see (and hear) the adorably forlorn, roly-

poly Pikachu singing Pokémon’s theme song on the big

screen, I’m instantly transported to my Indore home, as a

bespectacled little girl sitting cross-legged in front of the TV,

watching a cartoon series—pardon the upcoming cliché—all

nineties kids grew up watching. Beside me in the theatre, my

partner is grinning non-stop. An anime devotee, he’s played

the video games and traded Pokémon cards; a treasure he’ll

hopefully unearth from the bowels of his room someday.

In Ryme City, where the movie is set, fiction favours

Pokémon-human partnerships, of the Men In Black kind. It’s a

fallacious question to ask and yet I do: Where in the real world

could the two coexist?

Tokyo! Where else? I end up muttering mid-movie. Japan

is where the series was birthed. The very first video game was

created by Japanese genius Satoshi

Tajiri in 1995, and the multimedia

franchise is still co-owned by his

company Game Freak, Nintendo

and Creatures Inc.

With the knowledge that the

film was shot in Denver, I start a

fun exercise. Replacing Denver

with Tokyo, I imagine Pikachu

sleuthing around in alleys

redolent of Ramen, gliding in

and out of Tokyo’s LED-lit,

ad-flashing, cloud-kissing

towers. Reality, it turns out,

isn’t far apart. Tokyo is home to

a slew of Pokémon Centres where fans troupe down to collect

merchandise, play games, eat Pokémon-themed foods, and buy

another limited edition something.

Of them, the newest and Japan’s biggest, Pokémon Center

Tok yo DX, in the trade district of Nihonbashi, is worth

spending every (Poké) dollar in. Besides soft toys and card

packs, there’s an interactive Pokédex, and at the in-house café,

food and plating both are themed. Think Cheerful Pikachu

Curry with a smiling Pikachu or Snorlax Hamburger Doria

with a bear-shaped patty.

At the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo in Sunshine City Alpa

mall, the fire-breathing, dragon-like Charizard awaits you,

while Pikachu is perched on the back of the legendary dragon

Rayquaza at Pokémon Center Skytree Town, located inside

world’s tallest tower. Wall-to-wall displays, latest collectibles

and video games, can all be indulged in in here.

While the craze for Pokémon GO has fizzled elsewhere,

the augmented reality game is still hot property in Tokyo.

Shibuya and Shinjuka stations—Japan’s busiest—are good

places to begin your game. Want to meet fellow trainers?

Head to the recently opened P-GO Izakaya Genkinokakerain

Bunkyo City. There’s even a Pokéstop and gym, so catching

some (at least) is guaranteed here. Considering how I was

chasing the cutesy creatures on the streets of Mumbai once,

Genkinokakerais one place I’ll definitely drop in, to pick up

the threads, to play again.

The other would be Akihabara—a technicoloured paradise

teeming with stores selling vintage video games, comics and

trading cards. Its arena is where I imagine my partner and

I brushing up our gaming skills before calling it a night at a

nearby izakaya, surrendering to steaming bowls of ramen and

freshly plated sushi.

Tokyo's Akihabara district sports neon shades, and is a haven for fans of manga.