The first permanent Pokemon theme park opened in Tokyo yesterday, featuring cute rides and a woodland area where visitors can try and “catch ’em all.”
It is Japan’s latest tourist attraction catering to a record influx of overseas travelers, and tickets are already sold out for the next two months.
Visitors to PokePark Kanto, within Tokyo’s largest amusement park Yomiuri Land, are greeted by statues of the electric mouse Pikachu and other creatures from the franchise.
Photo: EPA, Jiji Press
Pokemon — one of Japan’s top cultural exports — began in 1996 with video games on Nintendo’s Game Boy console.
Inspired by the Japanese summer childhood tradition of bug-collecting, players catch and train in battle hundreds of “pocket monsters.”
Pokemon has evolved since then to become wildly popular worldwide, with anime series, movies, a trading card game and an augmented reality smartphone app called Pokemon Go
PokePark Kanto has two areas: a hilly outdoor zone nearly half a kilometer long full of Pokemon figurines, and a town modeled on those in the games for shopping and rides.
To access the woodland area, visitors must be able to climb 110 steps without assistance, the park’s Web site says.
A record number of tourists entered Japan last year, despite a steep fall in Chinese visitors in December due to a diplomatic row between the nations.
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