TacoCat’s Travels #274 (Tokyo): Catching Pokemon and Crossing Animals!

4 days ago · 8 min read · Shibuya

Hey Hive!

Sorry for the hiatus last week but we went on yet another trip recently, this time to Bangkok, Thailand! Sean was invited to attend an esports event by Riot Games, the Valorant Masters! Since I've played the game quite a bit on streams he invited me to come watch too!

It was my first time watching the Masters and it was so cool! We got to meet so many awesome people and the atmosphere was electric. The games were also really exciting to watch, even Sean got really into it!

Anyway, now that we're back let's continue on with our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.

5 Feb 2023. Sunday.

Last time, we continued exploring Shibuya and went to check out some really cool official gaming merchandise stores in the PARCO building!

Sean and I are both really big gamers and we don't have these big name stores here in Singapore so I was really excited to check it out for the first time!

We went to see the CAPCOM and Jump Shop last time but there's a lot more to see here so let's go!

The next big store to see is of course the Pokemon Center! I think there might have been something on Pokemon GO when we went over there, hence the crowd.

We've been to a few different Pokemon Centers around Japan but this was our first time visiting this outlet, and I think it's one of the bigger ones they have.

One of the first things we saw was this undoubtedly very expensive jewelry section where you can get Pokemon wedding rings!

I thought it was such a nice idea since I've heard of couples getting together through different games. Since Pokemon is such a big franchise there must be some couple out there who met through Pokemon.

They were showing a lot of the new generation from Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, especially the starter Pokemon shown here, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly.

The design of the store was really cool as well, with the Pokedex entries on this pillar.

There were some graffiti art of Pokemon on the walls which looked really nice too.

As expected the store was pretty crowded with everyone looking at all the merchandise. Most of it was pretty similar to what they have at other Pokemon Centers, mostly plushies but also some toys and lifestyle goods or apparel.

It was tough to take photos of the products since there was so many people around but I tried my best.

Here are the plushie walls with so many different types of Pokemon plushies, mostly from the newer generations.

I did know this one called Lechonk though since it's a piggy and also a meme.

There were some other jewely as well like earrings which looked quite nice.

70% of the products were probably just plushies though since there are so many Pokemon now. I haven't kept up with the series so I didn't recognise many of the newer ones.

There was an interactive display where you can style your own Pikachu based on your outfit, or maybe turn yourself into a Pikachu? I'm honestly not sure.

Of course they had more kiddy products as well like these toys. Way to ingrain them, Pokemon.

They did have some cute backpacks but I'm not sure what Pokemon they were based on.

The lights in the store were quite unique though unlike other Pokemon Centers. I'm not sure if this is mimicking something in the games or the anime, but I can see this being a lab of sorts.

One of the more expensive items were these bedazzled phone cases. I'm not sure what they're made with but they were all at least 10,000JPY!

I think these were folders based on the anime, and of course they had the card booster packs as well.

There was a lot of stuff to see in here, I think any Pokemon fan would think this was heaven.

I thought these coasters looked really nice with the zen garden design in the back.

There were also these colourful ones that I thought looked well-made. I didn't recognise the characters though since I don't watch the anime.

There was also a Design Lab where you could customise your own Pokemon Card I think? I don't think we tried it since there were too many people around.

Anything I liked were these vibrant stickers they did with B-Side Label since I really like their stickers. They're always so cute!

They had lots of nice pins as well.

I think one of the few human characters I recognised was Marnie since the last game I played was Pokemon Sword and I absolutely loved her theme in the game.

But that's about it for the Pokemon Center! We didn't end up buying anything although I was a little tempted to. I probably would've if I was still into Pokemon.

I thought this was a weird placement for the store name since the pillar was blocking but I guess they didn't have a choice.

The thing I was most excited about visiting was the Nintendo store! I've been a big Nintendo fan for years and I grew up playing Mario games so this was my heaven.

I've seen videos of the Nintendo stores in US and have always dreamed of visiting one. I used to lament that they didn't have one in Japan (the birthplace of Nintendo) so when they finally opened one I was so excited!

The outside of the store looked so cool already with the different characters across Nintendo IPs plastered on the glass walls.

Sean had to get a pic with his favourite character - Ganondorf since it's one of his mains in Smash Bros.

The store was quite big and there was so much stuff to see I couldn't wait to explore!

Of course they had some general Nintendo Store merchandise like these shirts and cookies boxes.

There were some tote bags and figurines around this display as well.

The store had a few different sections organised by franchise which was helpful.

I was honestly so overwhelmed since I wanted to see everything they had that I didn't know where to begin. But we decided to take a walk around the perimeter first.

They also had Nintendo music emanating from the speakers which of course is unsurprising but I loved that I actually got to hear my favourite songs as I shopped, and not through my headphones!

We walked past the general section and the Splatoon section since I don't play those games, but I know of the series.

The designs were really interesting though since Splatoon uses a lot of ink and graffiti-like spraypaint.

But I was more excited to see some Kirby stuff! Kirby is pretty big in Japan and a lot of general anime shops would have Kirby merchandise but of course the Nintendo store would have more exclusive items.

I believe I had just finished Kirby and the Forgotten Land about a month ago at the time so I was excited to see some merchandise related to that game here!

There were actually some Switches setup for people to play some of the games as well, and I saw some kids playing that same Kirby game!

Kirby used to be my main in Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii but tbh I've only played the one Kirby game so I was torn on whether I should get the merch.

Especially when there was such a big Animal Crossing section!

There were so many home goods related to Animal Crossing, which is probably the most fitting thing I can imagine since you own a house and "work" to pay it off in the game.

They also had some stuff from the cafe in Animal Crossing like the very same mugs and coffee grinder!

They also had the shirts that Tom Nook and Isabelle wear but tbh I thought it would be better made that it was. The sizing looked a little too big and the Isabelle one was for kids which was unfortunate.

The Animal Crossing section had a surprising amount of apparel and various mugs and bottles.

The shirts looked really comfy but a lot of them were too big for me and I have too many clothes anyway.

They had this special gachapon machine where you can get a keychain based on some of the classic Nintendo controllers. It looked really cool and definitely unique so we decided why not.