It’s been about a week since we first saw the commercial for the Pikachu Tairyou Hassei Chu (“An Outbreak of Pikachus”) Pokémon event going on this month in Yokohama. And while fans are no doubt looking forward to the projection mapping show and Pikachu Café, the real draw is the promised 1,000 Pikachu that will be on hand to greet visitors to the city’s Minato Mirai bayside district.
While we’re still a few days away from the official start of the festivities, the loveable pocket monsters have already started showing up, as shown in these surreally cute photos of the assembled Pokémon hospitality corps.
Yokohama’s Akarenga Red Brick Warehouse complex used to house a customs office and storage facilities for the daily shipments of goods flowing in and out of one of Japan’s busiest ports. By the late 1980s, though, the bulk of Yokohama’s harbor operations has moved elsewhere in the city, and Akarenga was repurposed as an entertainment complex.
The large open plaza between the two buildings gets used for a number of seasonal events, including temporary flower gardens and an outdoor ice skating rink. During the Pikachu Tairyou Hassei Chu event, this is where you’ll find the Pikachu Beach House café, but as a special preview of what’s to come, the Akarenga plaza also served as a gathering point for the first wave of 50 Pikachus establishing their territory in the city.
Best of all, we’ve got almost two more weeks with this adorable horde. Pikachu Tairyou Hassei Chu officially starts on August 9 and runs until the 17th.
Source: Hamster Sokuho
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- City of Yokohama offering 14 days of free Wi-Fi to overseas tourists. -- Nintendo Reveals New Pokémon Game for 3DS: Pokémon X and Y. -- Super cute Pikachu-plastered blanket, canvas bag to accompany fan mags.
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11 Comments
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FPSRussia
Be warned!!! Pikachu's are just as dangerous as Koalas when provoked. They are very cute but be warned. Here's what happened when 2 guys in Los Angeles went looking for one.
http://youtu.be/u82ptblJvog
Be careful
MissingCylonModel
@FPSRussia, that looks drastic. Just imagine what damage a 1000 of them could do...
Hmmm...
A Pikachu farm might be an answer to a lot of energy issues.
Tessa
Wow, in this heat? Sensible, really sensible. I hope we don't soon hear about a mass outbreak of heatstroke amongst Pikachus (or people dressed like them).
TokyoGas
For some reason I have an urge to cycling to Yokohama for this event...
squeeks
Time to bust out the pokeballs.
Thunderbird2
It's like a living nightmare... @.@
Alex80
It's so damn CUTE! XD
801215
Cute on outside. But I saw what went in them. @_@
Fox Sora Winters
(shakes head, sighs, and walks away) I just... I don't know any more. An army of Pikachus? It hurts my brain just thinking about it.
Raymond Chuang
I believe Nintendo is going this to revive the Pokemon franchise, which has been losing popularity to newer franchises such as Youkai Watch.