It’s time for issue 26 of the Johto Times! Have you ever wondered what it might be like to explore a Pokémon region for real? We are delighted to be sharing an interview with Alex, who has been visiting and exploring the real-world equivalents of Kanto and Johto, in Japan. It’s a very special and awesome journey that we hope our readers will enjoy reading!
Alex claims to be "the first person in the world to entirely traverse the Kanto region", but to my knowledge, this feat was already accomplished 23 years ago by a certain "gameman" in Japan, who published this account of their journey: https://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ff4a-tky/pkmnmati.htm
Hi I'm Alex from The Grand PokeTour. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I enjoyed reading this! I understand that "Gameman" travelled to locations which the consensus of fans no longer agree is "real world kanto" (according to Bulbapedia's real world locations page, general fan theory). To be honest there are 2 schools of thought in region theory for Kanto. One being that the regions can be mapped to real world locations (like myself), and regions are just an imagination of Satoshi Tajiri's childhood vicinity projected onto the entire Kanto region (this theory is more popular in Japan). Gameman takes the 2nd approach, I take the intial approach. For example, Pewter City is considered to be Hachioji (a city West of Tokyo), and Mt. Takao is considered as Mt. Moon (according to Gameman). As someone who lived in Hachioji for 3 years and climbed Mt. Takao 3 times, I would have to agree with the general consensus that there is stronger evidence to show that Iwajuku in Gunma is Pewter City with its history of archaeology and rock building. The name Iwa in Iwajuku even means "rock". And the nearby mountain Mt. Akagi has been linked to Mt. Moon (Otskimiyama in Japanese) as Otsukimi is a Japanese tradition of moon viewing, which was historically done in spiritual mountains like Mt. Akagi. Gameman also chose Enoshima (a tiny island by Kamakura, accessible by footbridge) to be Cinnabar Island, despite the fact that it has no volcano. Even Pallet Town was incorrectly yet affectionately attributed to Machida (the home town of the real life Satoshi Tajiri), instead of Shimoda (at the top of the Izu Peninsula, like in the actual game world). The cycling route according to Gameman was also a small path along a river in Machida instead of the Aqua Bay Line, which actually crosses the Tokyo Bay, into Chiba (where Fuschia City is located). Despite the inaccuracies according to conventional region theory, I consider Gameman to be a pioneer. It really does bring me joy to see this! Someone in the past sent me a french girl who did a similar journey few years back (albeit missed a few spots). It is always nice to see it!
Thank you for the detailed reply! You've convinced me that you really know your stuff. I only read the article I linked via automated translator, but it really impressed me with some of the quotes that I feel are underappreciated, such as this one, which was really eye-opening for me:
>At first glance, the [Red and Blue] Pokémon game seems seems to depict the wonder of running around in nature, searching for Pokémon across fields and mountains. The game is inspired by catching insects, so it wouldn't be wrong to assume that. However, given the presence of cities such as Tamamushi (Celadon) and Yamabuki (Saffron), and considering the existence of artificial Pokemon like Porygon, it cannot be said that Pokémon is simply a game that celebrates nature. Rather, it seems to present the scenery Mr. Tajiri saw as a child in the 1970s as it really was. As skyscrapers are being built one after another in urban areas, an era when futuristic cities that appear in science fiction novels and manga has appeared in reality. On the other hand, in the suburbs, more untouched nature remained than it does today.
>"I didn't really have the intention of making this game for elementary school students. I wanted to convey the message to adults around the same age as me, so around 30 years old, 'This is the way we used to play when we were kids, it was fun, wasn't it?'" (quote from "The Magic of Pokémon")
I also loved learning from the article that the ship S. S. Anne was modeled after a real ship called Hikawa Maru. When I looked at the photos on Wikipedia, I was amazed at the resemblance! But that may be something you've already covered in your video. Basically, I jumped at the opportunity to share the article and I'm glad you appreciated reading it too. I will be catching up on your content now! Keep it up!
It's cool to think that someone else may have gone on a similar journey! I am unfortunately unable to translate the page, but I will definitely pass it on to Alex. I'm sure he will be very happy to discover this information!
Alex claims to be "the first person in the world to entirely traverse the Kanto region", but to my knowledge, this feat was already accomplished 23 years ago by a certain "gameman" in Japan, who published this account of their journey: https://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ff4a-tky/pkmnmati.htm
Regardless, thanks for the interesting interview!
Edit: Please read Alex's answer below!
Hi I'm Alex from The Grand PokeTour. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I enjoyed reading this! I understand that "Gameman" travelled to locations which the consensus of fans no longer agree is "real world kanto" (according to Bulbapedia's real world locations page, general fan theory). To be honest there are 2 schools of thought in region theory for Kanto. One being that the regions can be mapped to real world locations (like myself), and regions are just an imagination of Satoshi Tajiri's childhood vicinity projected onto the entire Kanto region (this theory is more popular in Japan). Gameman takes the 2nd approach, I take the intial approach. For example, Pewter City is considered to be Hachioji (a city West of Tokyo), and Mt. Takao is considered as Mt. Moon (according to Gameman). As someone who lived in Hachioji for 3 years and climbed Mt. Takao 3 times, I would have to agree with the general consensus that there is stronger evidence to show that Iwajuku in Gunma is Pewter City with its history of archaeology and rock building. The name Iwa in Iwajuku even means "rock". And the nearby mountain Mt. Akagi has been linked to Mt. Moon (Otskimiyama in Japanese) as Otsukimi is a Japanese tradition of moon viewing, which was historically done in spiritual mountains like Mt. Akagi. Gameman also chose Enoshima (a tiny island by Kamakura, accessible by footbridge) to be Cinnabar Island, despite the fact that it has no volcano. Even Pallet Town was incorrectly yet affectionately attributed to Machida (the home town of the real life Satoshi Tajiri), instead of Shimoda (at the top of the Izu Peninsula, like in the actual game world). The cycling route according to Gameman was also a small path along a river in Machida instead of the Aqua Bay Line, which actually crosses the Tokyo Bay, into Chiba (where Fuschia City is located). Despite the inaccuracies according to conventional region theory, I consider Gameman to be a pioneer. It really does bring me joy to see this! Someone in the past sent me a french girl who did a similar journey few years back (albeit missed a few spots). It is always nice to see it!
Thank you for the detailed reply! You've convinced me that you really know your stuff. I only read the article I linked via automated translator, but it really impressed me with some of the quotes that I feel are underappreciated, such as this one, which was really eye-opening for me:
>At first glance, the [Red and Blue] Pokémon game seems seems to depict the wonder of running around in nature, searching for Pokémon across fields and mountains. The game is inspired by catching insects, so it wouldn't be wrong to assume that. However, given the presence of cities such as Tamamushi (Celadon) and Yamabuki (Saffron), and considering the existence of artificial Pokemon like Porygon, it cannot be said that Pokémon is simply a game that celebrates nature. Rather, it seems to present the scenery Mr. Tajiri saw as a child in the 1970s as it really was. As skyscrapers are being built one after another in urban areas, an era when futuristic cities that appear in science fiction novels and manga has appeared in reality. On the other hand, in the suburbs, more untouched nature remained than it does today.
>"I didn't really have the intention of making this game for elementary school students. I wanted to convey the message to adults around the same age as me, so around 30 years old, 'This is the way we used to play when we were kids, it was fun, wasn't it?'" (quote from "The Magic of Pokémon")
I also loved learning from the article that the ship S. S. Anne was modeled after a real ship called Hikawa Maru. When I looked at the photos on Wikipedia, I was amazed at the resemblance! But that may be something you've already covered in your video. Basically, I jumped at the opportunity to share the article and I'm glad you appreciated reading it too. I will be catching up on your content now! Keep it up!
It's cool to think that someone else may have gone on a similar journey! I am unfortunately unable to translate the page, but I will definitely pass it on to Alex. I'm sure he will be very happy to discover this information!