Vol. 1, Issue 30 - A Pokémon fan in Japan: SteC
We explore more cool Pokémon swag, sights and cool items from a fan in Japan called SteC. We also have more Pokémon news and more of your contributions from the Johto Times mailbag!
Welcome to Issue 30 of the Johto Times! This week, we have another feature directly from Japan, featuring all kinds of weird and wonderful Pokémon products, landmarks, and displays!
As you might remember, back in Issue 13 we did a similar feature with our friend Vectrex. Well, this time around, we are delighted to be introducing SteC, a Pokémon fan originally from the United Kingdom, who has lived and worked in Japan for the past six years! As usual, we also have the latest Pokémon news and some questions that were sent to our mailbag. Enjoy!
News
The Pokémon Company has announced this week that Pokémon Sleep, a mobile app released last month that combines sleep tracking with Pokémon, has received ten million downloads on iOS and Android devices. To celebrate the milestone, a commemorative gift will be available for players between now and September 21st 2023. The gift contains 1000 Sleep Points, 1 Good Camp Ticket, 5 Poké Biscuits, and 3 Ingredient Ticket S items. A Good Sleep Day event is also currently taking place and will end tomorrow, on Friday September 1st 2023. Good Sleep Day events will be held monthly, allowing players to draw in more Pokémon and see rarer sleep styles. More details can be found in the source below.
Source: Pokémon
A new season of Pokémon GO, Adventures Abound, kicks off from tomorrow, September 1st, until December 1st 2023. During this event, from September 5th - 10th, Paldean Pokémon such as Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly, and Lechonk can be encountered for the first time in-game. Additional events, Ultra Unlock bonuses, raids, wild encounters, avatar items, and more have been announced through the Pokémon GO website, which can be found in the sources below.
Source: Pokémon GO, Pokémon GO
Feature: A Pokémon fan in Japan: SteC
When it comes to Pokémon, it seems that Japan has all the cool stuff! Our feature today was supported by SteC, who lives and works in Japan, frequently finds Pokémon-related items, and has agreed to let us share them here in the Johto Times. This collection of photographs features some awesome Pokémon displays, figures, games and products encountered on his travels. Let’s dive in and see what treasures he has encountered!
Aggron Poké Lid
Location: Fukuoka (August 2022)
SteC first shared this photo of a Poké Lid featuring Aggron that he encountered in August 2022 in Fukuoka, Japan’s sixth-largest city. This manhole cover is one of many that appear all over Japan to promote the local acts and cultural value of its prefectures. While you’re not able to take the original home with you and unleash an outbreak of Grimer, you are able to purchase the design as button badges and stickers! SteC used this opportunity to take the photograph alongside his Aggron buddy in Pokémon GO.
Ho-Oh Statue
Location: Pokémon Center Kyoto store (September 2017)
On a visit to the Pokémon Center Kyoto store back in September 2017, SteC snapped this awesome photograph of the giant Ho-Oh statue on display there, which was surrounded by other smaller Pokémon plush toys. This photo was taken at the store’s original location in the Takashimaya Kyoto Store, which has since closed down and relocated to the Kyoto Economy Center in 2019.
Kaiyodo Figure Museum Kurokabe
Location: Nagahama (March 2023)
The Kaiyodo Figure Museum is said to be the ‘world's first figure museum’ and is home to three thousand exhibits, including some cool Pokémon figures. Kaiyado, the Osaka-based company that manufactures collectible figures and garage kits, started out making licensed sets for Godzilla and has grown to encompass high-quality manga and anime–related characters. SteC was able to snap a photograph of this gigantic and awesome-looking Feraligatr, surrounded by many legendary and mythical Pokémon from across the generations. I’m super jealous; I wish I could go and check it out for myself!
Pokémon Model Building Kits
Location: Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Umeda (June 2023)
Located in a thirteen-story department store across from the north side of Osaka Station, the Yodobashi Camera is an electronics chain store that spans six floors. It's known for offering discount prices on electrical goods and digital appliances. On a visit there, SteC found an isle full of Build-it-yourself Pokémon figurines from Bandai. Although he was tempted to buy some, he refrained from doing so on this occasion. His favourite was Tepig.
Snorlax Statue
Location: Pokémon Center TOKYO DX ＆ Pokémon Cafe (May 2023)
The Pokémon Center Tokyo DX store opened in 2019 and is located on the 9th floor of the Daimaru department store. It even has a Pokémon-themed café! One of the photographs SteC took during his visit was of a huge Snorlax statue, which includes a Pikachu and Mew on each of its shoulders.
Retrospective Pokémon Window Display
Location: Pokémon Center TOKYO DX ＆ Pokémon Cafe (May 2023)
On the same visit to the Pokémon Center Tokyo DX store, SteC shared some pictures of a really cool window display, showing the history of the mainline Pokémon series up to the 3DS era. This display will likely tug at the heartstrings of any Pokémon fan who grew up in these eras. I personally love that they included boxes of each of the games as part of the display.
A huge thanks to SteC for sharing his awesome Pokémon finds! We love all of these cool discoveries and can’t wait to see more in the future.
Mailbag
Want to be a part of our newsletter? You’re welcome to submit content including (but not limited to) questions, fanart, short stories, your cherished memories, photographs of your collection, and anything else you think you want us to see. A reader that goes by the username ‘Experiencers International’ got in touch with a couple of questions!
I wanted to ask a few questions since I’ve never been into the Pokémon series, and I’ve never played a mainline game (Pokémon Quest is the only Pokémon game I’ve put more than 5 seconds into, and that was purely because that was the only free game I could find when I bought my Switch in 2019).
First of all, what would you consider to be the best mainline game for people to try out if they’ve never played one before?
Next, what would you consider to be the best Pokémon in the mainline game you suggested above?
Experiencers International, United Kingdom
Hello there, and thank you for your questions! I was fortunate enough to play through many mainline games in 2022 in the run-up to Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, and while I could be biased and suggest my favourite Pokémon game: Pokémon Crystal, I would recommend Pokémon Platinum to be the best for someone who has never played a mainline game before. It has a great story, characters, lots of Pokémon, some nice post-game content, and is considered to be one of the best games by many fans.
In response to your second question, the ‘best’ Pokémon will come down to what you plan to do with it. What may have been a viable option for competitive Pokémon play in Platinum may not be the case if you were to carry it forwards today, but if you are referring to a favourite, then I would say the box legendary, Giratina, is a pretty great choice!
However, what I consider to be the best game and Pokémon in the series will be different to someone else. Every Pokémon is somebody's favourite. I urge you to explore the franchise and discover a game you love, and even more so, a Pokémon you can call your favourite. Good luck!
This is probably not a particularly popular opinion, but I think Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee are great options for a series newcomer. It is the most polished main series game on the Switch (which also means it's easy to get), and while the target audience is much more casual than the average main series title, the way the mechanics are both modern and simplified means they make a great starting point before jumping into more complex and difficult games.