If you’re saving up your yennies for a trip to the the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo store, here are some of the awesome items available to purchase.
With not long to go before the opening of a second Pokémon megastore in Tokyo this July, we paid a visit to the original megastore in Ikebukuro to see what it had to offer. We found an enormous amount of exclusive stationery, candies, keychains, clothes and mountains upon mountains of adorably cute plushies. Join us for a quick tour of the store and gaze in wonder at the great number of things a Pokémon can adorn.
Don’t be fooled by the space-age starkness of the open-plan store – there are more Pokémon discoveries to be made here than you would imagine!
First up, there are several large statues around the store, including Pikachu riding on the back of a Mega Charizard Y, which is the exclusive mascot for this store. The pair appear on a variety of merchandise available for sale at the Ikebukuro branch only.
▼ Located far away from Mega Charizard Y is Mega Charizard X, taking up a corner of the ceiling towards the back of the store.
▼ As you walk through the area you’ll stumble upon Mega Lucario and Mewtwo too.
While the statues are glorious, they certainly don’t have the power to distract us from all the merchandise! Let’s take a closer look at what you can find in-store.
1. Sweets and snacks
These will have your inner child squealing with delight. Not only is there a wide variety of products and flavours, there’s also a huge selection of cute package designs to choose from.
▼ Jelly drinks are priced from 120 yen (US$1.12).
▼ Sweets start at 100 yen, making them some of the cheapest products in the shop!
▼ These bags of gummy candies evolve in flavour as you eat them.
▼ These sweets include built-in plastic 3-D glasses all for 100 yen.
▼ Hard candies come in adorable cases that can be used again and again.
If you’re after something more traditional and savoury, these character-shaped cut-out nori seaweed sheets will brighten up any bento lunchbox.
And furikake flavoured rice toppings come in cute small packages.
▼ There are oodles of noodles…
▼ And instant curry packs.
▼ For sweet gift-giving, there are biscuits in some of the cutest tins we’ve ever seen!
▼ Matcha cookies come in traditional-looking green tea tins.
▼ These are worth buying for the cute glass jars alone!
▼ Hmmm. Pikachu reads our minds with “I’m wondering what I should get…”
2. Cards
While it’s hard to pull ourselves away from the cute sweetness of the snack section, we quickly spy something else that sends our hearts a-flutter: trading cards.
This area is like a treasure trove, with customers buying boxes at a time. When we visited, a new line of Premium Champion Pack Cards was being heavily promoted in-store.
3. Keychains
If you’re looking for small charms and keychains, there are plenty to be found, scattered in various sections around the store.
4. Nanoblocks
You can really get to know your favourite characters by building them up using Nanoblock kits. There’s also a cute replica of Pikachu’s Battle Field to create.
5. Smartphone covers and accessories
Dress your phone up in a wide variety of Pokémon-related designs.
▼ If you like the traditional Japanese look, the red flower-filled case on the right includes an image of a Maiko Pikachu, the mascot for the Kyoto store.
6. Tableware
You won’t ever be far from your favourite characters with these adorable melamine plates, cups and bowls.
▼ The small ceramic rice bowls are adorable too.
▼ Adults and kids alike will fall hard for these beautiful bento lunch boxes.
7. Stationery
Japan knows how to do stationery well, and with a huge variety of reasonably-priced cute Pokémon items, it will be hard to choose what to walk away with when there are pens, pencils, notebooks, stamps or even a roll of brightly coloured adhesive tape.
8. Pokéballs!
A whole wall is dedicated to the Poké Deru Gacha 2.0 series by Takara Tomy.
9. Pokémon raffle tickets
If you’re feeling lucky, take a chance at one of the two Pokémon raffles available in-store.
10. Apparel
Inject a bit of Pokémon fashion into your style, with a variety of different T-shirts, shorts, bags, and socks available.
▼ They even have adorable Pikachu slippers!
11. Tissues and wet wipes
You’ll always be keen to wipe your nose if it means you get to take these cute packages out of your pocket!
12. Pikachu Sponges
That’s right – you can now wash with Pikachu.
13. Plush Toys
If you’re hunting for plushies, you’ll find them absolutely everywhere, in all sorts of cute shapes and sizes.
14. Pokemon Red and Blue Sprite Goods
Released this year, the nostalgic series features tiny menu sprites from the original games.
15. Gacha Machine Pins
Collect tiny Japanese street signs taken over by a cheeky Pikachu!
16. Seasonal Pokémon
Available for a limited time, the seasonal ranges can be extremely sought after. When we visited, they still had the Easter 2016 range in-store, featuring easter-egg shaped characters on pouches, towels, T-shirts, tableware, micro-bead cushions and more.
17. The Sepia Graffiti Range
Wonderfully cute in its understated beauty, these sketch-based designs come on stickers, stationery, towels, cushions and bags.
18. Fashion Accessories
Watches, rings, and card and coin cases feature the bright yellow colour of Pikachu.
19. Pillows and Pillow Cases
Because naptime is much more exciting with the face of an electric pokémon by your side!
20. Figurines
There are racks and racks of figurines on display.
The only problem is choosing which ones to take home.
Congratulations! You’ve made it through the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo unscathed! A little lighter in the wallet, perhaps, but if you do find some coins in your pocket, there are still games to be played outside.
Now we’ll just have to wait and see what the new Pokémon Center Skytree Town holds in store. We’re already excited to visit once it opens on July 6!
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Photos © RocketNews24