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Because if there’s one place you’d expect to find a rare Pokémon, it would have to be at their home in Tokyo.

Idle hands are the devil’s playground, as they say, and for our Japanese writing team that playground is filled with rogue Pikachu. The anxious wait for the Japanese release of mobile game Pokémon Go has led our Japanese writers to search for Pokémon at the American Embassy and even loiter around Sensoji at Asakusa in an attempt to get involved in the game. In another effort to see what Pokémon might look like on the streets of their ancestral birthplace, our Japanese reporter P.K. Sanjun went right to the door of their home, at the Nintendo headquarters in Tokyo.

▼ While the main headquarters of Nintendo is based in Kyoto, the Tokyo headquarters is housed in a plain-looking building in Taito Ward’s Asakusabashi, not far from Akihabara Station.

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▼ You might think the company would have some awesome-looking, game-inspired signage installed to announce their presence to the world, but instead there’s just a simple-looking sign that reads “Nintendo Corporation, Tokyo Branch”.

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After arriving at the building, P.K. whipped out his phone, which has a version of Pokémon Go installed, downloaded via an English writer’s account, to check out the situation around the vicinity of the Nintendo building, The scenery on the map looked just as sparse and empty as it had in the dozens of times he’d stared at it previously.

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Yet, lo and behold, when he aimed it at the Nintendo sign by the street, a strange yellow figure came into view on the screen, huddled down low on the ground, looking a lot like the star character, Pikachu.

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Moving closer, it appeared that this was not like any other Pikachu ever seen before. In fact, it seemed to have an odd-looking, bespectacled face.

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▼ Could this be the elusive Megane (“Glasses”) Pikachu he’d heard his co-workers talking about at the office?

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P.K. was right! This was the rare Megane Pikachu that appears only when his crazy colleague dons the bright yellow skin-tight bodysuit that hangs on the back door of the office.

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While it might not be the real deal, it’s still the only way we’ll get to see what a Pokémon on the streets of Tokyo might look like for now. When you make Pokémon fans endure a painful wait to enjoy what the rest of the world is currently enjoying, this is what you get!

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Still, the poor man’s Pikachu is hardly an adequate substitute for the real thing. Hopefully we’ll hear an announcement regarding the local release soon so our Japanese writers can finally hang up that bright yellow leotard for good…or at least until the next company nomikai drinking party!

▼ Don’t miss this video full of exciting Pikachu action!

Photos © RocketNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]