The kind and caring Pokémon delivers the prefecture’s first Pokéfuta.

Japan’s biggest cities are where you’ll find its Pokémon Center megastores, but it’s places further off the beaten tourist path that are most often graced by awesome Pokémon manhole covers, or Pokéfuta, as they’re called in Japanese. Back in the spring Sandshrew covers arrived in Tottori, a prefecture of Japan even some Japanese people aren’t confident about finding on the map, and this month Fukushima is joining the Pokéfuta club with its first-ever covers.

Serving as Poké-ambassador to Fukushima is Chansey, who’s a fitting choice because of its name. In Japanese-language versions of the Pokémon anime and games, Chansey’s name is “Rakki,” basically the corrupted Japanese pronunciation of the English word “lucky,” a fortuitous name for Fukushima, whose name means “lucky/prosperous island.”

A total of nine Chansey Pokéfuta are being installed, with the Pokémon of the hour appearing solo on the manhole cover for the coastal town of Namie, pictured above.

▼ Left: Chansey with Ponyta in Soma, a city whose name translates loosely as “paired horses”
Right: With Rapidash in Minami Soma.

▼ Left: Chansey and Bellossom putting on their hula outfits for Iwaki, the site of one of Japan’s most famous Hawaiian cultural centers
Right: With Stantler in Shinchimachi

▼ Left: Having a cherry blossom party with Cascoon and Silcoon in Kawamata, famous for its sakura trees
Right: Riding on Heracross in Tamura

▼ Left: Kicking it with Raboot in Naraha
Right: Relaxing by the river in Kawauchi (“inside the river”) to spend time with Wishiwashi and Arrokuda

Four of the Pokémon manhole covers (Namie, Minami Soma, Shinchi, Kawamata) are already in place, with the Iwaki, Naraha, and Kawauchi Pokéfuta arriving later this month, Tamura’s in September, and Soma’s finishing off the set in late October. The exact location for each can be found here on the Pokéfuta web site’s Hokkaido/Tohoku section.

Source: PR Times
Featured image: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, Pokéfuta official web site
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s proud to live in the only city in Kanto with a Pokéfuta.