Cute Shit: Pikachu Outbreak

From the 8th to the 16th there was a special "Pikachu Outbreak" dance-themed event in Yokohama, so last Monday I met Rejon at Ikebukuro and we went.

It's hard to put into words what a huge nostalgia bomb this was, but basically, it was everything you'd want from a large-scale Pikachu event in Japan.

Most every place in the immediate (or affected, I guess) area had huge decals on their windows

At the Landmark Plaza exit of Sakuragicho, they give you these nerd-tastic visors

And the Pokemon Center in the mall portion of Landmark Plaza? A complete zoo. 

Exactly as crowded as you'd think. Disneyland status. But look at these fucking cookie tins!

8-bit ones with the noises they make in the game?!

Those ones on the bottom there have little clips on their hands and sit on your shoulder.

Let's be honest, I'll probably end up buying one.

Rejon: "This, what, X-Japan-era hide visual rock whatever Pikachu? 

It's too much. Look at the eyebrows! It's ugly!"

Clip-on Pikachu: buy me °__°

We pretty much lost it over this derpily aderpable Ditto plush, even if they did make it lilac instead of pink. I want Lapras, too!

"Awwwww, it's so stupid! Look at Ditto-chu's little Pika-ice cream!"
(almost certainly going to end up buying this, too)

"From this angle it looks like they're ascending into heaven."
"That's how it's supposed to look! That's where Pikachu's from, where Pikachu belongs!"

Cold drink break. Heavy breathing.

In other news, I didn't know there was a dry dock at the base of Landmark Plaza!
Port cities are so cool.

After breaking for refreshments, we ventured into the heat and humidity to see the various outdoor Pika-installations.

The best part of this is that the inflatable one on deck didn't end up being the captain.

No detail was overlooked. The nautical Pikachus were perhaps the cutest, and I wish

we could've seen the sailor Pika dance, which was either on the deck of the Nippon Maru

or in the area in front of it (probably the latter).

OMG

EHRMAHGERD

Look

at

his

HAT

We walked all the way (it was hot as a motherfucker, it felt like a long way) to the bridge leading to the ferris wheel and other big rides that Hannes and I had gone on about a month before to get a shot of the Pikachus with the iconic wheel, and had an interesting conversation about Japan's abandoned 90's theme parks along the way.

Back inside Landmark Plaza, where we had to go because I didn't have cash and the line was crazy long anyway the first time we stopped into the Pokemon Center..

This looks retardedly big when you're standing right under it. All I could think was, "Piiiiii-kaaaa.." in the voice of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

The sculpture in Queen's Square 

We couldn't resist the temptation to stop into Krispy Kreme, because the shop was totally decked out in Pika thises-and-thats and all of these businesses had special event deals posted on their windows. Krispy Kreme's indicated "one original glazed present", so after staring at that for a moment, I was like, 

"Do you want a doughnut? I mean, worst case scenario, there's no present or it's not cute, and you still have a delicious doughnut," and of course Rejon was like,

"..... Yes."

Turns out that the present IS one free original glazed. At first we thought it was another of the Pikachu visors, and then we were like, 

"..........."

But hey, she was nice enough to get two so I could have a present in case there was one, and then I had one more to bring home to my enormous pastry-loving ginger cat.

After a very long, sweaty day of excitement and a long train ride back, we were totally pooped by about 6. This here's my Pika-swag. Those little gachapon magnets on the right were only 100 yen, and we kept taking turns playing until Rejon got the fox Pokemon (no one can be reasonably expected to know the names of all the new ones) she's been playing with in the game lately. I also got that stupidly adorable flying Charizard Pikachu from another of the many machines they had set up.

We went back to the Pokemon Center so I could get the "Wobbling Sleepy Hammock" (more or less) game you see there, where all you do is precariously perch adorable Pikachus onto Snorlax until it all falls down, like Jenga or something. My friend Bree specifically asked for it when I checked to see if there was any Pika-thing she really wanted.

Well, it was the last one in the store, and Rejon helped me hide it on a bottom shelf under an adorable pile of sleepy Vaporeons that we hadn't noticed before, and were then obliged to stop and gush over. 

The Snorlax game was miraculously still there when we did go back, and I also bought the one darling plush toy sitting conveniently on top of it. When I went back to Landmark Plaza later that week they still hadn't restocked this game, so boom.

And finally, here's the video I took of the Pika-action. The large-scale event where everyone dances together with all of the Pikachus was a one-shot thing last weekend, unforunately, but we had an amazing time being ten again regardless. This totally makes up for the Pikachu Parade that got cancelled at the DDP in Seoul last year.