Anyone who has played Pokémon will be familiar with the Pokémon Center (aka Pokécenter). It acts as a sort of hospital specifically for Pokémon. You bring in your injured Pokémon and hand them over to Nurse Joy, who then places them in this machine that goes “ding ding ding,” and your Pokémon are all better. Also included in Pokécenters are areas where you can battle other Pokémon trainers and a computer that you can access to organize your Pokémon collection and other items. This is all fun and good in the game, but wouldn’t it be cool if there were real Pokécenters that you could visit? Well, luckily for Pokémon fans, there actually are real-life Pokécenters.
There are a total of six Pokécenters located in the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Sapporo, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. A 7th Pokécenter existed in New York City once, but has since been turned into a Nintendo store. So what kind of things can you expect to see at a real Pokécenter? The obvious answer is, of course, Pokémon. Here, you’ll find rows of shelves stacked with Pokémon plushies, toys, cards, and other collectables. You can even buy stuff like Pokémon cereal and nori (seaweed), though I think gummy pokéballs would be a better choice. Unfortunately, one thing that you won’t find here is a Nurse Joy clone. I’m sure it’s hard enough to get someone willing to dress up as a game/anime character, much less find sextuplets willing to do that.
If you’re a big Pokémon fan and just happen to be in Japan one day, a Pokécenter is a must-see. You’d be hard-pressed to find some of the stuff they have anywhere else in the world.
