150 Pokémon will be hiding in major Japanese train stations this fall, waiting for fans to find them

Gen-1 Pokémon help mark 150-year milestone for trains in Japan.

150 is a special number for Pokémon fans, since there are 150 Pocket Monster species to be found in the original Pokémon Red and Blue Game Boy games. This year, though, 150 is also a significant number for Japanese rail fans, as October 14 will be the 150th anniversary of the opening of the very first train line in Japan, which ran from Shimbashi Station in Tokyo to what’s now Sakuragicho Station in Yokohama.

Seeing how the numbers match up, the Pokémon Company and East Japan Railway Company (a.k.a. JR East) are teaming up for a special event called “Let’s Find the 150 Pokémon Hidden in the Station.” Full points for accuracy in the name, as the original 150 Gen-1 Pokémon will be appearing at 16 different stations in east Japan, waiting for fans to come and snap pictures of them.

The event kicks off on October 14 at the site of the original Shimbashi Station (which is now a historically preserved building) in Tokyo, as well as the following active stations;
● Omiya (Saitama Prefecture),
● Takasaki (Gunma)
● Nagano (Nagano).
● Ichinoseki (Iwate)
● Akita (Akita)

By the end of November, the Gen-1 Pokémon pantheon will arrive at these stations too:
● Sakuragicho (Kanagawa Prefecture)
● Hachioji (Tokyo)
● Mito (Ibaraki)
● Chiba (Chiba)
● Fukushima (Fukushima)
● Sendai (Miyagi)
● Minami-Kesennuma (Miyagi)
● Yamagata (Yamagata)
● Shin Aomori (Aomori)
● Shin Niigata (Niigata)

Much like within the Pokémon games/anime, finding all 150 species is probably going to be a tough challenge. As the promotional photo above from Omiya shows, though, some of the Pokémon won’t be trying all that hard to find, and with many of the participating stations located along Shinkansen lines, you should be able to spot at least a few while travelling around Japan between now and late March, when the event ends.

Source: JR East via IT Media
Top image: JR East
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