Pokémon GO: Week 1

After a week of Pokémon GO being out in Japan, I now have 99 pokémon registered in my pokédex and 100 seen, Snorlax being the only one that I have seen and haven’t caught yet, so I guess you could say “If you have poképroblems, I feel bad for you son, I have 99 pokémon and Snorlax aint one”. A week ago the game came out in Japan and it was released five minutes before my job started, so I downloaded it just before class and tried to play during my lunch break only to find out that it wasn’t compatible on my phone. So after work, I visited several electronic shops until I found one that was selling phones without contracts and I bought a nice one that was Pokémon GO compatible, so despite not having spent a cent on the game itself, I have spent $500 Japanese yen equivalent just to play this game. The game is more or less how I expected it to be and my weeks long struggle waiting for the Japanese release was worth it. In that week, I have caught every single pokémon that can evolve into something, everything that I’m missing are just evolutions or standalone pokémon. The starter I chose was Pikachu, due to Raichu being my favorite from the first generation and I named it Kiff because I caught it at a shrine called Kifune Shrine near my house.

The game is a much bigger hit than I thought it would be, it would seem like more than half of the people in Japan are playing this game. I was at a pokéstop and a JP postman who very much looked like he was in the middle of a shift stopped by to catch some things. The funny thing is despite Japan news saying the target was for kids, I’ve seen many more adults playing this. When I was at Ohori park, the big park in Fukuoka, I probably saw easily more than three hundred people playing and while little kids were playing on the playground they would call out for their mom or dad to look, but I would look over to their parents and they were too busy catching a Meowth (ニャース） to notice, and often I was mothers pushing their babies in strollers and the baby would be crying and the mom would rather catch a Magikarp (コイキング). They game has gotten me to go out a lot, but unlike my other outdoor hobbies which usually involve photography, this hobby doesn’t need to be sunny, so I can go out when it is cloudy or at night, so long as it isn’t rainy. The first night I got it, I went out at 10 pm and the next morning, I went out at 5 am to catch pokémon. I have allowed myself to obsess about this for the first week, but for the next week I plan to dial it back a little and casually play on my way to and from work, so that I can gradually try and catch ’em all until the next big update comes along. I really want to play more, but at the moment, there isn’t much to the game besides catching pokémon, since the gym battles aren’t very good, no plot (I’d love to go around and battle evil Team Rocket members at various locations), and there isn’t any breeding functionality. I’m excited to see what updates they have planned if they are indeed only 1/10 finished with what they want to do.