Ten Essential Excuses to visit Pokemon World on New Years Eve

5 min readApr 6, 2018

It was my goal to visit Pokemon World on New Years Eve during our trip to Tokyo Japan in 2014.

Why? You might be asking — what’s so special about Pokemon World?

1. A Childhood Re-lived

Like a lot of kids, I spent a lot (too much) time playing Pokemon games. Visiting Pokemon World on News Year Eve in Japan, was a homage to that part of my life. Similar to our first ride on the Shinkansen and it’s familiarity to first playing with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Initially it seemed straightforward, we found it on Google and headed towards it on route to Tokyo Tower. It turns out this store had shut recently. Here’s a a picture of me standing outside.

You are probably thinking, he looks pretty happy with himself. I was, you would even be forgiven for thinking i’d taken my trousers off as some form of celebration. Thankfully I hadn’t, they are just beige.

Nevertheless, the fact that we didn’t get to go inside left me feeling a little frustrated.

2. Tokyo Tower

So we headed off to Tokyo Tower, had an amazing experience travelling to the top.

Here’s Hannah being a tourist outside:

In the Lift on our way up

The View All the Way Down

3. Tokyo Sky Tree

Naturally, that wasn’t enough. We decided a trip to Tokyo Sky Tree the tallest tower in Japan had to be visited, so off we went.

Here we are, posing for a highly unflattering selfie.

We actually had a bit of time before we were booked to go up the Tokyo Sky Tree, so we went exploring the local area of Asakusa and the beautiful market and temple there.

4. Asakusa

Hannah, on entry to Asakusa Market

We spent a good few hours enjoying this bustling area, picking up a few souvenirs and visiting the temple there. A very special place.

We then headed back to the SkyTree and took the lift all the way to the top.

We were lucky enough to see the Tokyo landscape just before and after sunset, making for the ultimate experience.

5. Sky Tree Sun Set

View Just Before Sunset

6. Sky Tree View of Tokyo at Night

Hannah Sky Gazing from the Sky Tree at Night

Not bad so far for a New Years Eve in Tokyo. But what about Pokemon World?

By this point Hannah’s feet were ready to give up, and to be honest I was pretty tired.

But when would I ever get the chance to visit Pokemon World on New Years in Japan again?

So the search must go on.

Get on the Tokyo subway, go to the station where Pokemon World supposedly was.

It’s 7pm and Google is telling you the store is closing at 8pm.

Plenty of time it would seem, but suddenly navigation skills let us down. The severity of the situation escalates as it seems my dreams may be shattered.

But no. Despite initial signs of me admitting defeat, Hannah isn’t having it. She hasn’t gone on this wild goose chase for nothing. We press on until….

7. We made it Pokemon World on New Years Eve!!

It was a long journey, and as you can see from the bottle of water in my hand hydration was key at this stage.

Inside Pokemon World

I remember Hannah saying “We have travelled all this way, you are buying something” after it initially seemed I wasn’t bothered about buying something.

I bought a few souvenirs, a Pokemon rice bowl, a spoon and a set of Venasaur Chopstix.

“Adultish” gifts, none of these plush toys pictured here:

8. KFC on New Years Eve

Well that was amazing and to celebrate we treated ourselves to a KFC. Traditional Tokyo Cuisine.

9. Silly Selfie on Shibuya Crossing

A great New Years Eve right? Well after that we headed to Shibuya Crossing to see the new year in:

Turns out they weren’t allowing any New Years celebrations there, due to potential danger involving mass crowds following an incident in Shanghai China the year before.

10. Tokyo Traditions

So we set off towards a temple close to our hotel to bring in the New Year in traditional Japanese fashion. We waited in line for 3 hours in the freezing cold, to ring the bell and pay our respects for the New Year.

We were VERY tired by this point