Japan Trip 2025 
At the end of 2025, I went for a trip to Japan! It was my first and I can already say definitely not the last time over there. We visited Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and took several day-trips to the lakes, Mt. Fuji and a few villages.
Since one of my main goals was also visiting as many Pokémon Centers as I could and trying to buy some things for my collection, I decided to share my experience in a new post here. I hope you enjoy the pictures!
1) Tokyo
In Tokyo, there are four main centers and I was lucky enough to have visited all of them, on four different days. Tokyo itself is a place from a different universe. Every evening after closing my eyes, I could see the blinking store shields and Japanese letters everywhere.
1.1) Pokémon Center Shibuya
This one was the first ever center we visited. I don’t know why but I always imagined those stores to be ultra-themed with crazy decorations. More like a theme park or like what McDonalds used to be in the 90s. What I saw was this dark toned store with shelves full of Pokémon merch. It was still a damn official Pokémon store (my inner child was happy to the moon) but the overall vibe was rather generic. But given the “birth of Mewtwo” statue and the lore surrounding this very pose, I guess the theme of this store made sense to be a bit darker.
One cool thing specifically for this center was this original signature of Ken Sigimori on the other side of the “Pokémon Center” banner that you could see from outside the store.
Since Shibuya is considered to be the busiest and most famous crossing in the world (also iconic from the Tokyo Drift movie), this store was quite full and the queues were at least 30 minutes long.
1.2) Pokémon Center TOKYO DX
The second store we visited in Tokyo had a completely different vibe than the first one. This one had Snorlax as the welcoming statue and was way more chill than the one at Shibuya. I would say the main theme for this store was the plushies and I really liked this one a lot more than the previous one.
The plushies were everywhere and I got two from here (Venusaur and Squirtle). I also wanted to buy Blastoise but for some reason, we couldn’t find it anywhere, not in a single store.
1.3) Pokémon Center SKYTREE Town
Before going up the Skytree, we made a quick stop at the shopping center next to it. This one had Rayquaza as the welcome statue and was once again a chill visit without any queues.
At all the stores, they had these B-Side Label stickers which were absolutely gorgeous. You could buy all 151 species with ONE exception and that was again Blastoise. This one had apparently been discontinued a couple years back. I love these stickers so much.
1.4) Pokémon Center MEGA Tokyo
And the biggest one of them all was, as the name suggests, the MEGA center. This one even had some decorations in front of the store and throughout the entire shopping mall. In this center, there was not only a queue at the check-in counter but also at the entrance. Both were maybe like 20-30 minutes first to get inside and then to pay for things.
The entire floor was filled with Pokémon wall-arts like the ones here.
We went to this mega center on our very last day before flying back home so we left the biggest purchase for here. By the end of the trip, we could better evaluate the remaining space in our luggage and knew how much more we could buy.
Next to the store itself, there was also an official Pokémon café called Pikachu Sweets.
2) Osaka
After taking the bullet train from Tokyo, our next stop was Osaka with two centers, one in Umeda and one in Shinsaibashi. Osaka had rather an alternative vibe, something completely different from Tokyo. It reminded me a bit of Berlin.
2.1) Pokémon Center Osaka (Umeda)
Besides the welcoming statues in all the stores, another cool thing was the unique Pikachu plushies. The one in Osaka had this cute christmassy dress.
2.2) Pokémon Center Osaka DX (Shinsaibashi)
The center in Shinsaibashi had probably the most memorable welcome statues we had seen. Standing next to the legendary birds felt like being next to the real creatures.
And like Tokyo, Osaka also had its own Pokémon Café. We tried to get in but it was impossible without a booking well in advance. Next time we definitely want to get in for the experience.
3) Kyoto
Kyoto was full of temples compared to Tokyo and Osaka and probably my most favourite city out of the three. Kyoto only had one center with Lugia and Hooh.
3.1) Pokémon Center Kyoto
By the time we got to Kyoto, we had already seen all the merchandise a thousand times so we just went there to tick it off the list. The theme for Pikachu here was traditional geisha-clothes.
4) Merch from the centers
Shopping for Pokémon stuff was certainly an experience. If I had unlimited money, I would buy everything. Especially the plushies and the stickers. They were so cute. Besides the centers, we also went shopping into other stores like Don Quijote (don don don donkiiii).
As for the plushies, I already had the Oddish that was also assisting with a couple of cards in my recent purchases, so I thought it could finally evolve into Vileplume. These are high quality, you can truly feel they are an official merch, even something like the Venusaur which is quite complex in its nature. On the right, there are some candies and sleeping powder I think. That’s the one with Charizard, I just liked the box so I grabbed it too.
Some very nice birthday wishes on the left and two soft reusable shopping bags on the right. I already know I will never go shopping with them but I can at least hang them on the wall. I pretty much went on a shopping spree and took what I liked without much thinking.
Here are two card stands and chopsticks. The stands are something I know I will actually use. The red one already holds a non-holo Neo Discovery Espeon which was my first ever pull from a Gen 2 booster pack that I got from my Mom.
And lastly, cool keychains and an amulet with Gengar. Aaaand the stickers, I just couldn’t get enough of them.
Here is everything Pokémon related that I brought home from Japan. There are also some more stickers, pens, pika-hat and a pokéball from a vending machine. I also brought a Super Mario hat (on the very left) and can’t wait to wear it in the summer at festivals.
5) Japanese Card Hunting
This deserves a chapter on its own because card hunting in Japan probably sounds like a lot of fun but was actually quite underwhelming. All the cards were way more expensive than on ebay since the store owners were very much aware of how much cash tourists were willing to drop. It was still cool to browse the stores and see so many vintage cards in one place.
The selection was large and they also often had rare cards on display like these shinings and masakis.
Some e-series, crystals, old-back promos and set holos.
One card that I was really happy to see was this Natta Wake Pikachu that I already have in my collection. It blew my mind how much the price has increased. I would have never been able to pay half-a-freakin-million yen for this card again.
6) Travel Pictures from Japan
Besides everything Pokémon related, Japan has so much more to offer. The cities, temples and the unique culture is definitely something to explore. And of course the autumn trees… They were so gorgeous.
In December, it was still relatively warm like around 15C (59F) except maybe for one or two days. When I go back next time, I would like to see the spring blossoms and Mt. Fuji again without the clouds.
Arigato gozaimasu for stopping by and hope you enjoyed the pictures!
is always the highlight for everyone involved haha!
Thanks again for stopping by!
