To commemorate the renewal of Pokémon Center Tohoku, Pokémon Center Fukuoka and Pokémon Center Hiroshima, TPC will be releasing special boxes with an exclusive Pikachu promo per Center
Those look pretty cool! Is there any way for an unconnected foreigner to obtain one outside of the secondary market? I’m completely ignorant to how these exclusives work
Unfortunately for now no. Pokemon center in Japan changed the way lottery applications work with the applicant needing a Japanese mobile number as a way to 2 factor authentication. Which means almost all foreign applications for lottery are not possible since having a mobile number requires you to have an address in Japan I believe. So secondary market is the only way to get these lottery products in hand.
Buy a JP SIM card with call functionality. The kicker is that you have to physically fly to Japan and do the Pokemon Center JP account activation while you are there with your JP number or it will not work. Once that’s done, you can enter lottos from the comfort of your own home.
I should mention that despite these special boxes being locally restricted to Japan, they are a much lower entry point than the last Pokémon Center Japan opening. Kanazawa Pokémon Center Commemorative box retailed at 4,640 yen with 19 booster packs, sleeves and 3 mirror foil promos. These boxes have only 1 promo, sleeves and a deck box
I have been to all of these three Pokemon Centers in the past few years, would have wished that those cards were released while I was there.
Japanese Pokemon Center exclusive Promos are really amazing cards. Just judging by the card artwork, I like the Hiroshimas Pikachu the most. However, in general the best artwork is the box design of Fukuokas Pikachu.
They removed Victini and Latias from the card art since they’re Pikachu-focused promos. They probably couldn’t do the same with red Gyarados because Pikachu’s body wasn’t drawn but hidden behind it, REOspikee made it inclusive so instead it’s just cropped. Her commission is better suited for the sleeves
