The Poke Lid trend continues to be strong in Japan, and four more of the colorful Pokemon-inspired manholes and related Pokemon Go Pokestops have been installed.
If you're unfamiliar with Poke Lids, they're beautiful enameled manhole covers installed in various Japanese locations, decorated with various Pokemon often associated with that city or region. The trend started in December 2018 when the first featuring Eevee was installed in Ibusuki, Kagoshima Prefecture.
The four new Poke Lids have been installed in the city of Shimonoseki and they're the first in Yamaguchi Prefecture. They feature a rather interesting choice of Pokemon, the first portrays Koffing, the second features Ekans, the third portrays Qwilfish and Chinchou, and the fourth features Empoleon and Wailmer.
The two featuring aquatic Pokemon are inspired by Shimonseki's nature as a sea city, while the Poke Lids portraying Ekans and Koffing are inspired by the iconic Team Rocket duo Jessie/Musashi and James/Kojiro from the original Pokemon anime. That's certainly an interesting choice.
The lids were unveiled this morning during a ceremony at Shimonoseki's city hall presented by Mayor Shintaro Maeda himself and the inevitable Pikachu mascot. Maeda-san mentioned that he hopes that many fans of the franchise will come to see the new manhole covers, part of the effort to revitalize the city's tourism industry.
This brings the total of Poke Lids installed in Japan to a whopping 287, distributed among 28 prefectures. Each also marks the location of a Pokestop compatible with Pokemon GO.
This kind of initiative shouldn't be surprising considering the massive popularity of the franchise in Japan, with the cute critters appearing pretty much everywhere, including airliners.
In the meanwhile, if you're more interested in console games, Pokemon Scarlet & Violet is currently available exclusively for Nintendo Switch. It'll soon receive a new update that will hopefully fix its many glitches and bugs.
