Pokémon Go Week: Seoul

Recently, Seoul had its very own Pokémon Go event! While there have been other related events before, Pokémon GO Week was the first official event held here. Actually, it was just part of the larger 2 week Pokémon Festa event in Korea, which included Pikachu parades,  pop-up shops, card tournaments and stamp rallies to promote the new movie.

Of course, I was all over this! In game, we got an insane amount of rare Pokémon spawning all over Seoul which included Lapras, Chansey, Snorlax, Mareep, Larvitar and the starters. I even snagged myself a few Shiny Pikachu. They also brought back legendary bird raids, which was totally awesome! To top it all off, Unown and Mr. Mime also payed us a visit. These only spawned at the Lotte World Mall, but they spawned at an alarmingly high rate so it was definitely worth the trip.

As I mentioned, the event also included adorable Pikachu parades (followed by hoards of people) and 2 different pop-up shops. Unlike other Pokémon pop-up stores here in Korea, these were filled with official Pokémon Center items from Japan!!! I really didn’t want to wait in the insanely long lines, especially since I visited the Pokémon Center in Tokyo not too long ago. Unfortunately my will is weak and I saw a special edition Halloween Mimikyu that I simply HAD TO HAVE. So yes, I waited in the long lines.

I also participated in one of the stamp rallies that sent us all over the mall in search of 8 stamp stations. Once we filled up our stamp sheet, we had a shot at winning some cool Pokémon prizes. Much to you disappointment, uur prizes were wildly underwhelming considering how long it took us to complete the mission. On the upside, I did happen to get a free shiny Pikachu playing card along the way, so all was not lost.

All in all it was a pretty fun event and a good chance to be gathered with all the other Pokénerds across the country. I know a lot of people made the trip to Seoul from other parts of Korea to spend the weekend getting their Pokémon Go on. It’s crazy, but also kind of awesome. Those are definitely my kind of people. Would you make the trip?