Japan once again has a new theme park to make the West green with envy. After the success of Super Nintendo World and the ambitious scale of the upcoming Ghibli Park, you’d think Japan would have nothing left to surprise us with.
You’d be wrong.
Enter Pokémon Wonder, an interactive theme park that’s been built behind another theme park. The park is situated within the 48,000-square-foot forest located behind Tokyo’s largest theme park, Yomiuriland. The forest has reportedly been untouched for the past twenty years, which makes it a great setting for a park that’s more themed around Where’s Waldo? than the Safari Zone.
The park even has its own storyline, in which you or you and a group of friends assume the role of Pokémon researchers helping Professor Creso (and her Pikachu!) track down the Pokémon found within the park.
You’ll even have two different courses to search for Pokémon under a ninety-minute time limit. First is an open, grassy area known as the Ancient Stone Wall, named for the tall, artfully stacked wall of stone that stretches around the area.
Next is the Whispering Bamboo Grove, a dizzying thicket of endless bamboo where untold amounts of Pokémon lie in wait. Will you find them all?
Now, you’d expect a Pokémon theme park to have animatronic or even hologram versions of your favorite pocket monsters, right? Wrong. Continuing with the themes of getting people to be more involved and appreciative of nature, the Pokémon found within Pokémon Wonder take care to blend into their environment. They’re made largely out of natural materials, from wood and leaves to stone. Examples include this carefully carved Rowlett,
This (almost) successfully camouflaged Seedot,
And even this stone-faced Omanyte!
So far there’s no word on what other kinds of Pokémon can be found within the park, but visitors will have plenty of time to find out as the park will be open from July 17th to April 3rd, 2022. Tickets for either course are currently sold out until August 31st, which gives you plenty of time to plan your trip and work on your tracking skills.
Source: Kotaku, Pokémon Wonder Official Site
