Forget spin class – there is now a real-life Pokémon gym
Call your mom and ask her to dig up your old Pokémon cards, because you have some studying to do. You have until November 19 to re-memorize all of your favorite pocket monster’s names, strengths, and weakness. Why November 19? That’s the day the world’s first IRL Pokémon gym is opening in Osaka, Japan. Obviously.
The Pokémon Expo Gym will have activities for kids, adults, and kids who refuse to accept they are adults (me). According to Inside Games, the facility is going to house interactive games that let participants battle and learn new Poké-skills, while also being secretly educational and community building. Even though it won’t have treadmills or stationary bikes, I’m sure the games will get hearts racing and sweat dripping. This place is going to be super high-tech: Instead of collecting tickets (what do you think this is, Chuck E. Cheese?), visitors will be able to download a smartphone app that keeps track of their points and rankings.
Though in the games and TV show Pokémon gyms are a place to train and challenge other trainers to earn badges, Pokémon Expo Gym will offer virtual prizes that will work inside programs like Pokémon X/Y and Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby. Two of the arcade names have been released, and they sound epic: “Charizard’s Battle Colosseum” and “Gardevoir’s Control Score.” Here, Pokémon Gym, let me just give you all my money right here, right now.
Fans still have to wait until November to get inside, but the gym did share some amazing pictures.
This looks just like a fever dream I kept having in fourth grade.
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