I Visited Pokémon’s Real World Johto Region

I Visited Pokémon’s Real World Johto Region

Have you ever thought about what the cities in 
Pokémon look like in real-life? If you were a trainer on your own adventure, what kind of 
things would you see? What would you eat? Half a year ago, I took on one of the 
dumbest challenges of my life. I wanted to become a real-world Pokémon master, 
which meant taking a roadtrip to all of the real-world equivalents of Pokémon cities 
and enjoying specialty dishes. And, I did it. I conquered the real-world Kanto region. I’m truly 
the one and only, Pokémon master. At me, Wolfey. But, it wasn’t enough. Nuh-uh! If 
I’m gonna be a true Pokémon master, I must hit every region, so 
my logical conclusion brings me to this video! This monster of a 
project. It’s time to take on Johto. To give a quick recap of my challenge’s rules:
There are eight badges in Johto. I have to go to the real-world equivalent of the 
town/cities where you get the badges in the game. For example: Goldenrod is likely based 
on Osaka, so I gotta go to Osaka. I must eat a specialty dish from each town or 
city, which essentially earns me the badge. And, the most important rule of the challenge, I 
can’t do it alone. A Pokémon trainer, especially the hero, needs traveling companions. 
I’m bringing along my best friends, who have been featured in other videos on this 
channel, including my Kanto gym badge adventure. Now, I don’t want to waste any more 
of your time with explanations, so let’s get into my Johto Journeys.
Unlike my Kanto video, which I recommend you watch after this one, we decided to complete our 
Johto challenge over four days instead of three. This would give us plenty of time to complete 
the challenge and do some sightseeing. So, I had to pack for quite the trip.
“So, I got like ten pairs of underwear, because you never know when travel-butt will 
strike. And, I also got Pokémon Center socks, because I want to be comfy. Let’s go.”
Another way that this video will be different when compared to the other one, we actually 
planned everything out. Mostly. Instead of spending three hours getting drunk and planning a 
trip, we had multiple meetings, without alcohol, and planned the trip. It was dreadful.
With that KC and I were off to Kansai. “It’s just gonna be me and 
you for the next 8 hours. It’d be a good chance to-
Talk until my voice gets shot? Oh, of all the times I thought 
you were gonna say “kiss a bro.” Hah!”
The drive from Fukuoka to Kanto was 13 hours. The drive to Kansai was only 8, which is 
considerably easier, but one thing different about this trip is KC, my Brock, can’t legally drive in 
Japan. And, for the time being, it was only the two of us. Our Misty, Alex…well… she was busy.
And, Maaka, the Pikachu of the group, she unfortunately wouldn’t be joining us. 
She moved to Malaysia to do volunteer work, or something. We’re not quite sure.
So, the first eight hours, it was only KC and I, and before we knew it, we arrived near Osaka.
“Alright, so we are in Kansai. So close to Osaka, but because we left the house super 
early, way too early-dropped my phone- Alex doesn’t get to the 
airport for another 2, 3 hours? Yep.
So, we got time to kill. By that, I mean we’re going to sleep. Two 
bros in a car sleeping it away. Sleeping away. We’ll start recording again when 
we go to the “library”-is the wrong word. Airport! You looked at-you looked as 
though-like-I did not say the wrong thing. Yeah, we’re going to the 
library. That sounds right. We’re tired.
We are very tired.” So, we didn’t get any sleep. Almost 
immediately after I turned off the camera, a nearby car alarm started going off, and 
for the first time in my life, I heard KC get genuinely angry. It was hilarious.
We picked up Alex at the airport, and our threesome was complete, which meant it was 
time to really start our Pokémon adventure. And, you can’t have a Pokémon adventure without going 
to the Pokémon Center. In Osaka, there are two Pokémon Centers. We chose to go to the Pokémon 
Center DX, because it has a Café… which you need a reservation for… which we didn’t have. Oops.
I was expecting this Pokémon Center to be huge, and I think it was a pretty good size. It has 
everything all of the other Pokémon Centers have, and even an interactive Pokédex wall. We spent 
a lot of time touching this wall. Unfortunately, there weren’t any exclusive Osaka DX merchandise 
at this time. From the sounds of it, they had something but it was sold out. So, I decided 
to look for items with a Johto theme! There are special plushies of all the starters, so 
I picked up Chikorita, who is always my main choice when it comes to Johto. I wanted to show 
my love for Chikorita on this Johto-themed trip. I found this cup with Umbreon on it, who is 
sort of the 1B to Wooper’s 1A on my favorite Pokémon ranking. But, what made me decide to buy 
it was its Japanese name, Blacky. I…I just think this is really funny. And, one thing I find 
even funnier about it, is that sometimes on official Pokémon merch, it’s spelled like this 
and other times, it’s spelled like this. You’d expect some kind of consistency from the biggest 
franchise in the world, but it’s understandable. I just love everything about Umbreon, from 
its design to its questionable Japanese name. I also got this tiny spoon and fork set with 
Wooper on them. They’re probably intended for babies, but it’s okay. I’m a 6’ 2” heavyweight pro 
wrestler with tiny girl hands. And size doesn’t matter little Woop spoon. I’ll find a use for you.
And the last notable thing I picked up was this special coin that all of the Pokémon 
Centers have. You put in two hundred yen, and you can get a specialized bronze coin with 
the Pokémon Center’s logo and mascot on it. This was the only special item I could have 
gotten from this location at the time. Also, Alex bought a Mantine plush and KC got socks. I 
can’t blame him. Pokémon Center socks are goated. I really enjoyed this Pokémon Center and answering 
all of KC and Alex’s questions about the lore, but I really wish we would have made a reservation 
for the cafe. I think the cafe is what’s supposed to make it DX, because other than that, 
it wasn’t necessarily special. You have to reserve it well in advance. The cracks in 
our well-planned trip were beginning to show. But, this slight set-back wasn’t gonna 
stop us from getting our first gym badge! There were three main options in Osaka waiting 
for us: Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, or Kushikatsu. The okonomiyaki in Hiroshima is in my top three 
favorite Japanese dishes. The okonomiyaki in Osaka is in my top five least favorite dishes, so 
I’d rather avoid it. I also don’t like takoyaki. Never have. Its texture is really uncomfortable. 
Gooey but chewy. Kushikatsu is amazing, but it’s mostly a night time food, so finding it in the 
morning would likely be improbable. Ultimately, we went with takoyaki, because it’s everywhere, 
we could share it, and it’s a light meal. Takoyaki, for the uninitiated, is octopus 
balls…not testicles. It’s chopped up octopus bathed in batter and cooked. We found a store 
that had the option to add cheese to it, which we thought would make it tolerable.
“Alright, KC. Alright.
So, our first gym badge. What-what are we looking at here?
So, here we have an Osaka specialty, takoyaki. Takoyaki.
And, it might just look like a piece of bread, but the inside there’s 
a surprise that noboby wants. Inside is octopus. Octopus.
Let’s give a try. Octopus ball, basically.
Oh, it’s hot! Everything you eat, you’re initial 
reaction is always “Ha!” What is your initial taste impression?
My mouth is burning! Yeah, but how does it taste?
I think I’m gonna wait. Me too. Haha
We should have KC eat everything What do you think, KC? You okay?
It’s molten! Open your mouth! Let the steam out!
Ha. I’ll rock two cameras.
Two cameras. Flavor’s good.
Flavor’s good? Sauce is nice.
I’ve neer liked it. I ate it one time. I ate it one time to impress a girl. Oh my god. 
It does feel hot. For the vine! Oh my god! Ha!” We always make fun of KC because he 
often can’t handle the literal heat of a lot of the food we eat. But this-this 
was molten hot. I couldn’t even taste it, because I’m pretty sure my tongue was seared. 
But, hey, it was the best takoyaki I’ve ever had. “I like the mayonnaise.
The mayonnaise and cheese is good, right? That’s good.
Haha It’s hot, right?
The texture’s not bad. Okay. It calmed down. It’s good.
Alex. Oh yeah. Sorry, I’m rockin’ two 
cameras. I can’t eat right now. That’s quite an experience.
It’s good. I can rock the cameras. I know. Your turn, Alex!
Yay. I don’t want to eat it if it’s this hot. Just suffer for a solid ten 
seconds, and that’s all. You suffered the whole time.
Yeah. I’m still suffering. I’m scared. My feet already hurt. 
I don’t want my mouth hurting also. No, it won’t burn you; it’s just gonna hurt really 
bad forever. Alright, Alex. How was your trip to Tokyo?
O. How does it taste?
*overjoyed laughs* That was yummy.
It’s not bad at all. It’s like one of the best ones we’ve ever had.
Yeah. It was really good. But, you know what, Alex?
You did it. You ate food without giving us a headnod.
Gyuh-huh! That hurted.” That was the appropriately painful Plain Badge 
earned. It was time to get a move on and head to Hyogo and our second badge. We were a little bit 
behind schedule, so I wanted to get a move on, but Alex had something else in mind.
“The boys don’t know it, but right now I’m going to get an ice cream. I escaped. 
They’re in the conbini, getting a pee break, and I’m gonna go buy an ice cream.
*rawr* I just saw Free go into the parking garage; 
he doesn’t know where I am. I got it. Subject number one!
What’s up, posers! Oh, you did get ice cream!
Hell yeah, dog. Keepin’ up with tradition.
Cheers! Are you giving him the ice cream? For me?
Looks like-is it like, lemon? Strawberries!”
I’m allergic to strawberries, you psychopath. Hyogo is likely the inspiration for Olivine 
City in the games, and unfortunately the way our day one was scheduled, we didn’t get a 
lot of footage of Hyogo. I couldn’t really discern anything about it that reminded me 
of Olivine City. I was expecting to eat our meal in a port town of sorts, and instead it 
just felt like an extension of Osaka. But, this just means that I have to come back someday 
and look for some connections! I recently went on a lighthouse hunt-that’s right, I like 
lighthouses now-and I think finding lighthouses in Hyogo could make for an interesting video.
Hyogo has one of the most famous foods in all of Japan. I’ve talked about this before, 
but I don’t like steak. I like my meat between two buns or fried, so I can’t see and 
associate it with the animal it once was. But, when you’re in Hyogo, you’re likely in Kobe, and 
when you’re in Kobe, you need to try Kobe beef. I’ve been underwhelmed by famous Japanese 
beef before, so my expectations were tempered. I can’t use a lot of the audio 
from the footage we took in the restaurant, because they were playing One Direction, 
but I think the expressions on our faces might tell you enough about how we felt. This 
was the best steak I’ve ever had. I’m slowly transforming into a steak man, and I hate it.
“Can’t really use any of the audio from the place we were just in. So…
We can recreate it. No.
Give me your quick impressions on the food. Delicious.
You were moved. You almost cried, right? Yeah, I mean. Every time, every time I, like, 
every time we go to a restaurant, and it’s like “we have Kobe beef,” and you eat it, you’re 
like “it’s just meat.” But, like that really was different. Kobe beef in Kobe, like-
Slapped. Crazy.
It did. Absolutely amazing. Alright.
Kobe beef lived up to its name. It did. I was surprised. So, my initial impression 
was it-so we-the takoyaki we’re ranking at the top, because that was the only thing we had. And 
then, as soon as we put-as soon as we had this, it was like, the parameters have 
changed. So, we got some manholes. We love seeing manholes!
I love manholes!” With our Mineral badge collected, it was time to 
go on a little side quest. Were we tired? Yes. Did we have energy for a side quest? Not really. But, 
that didn’t stop us from doing it nonetheless. Our next destination was Tokushima, the real-world 
inspiration for Cianwood City. Tokushima is technically not a part of Kansai. It’s on 
the lower island region called Shikoku. You gotta surf in the games to get to Cianwood, and 
depending on your pathing, you might end up going through the Whirl Islands. Keep that in mind.
We did not need to surf. You can drive to Tokushima from Kobe, and this drive features 
one of the most beautiful bridges I’ve ever seen. Connecting mainland Hyogo to Awaji Island 
is Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the second longest suspension bridge in the world. I was not ready 
for how breathtaking this was, and luckily for me, our side quest took us to an area where we 
could see the bridge in all of its glory. “So, we lost Alex. Genuinely don’t 
know where she disappeared off to. I’m gonna guess ice cream again.
Probably either ice cream or the bathroom. We have this beautiful view.
Wow! Beautiful view of the bridge. And, I’m sorry. 
Bridge boy, not bridge boy. That’s a beautiful bridge right there. I’m almost positive we 
got a manhole right here. It might be-it’s Lugia. It’s one of my favorite legendary Pokémon.”
For those who don’t know, I’ve been using Japan’s Pokémon manholes, or Pokélids, as an excuse to 
travel and make content. To Pokémon-ify this video a little bit more, I decided that we could 
get a look at a few of the manholes in Kansai. Even though I planned the trip, I didn’t 
necessarily look into every single detail of everywhere we went. In fact, I didn’t even look 
at what Pokémon were featured on the manholes, because I wanted to be surprised. I just 
looked up their locations to see if they were findable during our trip. But, as I stood 
above this Lugia manhole, it occurred to me, we were on the Whirl Islands, baby. This was 
not the first time we sort of stumbled across something like this, as we stopped near the 
real-world Lake of Rage in the Kanto video, and it wouldn’t be the only time we stumbled 
on this trip. Once I realized where we were, I got really excited. We had two more manholes 
on this island, and I was giddy to explore. “I think Pokémon cruelty is horrible. 
Good luck out there, and be free!” This little stop was amazing. The bridge was 
amazing, finding one of my favorite legendary Pokémon and doing a headstand next to it was 
amazing, and look, it’s a shirasu ice cream float! “Float that back into the ocean where it belongs.”
The next manhole was about a twenty minute drive away, and I love the general vibe of Awaji Island. 
Discovering this place makes me excited to visit a few more of the nondescript areas in the games. 
There’s not a lot to the Whirl Islands except for, ya know, the whirls. The way this strict father 
character describes it is terrifying. But, Awaji seems like a great place to get away to.
“Awaji Earth Museum. Does it say “AEM?” AEM!
I guess that A.E.M. AEM! I know what this museum is. You walk in and 
there’s just a sign that says “look down.” Oh, dude this place is gorgeous. 
Thank you, Gold and Silver. Read this to me.
Uh, apparently there was some kind of disaster here.
Oh! Oh, that looks so nice!” *CHIHUAHUA DYING*
I’m kind of assuming that Bayleef is on this manhole because it’s a Johto starter. 
Aromatisse, one of my least favorite Pokémon, is likely here because Awaji is kind of known 
as a place of perfume and fragrance. In fact, it’s sort of considered the birthplace of incense 
in Japan. Which, I think is interesting, for a few reasons. It was next to a memorial to the roughly 
5,000 victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. …And why? I don’t-I don’t get its placement. 
In hindsight, I wish we would have had time and energy to go into the museum, but we just 
didn’t really have either. Except for maybe Alex. “Alex, get in the car!
What? Get in the car! I’m tired of your games.
Proud of yourself? RUAHHH!”
We drove about another ten minutes, and we came to a place that looked like a small 
theme park, and we all agreed it looked like an old love hotel. We were at a place called Parchez 
House of Scents, so why was Aromatisse not located here? I don’t know, and I’m getting too worked 
up about it. Cloyster is probably here because divers from Awaji used to dive for pearls. 
There’s also an anecdote of a diver finding a peach-sized pearl in the seabed of the Awaji 
Islands. And, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is also nicknamed the Pearl Bridge. So, there’s a 
lot to work with there. Gastrodon? Well, there’s some land snails that can be found 
on Awaji called Awaji Maimai. Nothing else really shows up on Google.
So, quick editor’s note. As I was writing for the Pokélid shorts that 
will accompany this video, I decided to double check all of my research, and it finally 
occurred to me that Gastrodon is, in fact, not a snail. They are sea slugs. I’m making this 
edit in the final hours of the production of this video, so that’s why it’s like this! Um, so 
yeah. There are plenty of sea slugs on Awaji, so that’s probably why Gastrodon is here. 
Not a snail. Sea slug. Back to the video! “If you ring the bell with your yenni
… true love.”
And just like that, all of Hyogo’s Whirl Island manholes were 
behind us. It was time to head to Tokushima. Now that we had passed into the Tokushima half 
of the real-world Whirl Islands… we had three more Pokélids to find. I genuinely don’t know 
how we were able to make this many stops on day 1. The initial drive kept KC and I 
up, and Alex also was unable to sleep. HEAVY METAL TRUMPET NOISES
But, I think that maybe the lack of sleep had put us into a mood.
“Alright, so we are officially in Tokushima. Where?
Tokushima! Naruto!
Naruto! Naruto, read this to me, Naruto!
Sakura!” This went on, no joke, for three minutes. 
Three of the longest minutes of my life. “What have we learned?
Don’t push buttons. Don’t push buttons. Alright, so now we can 
kind of talk about this. This is Suicune!” This manhole featured Suicune, and I think my 
love for Johto was keeping me going. Seeing Johto Pokémon on the Kansai Pokélids was making 
me a lot more excited than a grown man should be. And, you might be wondering, 
why are you doing headstands? I don’t have a real answer to that 
question. For the Lugia manhole, I thought it’d make for a cool picture with the 
bridge in the background. And then I just decided, on a whim, that I’ll attempt a headstand for 
every Legendary Pokémon. Key word is attempt. Also, I want to jump in here real quick and say, 
if you like me talking about these Pokélids, then consider subscribing! I’m making an entire 
series out of it, so if you like Pokémon and learning about Japan’s history, culture, and 
geography, let me know by subscribing! I’m hoping to get to 3,000 subscribers before the year ends.
The sun was seemingly beginning its descent, and I wanted to get the last two 
manholes before dark, so it was a dash. “Oh, cool!
This only proves my point that I think this is the whirl islands.
So, hey. Yeah! Look at that! You are a Water-type trainer, dude!”
So, I can’t find any information on seahorses in Tokushima or even Japan, besides stuff you 
can already find on Bulbapedia. But, if we look at Kindra’s Pokédex entries, it often mentions 
creating whirlpools. And, you can catch Seadra in the Whirl Islands in the game. So, the connection 
is pretty easy to make. Honestly, I don’t know if I prefer manholes that tie into the games or 
real-world more. I’m more interested in talking about the games but getting to research about 
all of the real-world locations is kind of fun. I thought this was it, but then KC told me we had 
one more to go, and I almost just cancelled it. I was so exhausted and delusional at this point. 
But, had we cancelled, I would have regretted it; we would have ended up skipping one of my favorite 
Pokémon. So, we drove another ten minutes. “What if it’s all the way up the lighthouse?
Oh, that’d be cool! I am not going up the lighthouse.
You can’t go- I think it’s gonna be on the other 
side of this poop-shaped rock. Your poop looks like that?
Sometimes. I think it’s on the other side of the lighthouse.
I think Casey has the map. It’s a giant banana!
I think it’s a boat. A boat right next to the water.
YOU CAN EAT BANANAS NEAR THE WATER! Alright. Oh! It’s a little bit dark. Whoa!
Whirlpool! Poliwhirl.
Whirpool in Naruto. Dude-
Diglett? I dig this.” Oh, this one was good. My favorite Kanto Pokémon 
is Poliwhirl, so I consider this a great find. This is another one that I’m having trouble 
finding a real-world connection to. Mainly because we were in an area called Naruto, and if I 
look up Naruto frogs or tadpoles, some dorky anime for nerds shows up. Pfft. Nerds. You’re getting 
in the way of me researching my Pokémon manholes! There are sweet potatoes called Naruto Kintoki, 
which apparently have a vibrant color. I’m curious to try them. I kind of am assuming 
Diglett is here because if it were real, it could till the land, or something. 
If you’ve ever harvested sweet potatoes, it looks like a herd of Diglett could have 
ravaged it. …What a dorky thing to say out loud. “It’s whirlpool!
Poliwhirl. And his best friend, whirlpool!
Poliwag. And his dad, Poli-wole.
Let’s go. I don’t. I don’t even need- No, what’s his name?
Diglett. No, wait. Who-what’s this one?
Poliwag. Poliwag. Oh, they’re both wags.
Yeah, they’re both wags. I thought there was a medium one.
No, well there is. What’s his name?
Poliwhirl. No. Poliwag.
Poliwhirl. Poliwag. Wag. Diglett. What was the third one?
Poliwrath. And also Politoed. There-there’s a fourth one?!”
“Poor toy. Poor little guy. Straight into the lighthouse! Never seen again.
Now, this way, KC. This way over here. Over here. Oh, so close.
This way right here. Catch, Free!”
The manholes in the Johto region are amazing. Just the six we found on day one were 
some of the best I’ve seen so far. But, for now, our manhole journeys would have to take a break.
We arrived in Tokushima and our first hotel as the sun set. If you look up food in Tokushima, 
the first thing that comes up is ramen. Ramen is the perfect dish after a tiring day, so I was 
looking forward to it when I made the plans, but once I laid in the hotel bed, 
I almost instantly fell asleep. “What are we doing, KC? We’re here.
We are here. I felt like I was the most 
energetic until we were here, and then we got here and Alex was like “Let’s go 
to an onsen.” And I was like “Kill yourself.”” I was stinky. I needed a bath.
“We don’t have to go to the onsen. No, it’s a bit, Alex. Don’t ruin the bit.
Oh.” But, being awake for over 30 hours straight 
wasn’t gonna stop me from getting my Storm Badge.
“Whoa! Okay, so the noodles are-are different.
They look normal, actually. Ramen is short. Let’s take a look here.
It’s solid. I’ll give it a thumbs up. Good stuff! How’s the meat?
Delicious. Doesn’t taste, like, normal like tonkatsu. It has, like, a 
meaty taste but it’s kind of creamy in a way, but I think there’s, like, a sauce. I 
think it’s like the sauce from the meat. So, I got a nice piece of meat 
right here. Let’s give it a try. Meat’s good?
The meat is amazing! Never disappoint. Never disappoint.
It’s a little hot. Noodles are good.” So, I believe this ramen is a pretty good ramen. 
It wasn’t as good as the gao ramen we had in Chiba or nearly as good as the ramen we have in 
Fukuoka, but it’s solid and much better than the pictures made it look. The noodles seemed to be 
slightly cut short, which made it easier to slurp, especially for KC. And the meat had a beef jerky 
sort of taste to it, which I was blown away by. That’s my opinion! However, KC says it’s a very 
average ramen, and Alex was slightly underwhelmed with it. This was one of the only foods we all 
had completely different opinions on. And that’s fine. But, they were wrong, and I was right.
We finished our night with a dip in the onsen, some alcohol, and a special phone call.
“Who are we calling? Hello.
Hello! KC-san!
Yaho, yaho! I think Kansai people, specifically 
people from Osaka, I think their boys are very sexy. Kansai, there is cute 
girl. Tokyo, there is good looking guy. And they also-they just cross the street. No no no 
no green light, just cross-just walk. No no no no no no no no no no caring about cars, just walk.
Open your mouth! Open your mouth!
Drink. Drink. Drink. Drink!” “So, this morning I took a little walk, and I 
found something amazing. Two things I love in this world. Our guest house is literally a stone’s 
throw away from a gay bar, and on top of that an Okinawan gay bar too.
Oh my god. Okinawan themed gay bar?
Okinawan gay bars go hard, dude. That would be amazing. Oh, I 
regret going to sleep last night. I don’t.”
Day two was gonna be interesting. We tried to schedule everything so we wouldn’t be stressed 
about time like we were on the first trip. But, we also added in Pokélid visits, so we always had 
something to do. We were no longer being carried by adrenaline, and we were just plain exhausted. 
Not only that, but KC had kind of a weird aura about him. I couldn’t explain why, so I just 
chalked it up to him being a tired widdle Texan. Our next destination was Wakayama, the real-world 
equivalent of Azalea Town. Cianwood and Azalea aren’t connected in the games, and neither are 
Tokushima or Wakayama, so we got to do one of my favorite things, ride a boat. It was set 
to be a couple of hours, which meant I could transfer day one footage onto my laptop, and we 
could get some sleep. Maybe with some extra rest, we’d all be in a better Pokémon adventure mood!
We woke up with roughly ten minutes to spare, which allowed us to capture some footage of the 
boat and ocean. It was nice, but after getting off the ferry, we were met with a small conundrum.
What were we gonna eat? If you do a little bit of Googlin’, you’ll find 
that one of Wakayama’s famous foods is… fried whale. I’m pretty much okay with trying anything 
once, but I don’t like the moral implications of eating whale, especially on camera. I 
brought up this issue to my Japanese friends, who didn’t quite understand why I was conflicted. 
They’ve had fried whale for school lunch, so is it really all that morally corrupt? Yes, yes it 
is. I then consulted with my traveling partners, and one of them was vehemently against it while 
the other thought it’d be a good idea for the video. To protect them from any sort of internet 
scrutiny, I won’t say who agreed to eating whale, but her name does rhyme with phallix.
While we thought over what to do for our Hive Badge, we decided to go find 
the single Pokélid in Wakayama City. “Alright, here we go!
Wow! You look at your Pokémon, and then you up, and boom. Castle.
Exactly.” So, this manhole has Primarina and Luxray, two 
banger Pokémon. If I had to guess, I’d say that Luxray is here, in this position, because of a 
nearby statue of a tiger. The statue itself is a reference to the castle grounds, which apparently 
looks like a resting tiger from a bird’s eye view. As for Primarina, it’s one of two things! Most 
likely, it’s because of Wakayama’s Marina City. But, also, when I looked up Wakayama mermaids, I 
found this terrifying result. This can be found in Hashimoto City in Wakayama! It’s apparently 
a 1400 hundred year old corpse of a mermaid, or even worse, a 1400 hundred year old corpse 
of a monkey and fish surgically sewn together. Also, there’s this rainbow here because 
Wakayama is well-known for its waterfalls and the rainbows they create. Cute!
There are many more manholes in Wakayama, but for now, we only wanted to get this one. 
We’ve discussed coming back to Kansai and doing specific adventures in each of the individual 
prefectures, and when we come back to Wakayama again, you can bet we’ll be getting all of 
the manholes. And footage of that mermaid. Near this manhole was a food 
stall that said Wakayama mabodofu, so we tried to see if this was some sort of 
specialty, but nothing came up. Regardless, it wasn’t open yet, so we decided to visit 
the surrounding grounds of Wakayama castle. This will definitely be a place we will 
visit again. The grounds were massive, and the castle just seemed so far away. I 
wasn’t prepared for just how big this was gonna be. Haha-that’s what she said… no, she didn’t. 
She never said anything like that. Not to me. Azalea Town is kind of one of the more forgettable 
areas in Gold and Silver, at least for me. Battling a Bug-type gym leader can kind of do 
that. But, I do associate Azalea with the forest, and had we decided to go to all of the manholes, 
we’d be driving through the forest and mountains, so I think Azalea Town does a good job 
at representing Wakayama prefecture. Eventually we wasted enough time and finally 
figured out what we would eat. We decided to go with something simple and light. I chose 
to eat mehari zushi, which is kind of seen as an appetizer, so finding it specifically at any 
given restaurant would be a challenge. Instead, we went to Wakayama station and 
bought it from a small bento store. “Here we go! Mehari-zushi! Mehari-zushi! Let’s 
give this a go. From my memory, this stuff is always pretty good. It’s never something that I’m 
like-I crave it cause I’ve never-I’ve only had it a couple times. I can smell McDonald’s right now.
I literally don’t even know what’s in this. I don’t even know.
It-it’s good. I think it’s good. So, we got a chopstick. Um.
Only one? Look at that! That looks-this looks like, and I 
know I’ve been saying this a lot recently-it’s cause I’m in a mood-it looks like something 
they would eat-like-in Lord of the Rings. Say no.
All right. All right. I swear if it’s hot-
You should have that reaction-like oh hot hot. Here we go.
Eat. It’s a leaf.
Eat. It’s a leaf.
Eat. Yeah, you got to pull it apart. That leaf 
stays where it’s at. Initial impressions? I like it. It tastes very healthy.
It does. This tastes very light. It tastes healthy. It’s satiating as well. 
Yeah. So, it’s one of those things I kind of wish was more of a common-common thing in 
Japan cause it’s solid-like-it’s a solid. It’s good food.
Snap it up. That’s not bad.
Yeah, it just it looks unappetizing and the way- It looks weird.
All right, my turn. Gotta get that mehari-zushi! Sir?
We got two more. Um, you guys are welcome to have these other two.
Oh, thank you.” Yo, what? KC usually would politely argue and 
offer it back to me. Clearly, something was off about him, and I was beginning to feel concerned. 
I wasn’t too concerned, because we were officially halfway done. Working backward from the game, it 
was time for us to go to Nara and get our Zephyr Badge! I had never been to Nara before, so I was 
equal parts excited and absolutely terrified. So, Nara is mostly famous for its 
massive park where you can feed wild deer. Never having experienced it 
before, I was looking forward to it, but on the way to our AirBNB, which was 
right next to the park, there were five more manholes. If you came to this video 
only expecting food, goofs, and gaffs, I’m sorry, bub; we got the ground to look at.
Luckily for us, the manholes were basically all in a straight line, and they led us to 
a pretty cool area. We parked in the middle of them, and walked to the one furthest south.
“So, Casey can’t help but make friends everywhere we go. We are in Ikaruga-Ikaruga town.
Headstand? Ooh! Nope this is not a headstand place. 
Nope. This is Bronzong and Simisear. Is it a bell?
Yep. Look, what is that?
Pokémon.” Gonna be honest, kind of a mid Pokélid. Bronzong 
is probably featured because this area of Nara is famous for its bell tower. This was the first 
hint that we were going somewhere special. Now for Simisear. I’m trying to keep my personal 
opinions on the individual Pokémon to myself and instead look for interesting connections to the 
real-world areas or games. But, Simisear is 100% a Pokémon that would have peaked in high school.
Simisear is likely here because of Nara’s Migawari-Zaru, which are red. Migawari-Zaru 
translates to substitution monkey, and wearing one is said to protect you from 
illness and accidents. It definitely looks like Simisear is suffering from some kind 
of illness and at least three accidents. I don’t like Simisear, never have. It’s the 
weakest link of the three stooges of the Unova region. But, Alex? She took a liking to it.
“It’s one of the most, like, hated Pokémon. Why?
It’s ugly.” And, so would begin one of the longest treks of 
my life. Not because of the walk, no. But because Alex just wouldn’t let the ugly Pokémon debate go.
“Alright, so we’re having a debate right now about the ugliest Pokémon. You looked 
it up-ugliest Pokémon online, right? Yeah! I was just looking at 
some people’s Reddits comments. Alright, so you have Gen One…was Jinx.
I agree. I think Jinx is just a kind of a copout 
thing cause it has the whole-like- I think-I think-
It’s supposed to Harujuku girls. But I think arguably Venusaur is 
an uglier Pokémon. I love Venusaur. I think Venusaur is cute.
Bulbasaur is cute. Venusaur- Venusaur is like a cute little teenager.
No, he’s not! Yeah, he is!
He looks like a fragile old fat man!” KC managed to get us a physical map for the 
manholes, which should have been another hint that we were going somewhere special. All of the 
manholes were within walking distance, and we were at our second manhole in a matter of minutes.
So, we got Growlithe and Bellsprout. This was less of a subtle hint of where we 
were going and more of them beating me over the head. But, I was still clueless.
I think Bellsprout is here because of the Bellsprout Tower in the games. It’s not a place 
you absolutely have to go to in the original gen 2 games, but it’s mandatory in the remakes. I’m 
surprised I didn’t make this immediate connection, but I think I was enjoying the rapid 
succession of manhole after manhole too much. Don’t take that out of context.
As for Growlithe, I have no clue, but if you look up Nara and dogs, you get 
this image! It’s not as creepy as the mermaid, but it’s just as unsettling!
“Generation 6 was Quilladin. I’m trying to find the p-a picture of 
that though. I want to see for myself. It’s a bowling ball of a Pokémon. 
When you put it, like, in 3D it really is, uh, it’s hard on the eyes.
Let’s see if I can find a 3D picture. Yeah. There’s our manhole boy.”
Our next two manholes were about a five minute walk, and to make things easier 
for us, they were right next to each other. The first was this one, which features Magby 
and Chimeco. Chimeco is in reference to the Ofusa Kannon Wind Chime Festival, which takes 
place right down the road from this location. For Magby, I struggled to find some kind of 
reason. Moon’s Pokédex entry states A famous potter lives with a Magby. Apparently 
its soft flames produce fine works. And, sure enough, there is a Nara Craft Museum, 
so maybe there’s a connection there. But, Magby and maybe Growlithe, might just be 
here because of the Omizutori Fire Festival. I should also tell you that a lot of what I’m 
saying about these Pokémon and how they relate is just speculation. Some of it is good speculation, 
but Growlithe and Magby have me doubting myself. And right across the street was the other manhole, 
which had Deerling and Fletchinder. Deerling is an obvious choice, because of Nara’s Deer Park. 
Fletchinder is likely based on the Japanese Robin, which just so happens to be the prefectural 
bird of Nara. Easy connections here. On our way to the next manhole, Alex continued to 
talk about the ugly Pokémon debate, and I told her about Mimikyu and its backstory, and she cried.
“Alex and I have been debating-like-ugly Pokémon this entire time, not paying attention. And 
KC, he just casually is like “There it is.”” And then, we found the fifth and final manhole, 
Entei! It was around this time I realized that the legendary beasts were likely scattered because 
they’re roaming legendaries. I kind of like that concept. It makes sense that Lugia would be at the 
Whirl Islands and Entei, Suicune, and Raikou would be scattered around different parts of Kansai.
“Dude it’s-it’s focusing on your ass right now. I got a nice ass.
Can you see my balls? Oh god! Exhausting!
I can’t do it right now. Oh my god. Kind of worked?
Did it look cool?” With Entei and a perfect headstand out of 
the way, the bulk of the manholes for this video were finished. I don’t want to 
take away from the gym badge concept of this video too much, so I’m trying to 
keep the manhole discussion to a minimum. “So, it’s Gen 8, right?
They’re saying Mr. Rime is the ugliest. I don’t thin Mr. Rime is the ugliest.
What’d you come up with? I think Impidimp is the ugliest.
Impidimp! He’s a goblin, dude. Impidimp looks like there’s 
some implications around him. The Impidimp-
Implication. That sounds like a Pokémon episode. The Impidimp Implication!”
“Gah! A tree just hit me! A leaf or something. This is a good sign.
Which one?” This area was massive, and it wasn’t until I 
started to replay through the gen 2 games that I finally realized-this pagoda that we didn’t 
pay to go see-that’s likely Bellsprout Tower. That’s why Entei was so close. The Pokélids were 
literally leading us here. Apparently, this is the oldest wooden building in the world, which sounds 
lame when I say it out loud, but I am so friggin’ lame dude. I’m kicking myself, because Nara is one 
of the prefectures we DON’T plan on coming back to visit. We already got all the manholes, so not 
much reason to come back. For Hoenn and Sinnoh, I’m gonna research every little detail. Planning 
out the food, hotels, and routes was not enough. We had enough of the manholes, and I think it 
was time for us to get some food. KC was still being odd, even though this was the perfect 
place for him to geek out at. Was-was he still upset about losing his Magikarp? It’s 
been half a year, dude; get over it already. So, we drove thirty minutes to our AirBNB and 
discussed what we should eat in Nara. KC had an idea that I absolutely hated, and Alex ended up 
finding something on Google that I wasn’t sure fit the challenge, but I was totally in the mood for.
“It’s kind of hard to find a Nara specialty food, and we’ve kind of debated over and over 
again what to do. But for now we looked up, like, sort of famous food in Nara, 
and we found this place right here. Sakura Burger!
It’s called Sakura Burger. They make-like-their own sort of homemade bacon.
Hopefully we’re going to eat something pretty good. We’re recording this outside in the 
event that they’re playing music inside and we can’t record anything. I think after all 
the stress of yesterday and then just kind of all the walking of today, I think what we need 
right now is to get a burger and some beer.” That’s right, we ended up eating at a burger shop. 
This was another place that played copyrighted music, so I can’t use a lot of the audio, but 
I’ll say that after two tiring days of walking, manholes, and driving, it was awesome 
to have a good burger and a beer. But, this was not going to count as our Zephyr 
Badge, as KC’s idea, while a bit stupid, was still doable… kind of.
“We recording? So, the original plan was, we were going to 
get to Nara, and KC this entire trip has been like-well before the trip-was like, “the food we 
eat in Nara should be the deer crackers.” And my initial image was animal crackers. I thought 
that they had like famous animal crackers. I’m not going to lie. As it turns out they are…
They are actual deer crackers for deer. Okay, I was going to say that doesn’t-so you give 
these crackers to deer. And what is it called? Shika senbei.
Shika senbei, which means deer crackers. Oh wow. It’s 
all coming. Uh, we decided to, uh, scratch that idea for a few reasons. Alex is 
afraid of deer, specifically Nara deer, right? I came here a couple years ago, and I bought the 
crackers, and I was feeding them to the deer, and I didn’t feed them fast enough and one of 
them bit me through my jeans and left, like, this big of a bruise that was like dark purple.
But we got lucky cause when we were finishing at the burger shop there were these little 
crackers that were not shika senbei, deer crackers. They were regular…
Ningen senbei! Ningen senbei, which means carrot cracker- oh 
human human crackers. For this first one, janken. Okay.
Saisho-gu, janken-poi! Alright, you get the first one and real quick 
if you could show that off. Yeah, to the best- Saisho-gu, janken-poi!
That’s on you. Now this one doesn’t have a deer on it but it is promo-Oh I realized 
that my balls were showing this entire time. This does have the burger on it.
Sakura Hamburger! And mine just looks like a kind of 
regular nut-looking thing. Yeah. Cheers!
Weeee! Cracker love! Alright.
*CRUNCH* Tastes kind of burnt.
Caramelized sugar taste. His is different.
His is different. His is different!
Wait, wait. I win, guys. This is all a ploy. 
I wanted the one on the bottom His is different! Is ours the same?
I think so. I think so.
I think so. Well, yours might be the best one.
It’s a little bit salty. Mine or yours?
Mine. It has it has, like, a punch to it, whereas yours just 
tastes like a graham cracker-type thing. Yeah. Not bad. I think this is definitely better-
Than the deer crackers. -than what the deer eat.”
We had officially earned five of our eight badges, and most of the maholes 
we planned to find for this video were done. I’d argue that the bulk of the challenge was 
finished. But, I knew something was amiss, because every time I looked at KC, he’d give me a 
thumb’s up. He gave me like, seventy thumb’s up, and it was stressing me out. I tried to ignore it, 
and the three of us finished our night with some alcohol. Little did I know, day 3 would present 
us with our most heart wrenching hardship yet. “You dead?
Should be. Feel like it.” “Hey, KC.
Hello! How do you feel?
I feel very conflicted. It’s day-day, uh…
Day three. Yeah.
So, in my Pokémon adventure, which sometimes happens in Pokémon Adventure, 
one party character leaves, and today that’s gonna be me. So, I got some scary news that 
the significant other might be very sick. So, this was a fun trip. I wish I could have made it 
towards the end but kudos to you, Free and Alex and all the viewers who stuck through it this far. 
Good news is the amount of puns is going to drop by 100% starting today.
Thank god.” So, yeah. We were gonna lose KC. This sucked, 
dude. I tried to find some sort of Pokémon justification in my head, considering the 
fact that Brock leaves momentarily in the anime. However, he’s replaced by charisma 
vacuum, Tracey. We didn’t have a replacement, which is probably for the best.
But, we weren’t gonna lose KC just yet. He had been so excited about seeing the deer in 
Nara, so we decided we’d go first thing in the morning. The night prior, I was relieved because I 
thought we were gonna skip it, but if it was gonna put a smile on KC’s face, then I was willing 
to put aside my fear of wild animals. Alex was not as willing, and for good reason.
“I got three. One for each of us. Why would you do that? I’m not touching those.
You got to bow to it first. They bow. Oh, you got bit.
Oh wait up. Dog. You got to hurry up. It’s going to 
bite you. Hurry up. It’s a boy too. [Fun Music]
Wait up. Go away. [Fun Music]
Alright, now. Piss off. [Fun Music]
No, I’m scared. I don’t want to. [Fun Music]
Bow. Cool. Alright take it. Alright 
cool. They’re gone. No more. Put your hands up. Put your hands up.”
Yeah, so quite frankly, fuck KC. Near this area is a famous buddhist temple with 
a giant buddha statue. It was interesting to see how large and, I guess, uncolorful it 
was. Something about it appeared menacing. Also, there’s a pillar with a hole that junior 
high school students and small elderly women crawl through for good health. I’m neither a 
junior high schooler nor a small elderly woman, but I figured I’d give it a try.
“Ah. I’m screwed, dude. Good, good.
Diagonal.” Welp, I guess that only means bad 
backs and heart disease for life. “Fit check.
Fit check. What you think? …
Can you change the face?” So, that was just straight-up rude. But, you 
know what’s not rude? Buying my new shirt, Tough Guy 64. Designed by UnlikelyYuusha, who 
does all of my graphics for my channel and videos, we finally got some FreeXax merch that you can 
put on your body! If you like it, you can click the link in the description and pick one up. Mine 
has some classic N64 color to it, but you can also get it in sweet monochrome! And, there are also 
some different options for shirt color as well, so you don’t have to limit yourself to just 
one! Buy five, because these trips ain’t cheap! Visit this link or click the link in the 
description! And, if you’ve gotten this far into the video, genuinely thank you 
for watching my content! It means a lot! And, it was finally time to say goodbye to KC.
“Thank you for the Kansai trip. I loved it dearly. You can go.
Have fun. Be safe. See you back in Kyushu. Bye bye, KC.
Now let’s **** talk him.” For many reasons, KC leaving the group 
was really difficult for us. When filming something like this, it’s best to have a lot 
of people filming a lot of different things, so we were one man down. KC was also our navigator.
“Alright, ready for the KC **** talk now? I love KC. Can’t do directions for ****.”
“Where the **** are we? Slow down. Slow slow slow slow. You good. You 
good. You good. I think you’re safe. I think we’re good. Slow. Go real slow. Go real slow.
This has been a disaster.” But, losing our Brock couldn’t stop our journey. 
We still had two days and three badges remaining. The drive to Gifu was our longest drive. 
And we could feel KC’s absence. Originally, we planned on eating Gifu’s special keichan 
chicken. However, we were driving to Gifu City, which apparently just doesn’t have 
keichan chicken. Alex did roughly a three hour Google search to find it and 
nothing. Had we wanted keichan chicken, we would have had to drive another two hours into 
the mountains, and our time at the deer park had kind of used up any and all extra time.
So, I parked at a conbini and did a quick search of my own. It seemed like we had 
one immediate option, kamo-nanban soba, or in English, duck soba. We found a nearby soba 
shop that was closing in 30 minutes, so we dashed. “Oh my gosh. Look! That’s-that’s Oda Nobura or 
whatever his name is. He’s like a war, uh, guy. I don’t-I don’t know enough 
about him. KC, what do you- …
We left KC in Nara.” We made it in time, ordered our 
soba, and we kind of sat in silence. “That is one of the most interesting 
things we’ve gotten so far. It is.
That is insane. So, it’s got the leaks.
Yeah. And it’s got the-I think these are 
Welsh onions. I think is what it is. Welsh onions.
I think so. I’m not 100% sure and this is duck. Okay.
What do you think I should start with? I would start with-
A piece of duck? Yeah, a piece of duck. Cause, like, that’s 
kind of what makes or breaks it, you know? Yeah, so here’s some duck. Grab some noodle.
Yeah, you can hamburger it how you feel. I just got a whiff of it, smells fantastic.
Absolutely delicious. I hated the texture of the duck. It’s like, it’s like, it’s 
like a chewy meat and it’s also like- I’ve heard it was, like, slimy.
It’s not slimy, but it’s like-it’s like you’re eating normal meat-
Mhm. Like-like a normal beef and then all of a 
sudden it’s, like, chewy. It’s like eating, like, like, like cartilage. Broth is scalding.
I’m going to use the noodles to overpower the duck.
Okay. This is pretty good. I don’t-I didn’t have the 
cartilage taste, like the cartilage texture. Okay.
It was getting a little chewy, and I might have panicked, and I just like 
swallowed it, so maybe that’s the way to do it. Be careful. The broth is hot.
Hot. The broth is good. It’s delicious.
Oh my goodness gracious.” My first impression of this dish was…Farfetch’d. 
I feel like it’s pretty common knowledge, but Farfetch’d is probably based on the Japanese 
phrase, Kamo ga negi wo shottekuru, meaning a duck comes bearing spring onions. And well, we were 
eating duck and leek soba. And it was delicious. This was the best soba I’ve ever had. I 
don’t like soba, so the bar is real low, but if every soba dish tasted similar to 
this, I’d be having it way more often. As it turns out, kamo-nanban soba is not 
necessarily a specialty of Gifu. It is a specialty of this store and this store is relatively 
popular. And, there are some articles about Gifu and its soba culture. So, I’m gonna count it, 
because this soba store is in Gifu. I guess the duck was just extra. Hey, I don’t make the rules. 
I want to eventually come back to Gifu with KC, so he can earn his gym badge, which means we 
will eventually drive into the mountains and eat Gifu’s keichan chicken. But, for now, 
this special Gifu store’s special item will serve as our Rising Badge. Seems befitting, 
as this was the hardest badge to figure out. There are a few manholes in Gifu, but we 
didn’t have the time to go out of our way and get them. However, there were 
two on the way to our next Air BNB. So, we got back on the road and drove 
to what looked like a small theme park. It’s not uncommon to find random ferris 
wheels in Japan. Now that I think about it, about half of the videos I’ve done could of 
featured ferris wheels if I didn’t edit them out. We walked around this park for a bit before 
coming across our first Gifu manhole. Of course, the first thing I think of when I see 
Whiscash is the infamous cancelled anime episode. It was cancelled because the episode prominently 
featured earthquakes, and this was right after the 2004 Chuetsu earthquakes. So, I associate 
Whiscash with earthquakes. But, thankfully, it’s not Whiscash because of some tragic 
earthquake that happened in Gifu. It’s Whiscash because we were at the World Freshwater Aquarium 
Aquatotto Gifu. Try saying that three times fast. World Freshwater Aquarium Aquatotto Gifu!
World Freshwater Aquarium Aquatotto Gifu! World Freshwater Aquarium Aquatotto Gifu!
One of the main attractions here is the Mekong giant catfish. And here, I thought Mekong was just 
a song by The Refreshments and a drink mentioned in the song Mekong by The Refreshments. They study 
catfish at this aquarium, so Whiscash is a perfect fit. Barboach is here because it has no friends.
After this, Alex got some ice cream to put herself in a better mood, and we headed toward our 
next manhole. We left the city and ended up…basically in the middle of nowhere.
“Dude, look at those mountains. Get a good shot of those mountains.
Whoa, dog. If you look at the the map, it’s like we are in between two mountains basically. 
It’s-it’s like a town that’s, like, wedged between two mountain ranges. This was the only manhole 
that I thought we were going to be able to get but we were able to manage the other one.
So who are these guys?” This manhole kind of seemed like it was 
put in a completely random location, but when you look at the Pokémon, it should give 
you a good idea of why it’s here. It features Pawniard and Kingambit, so I think it’s obvious.
“Pawniard into Bisharp and then into Kingambit. Oh my god.
Pawniard- It’s chess pieces.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.” If you guessed chess, like Alex, you would be 
very wrong. This Pokélid is located in Sekigahara, and if you say the word Sekigahara, every 
Japanese person associates it with a famous battle that happened over 400 years ago. The 
Battle of Sekigahara was the largest during Japan’s feudal history, and because of its 
importance almost every Japanese person knows of it. Over 30,000 people perished, and as I look 
over the footage of me standing above the manhole, I can’t help but think… “someone probably bled out 
right here.” I think researching into this manhole sort of inspired me to go back and do better 
research on all of the others. It’s so cool to learn Japanese history because of this dumb 
little hobby that’s robbing me of all my savings. Our next location was a place I was 
looking the most forward to. However, our next dish was the one I was least excited for.
Originally, we were gonna do a night barbeque by Lake Biwa-not for the badge, but just for fun.
Lake Biwa is the real-world equivalent to the Lake of Rage, and it’s absolutely 
massive. When we drove from Gifu to our barbequeless campsite, we had to drive 
around the lake, and it took over an hour. For the first video, we had stumbled upon 
Lake Biwa and in an absolute delusional state, we watched the sunrise.
“This bush is in the way, bro.” This time, I hoped we could watch the sunset as 
a group, but it just didn’t work out that way, because when we showed up, it was already 
pitch black, and our request to do the barbeque simply got ignored. We still 
had to eat a specialty dish from Shiga, and when you’re near a lake, it’s likely you’re 
gonna be eating things that come from the lake. So, after getting to our barbequeless campsite, we 
quickly got on the train and made our way into the city. Instead of going to a regular restaurant, 
we ended up at an izakaya. An izakaya that’s specialty was seafood. That’s right, we weren’t 
gonna escape shirasu. This time it was on tofu, which was somehow better than the ice 
cream. But, that wasn’t our gym badge. “This is the stuff that’s famous.
I’m excited. Does it have bones, you think? This is-this is the Kogyo-no-Tempura. 
Fried fish of the lake.” When I saw kogyo no tempura, or fried fish 
of the lake, I knew what our seventh gym badge had to be. We wanted something 
freaky, similar to shirasu ice cream, while on this trip, and consider us freaked.
“See the eyes? You can see the eyes right here. I’m shaking.
It won’t focus on it. Ok.
Yummy? That is actually pretty good.
Woo. But the little-the little bones.
That’s what I did. You can take half bite if you want to. Don’t think about how you 
just ate the whole fish, eyes and everything. Take a second bite.
It was good. We did it.
It was good, but when you said the eye thing, it scared me.
I still have the fish bones in my teeth.” The hardest part about eating any of this was 
looking at it. The sashimi was mostly pretty good and the kogyo no tempura was honestly 
not that bad. Sometimes you can get their minuscule bones caught in your teeth, and that 
sucks, but the flavor and texture wasn’t nearly as bad as something like shirasu ice cream or 
puffer fish testicles. We probably would have preferred another cheeseburger or solid steak, 
but this wasn’t as bad as we thought it’d be. We earned our Glacier Badge, drank 
a lot of alcohol to forget about it, and returned to our barbequeless campsite. 
We had one more day and one more badge left. “Alright Alex. We are day… is today day three 
or day four-day four? It’s day four. How are you feeling?
Yeah! So, we only have one more gym badge left, so then 
the challenge is, like, it’ll be over very soon. And then we got tomorrow too.
Yeah, tomorrow. Tomorrow, I think will be kind of exciting cause we’ve-we’ve talked 
about it where we can either take the IC back, which would be like 8 hours, or we can take kind 
of the long way. And I like the idea of going the long way. What do you think of this place?
Biwako? Yeah.
Beautiful. It’s kind of beautiful. It’s nice.
It’s 100% beautiful. Before we hit Kyoto today we’re going to go do 
one or two things in Shiga, which is where we’re at right now, so. And then we’ll hit Kyoto, eat 
some food, and the challenge will be complete.” Day four was a day with no sense of urgency. When 
I woke up, I went outside, looked at Lake Biwa, and reflected on the trip. It was hard to 
imagine just how much we did in only a few days, and I learned so much about Japan in that time. 
I also got to fulfill a childhood dream of mine by visiting all of these areas. Yeah, it sounds 
like a dorky thing to say, but going to all of the real-world Pokémon locations brings me a 
certain level of happiness and peace that I haven’t achieved by doing… anything else. I 
felt like a real-world Pokémon trainer. And, I only had one more gym badge left until I was 
a real-world Pokémon master, for a second time. But, before that, there was one 
manhole in Shiga I was eager to get. “So, I made the absolute baller call in 
the last video, whenever we saw the Biwako, uh I guess lake? River? No, it’s a lake. That 
this is the basis for the Lake of Rage in Pokémon. Whoa! Oh, it’s a red and blue. 
Okay, cool. Yeah, yes, yes, yes.” That’s right! This is pretty much a given, but the 
Red Gyarados is here because of Lake Biwa. There are four more manholes in Shiga, but I decided 
that we’ll get them some other time. And for this video, there will be no more manholes.
We didn’t have much left to do except get to Kyoto, the real-world Ecruteak 
City, and earn our final badge. Kyoto was surprisingly close to Shiga, and it 
took us less than an hour to get there. Kyoto is an amazing city, and if there’s any Johto 
city that is properly represented in the games, it’s Kyoto. Kyoto is well-known for its 
traditions. Where as Tokyo is seen as sort of the modernized, high-tech city, Kyoto is 
known for its old architecture, easy-going people, and green tea. So, of course, we ate at a Wendy’s. 
But, that’s another story for a different time. No, we decided to stay as close to tradition 
as possible. I joked about eating somewhere like Taco Bell, Denny’s, or a Hooters, but when 
we decided Kyoto would be last, I figured it’d be best to do it properly. Also, there isn’t 
a Taco Bell, Denny’s, or Hooters in Kyoto. So, we drove to a relatively popular 
tourist area, found a shop that specialized in green tea and confectioneries, 
ordered our small meal, and waited. “Sakura mochi, which I assume 
is like a red bean paste. I think so.
Smells good. That was solid. That’s solid. Yeah. Now drink your tea.
What’s the rule? It’s like one, two, three, examine the bowl a little bit…
And then they said that we can eat this. We can eat the leaf.
Eat it. I’m going to pick it up with my hand.
Is there something in it? I think so?
Mochi. Not even gonna…
Oh, yummy. Tastes like a mustard porridge.
I love mochi. You love mochi.
I love bean paste. I have a cat named Mochi. I love mochi.
You have a cat named Bean Paste. I do.
Rest in peace. No, rice cake; his name is Rice Cake. 
Bean paste is different than mochi. No, what I’m saying is you have a 
cat named Bean Paste. Rest in peace. …
You are the king of killing bits. Like, like, you know how, like, in improve you’re supposed to 
be like “yes and?” You are- you are the king of being, like, “no.” And, I’m like “alright.”
I’m confused. Who’s Bean Paste? Your cat that died.
Oh yeah. It’s good. It was good. We got, I think, 
our first genuine Alex headnod of the video, actually. Last gym badge, first genuine headnod. I love bean paste.
I don’t like green tea. You don’t like green tea?
I like hot green tea. I like when it burns you, and this isn’t way too 
hot, so. Alright, let’s get this. Oh yeah and the leaf too. The leaf. That’s the-Yeah.
It doesn’t have-It doesn’t have a mustardy taste in my mind. It’s pickled. 
It has like a pickley taste. Oh yeah. That makes more sense. Yeah 
mustard and pickles that must be the-they’re pretty much the same thing for me, so.
It’s like a pickle-this is delicious. I love pickles, and I love mochi, so.
Okay.” When I studied at Fukuoka University, I was a 
part of the tea club, because I thought it’d be a good cultural experience. But, that was almost 
eight years ago now. I completely forgot how to respectfully drink tea. I am no longer cultured.
With the final drink of our green tea, it was official, we finished our Johto Journey 
and earned all of our gym badges. And, I felt a sense of relief. We had done so much 
in only four days, and I felt it fitting that our last badge, the Fog Badge, was something 
you could drink to relax and wind down. Even though I forgot how to drink tea, it still had 
a soothing effect on me. Our challenge was over. All that was left to do was go back to our 
expensive hotel, which Alex seemed to enjoy. INTENSE PARTY NOISES
And the next day, once we were well rested, we decided to take the long way home!
Sort of. Once it started to rain, we got on the toll roads and drove through 
a thousand tunnels until we were home. This journey had the highest of highs and lowest 
of lows for me. Days one and two was some of the most fun I’ve had in a while. But, losing KC 
halfway through was truly heartbreaking. And, not just that. Originally, this video was 
set to be a five person adventure. Someone couldn’t make it because of money issues. Another 
couldn’t get their schedule figured out in time, so it suddenly became a three person trip.
At the end of the last video, I stated “If you’re gonna do something stupid or crazy, do it 
with the people you love.” And, the entire reason why we did the first video is because I realized 
how important the relationships with the people you love are. One of my best friends passed away, 
and all I want to do now is spend time doing fun, idiotic, stupid things with my best friends. 
Because, you never know. It’s one reason why I was okay with KC leaving, because I could see how 
concerned he was for his partner. As it turns out, it was only the common cold. So, KC got to skip 
out on the more expensive hotels, the really expensive toll roads, and the location for the 
most important battle in feudal Japan’s history. But, it’s okay. He’ll probably buy me a beer.
KC and I pinky promised that we would do Hoenn together. And, I’m hoping for that 
video to at least be a three-person team all the way through. If we’re lucky, four.
A Pokémon Trainer’s journey ain’t supposed to be easy. If it was easy, it wouldn’t 
be worth doing. Alex and I got our gym badges and KC earned himself a Magikarp bottle 
opener. If you made it all the way to the end, thank you! There will be more adventures 
like this to come! Until next time!

Have you ever thought about what the cities in Pokémon look like in real-life? If you were a trainer on your own adventure, what kind of things would you see? What would you eat?
In this four day Pokémon adventure, I travelled to the real-world Johto region. I visited the towns and cities that inspired the Johto region. In each location, my best friends and I ate specialty foods ranging from delicious Kobe beef to questionable fried fish of the lake. Not only that, but we went to Osaka Pokémon Center DX for the first time!
We also visited a few Pokémon manholes (or Pokélids), which helped me to learn about each individual location’s unique culture. Some of these Pokélids featured Pokémon that tie into the Gold, Silver, and Crystal games while others featured creatures related to something more local.
Please enjoy this monster of a project. I have put my heart and soul into this, and with the help of my best friends and internet cohorts, I think I’ve been able to bring you my best YouTube video yet.

Produced by FreeXax
B-Roll Video by Alex and KC
Japanese Translation by FreeXax
Gym Badge Art by Yuusha – https://www.youtube.com/@UCA3LILbqcnWEqLvuLfNxajA
Food Art by Quiah
Map of Japan by Yuusha
Free, KC, Alex Art by Quiah
City Poster Art by Yuusha
Alex Cam by Potomax
Magby’s Pokédex Entry by Calebrated Gamer – https://www.youtube.com/@UC65NfRhyKmT4giplglxvIoA
Thumbnails by Potomax – https://www.youtube.com/@UCc0Bi3T2YnL3vGaYwD5x6dw

Music used (in order)
Explicitly Me – DEC/EMBER – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6o9oKmLhwY
Pokémon Johto (cover) – Chris Allen Hess – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hj3JwL_B8Q
Amen Training Room – Corruption Quest – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rPGDs_D55w
Born To Be a Winner (cover) – Chris Allen Hess – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdci-UVqNp4
Moving Clouds – Kid Korea – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdKTGObmknY
Mekong (cover) – The Junebugs – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw6dnpKnoYY
Steeldrum Eclipse Redux – Kid Korea – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AEbi1mEKpQ
Exhausted Skies – Tamra – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5VSToBr0DE

Special thanks to Patreon backers!
Unlikely Yuusha
Potomax
Corruption Quest
BelleAim

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