If you’re a fan of Nintendo or Pokémon, or maybe even both, Kyoto has everything you could ever want.
As someone who is a massive fan of both, I was not expecting to see that much merchandise for the two companies in the city of Kyoto. However, to my surprise, there was both an official Pokémon and Nintendo store very close by our hotel.
Let me start by saying that in all of the cities I visited in Japan, going to both of these stores was one of my highest priorities. For example, I’ve gone to three different Pokémon centers: Shibuya, Kyoto, and Osaka. Having been to all three of these, I can easily say the Kyoto one was the best one and such a joy to experience.
The Tokyo and Osaka Pokémon centers were big but very busy, and lots of items would sell out very fast. If there’s any specific Pokémon pal that you’re seeking, chances are, you probably won’t find it, and you just have to work with what they still have available. For me, personally, this is what I experienced.
In Kyoto, upon walking into the center, I immediately found merchandise of the exact Pokémon I was looking for and lots of it. Not only that, but it was very easy to find considering it wasn’t even that busy compared to the other ones. In the busier Pokémon stores, I found it hard to even just walk around and was constantly rushing to get items I wanted. Even just trying to buy a single, small item took what felt like hours because of the long lines.
Just to reiterate, the Kyoto Pokémon center had merchandise the other two didn’t have and had far fewer people to try to navigate through. With the added bonus of smaller crowds, the lines to pay were not very long at all, which was not the case in its counterparts.
While the Kyoto Pokémon center was amazing, for me, it had some competition with the Kyoto Nintendo store. It only makes sense that the Nintendo store, specifically in Kyoto, is an overwhelmingly fun experience because Nintendo was founded in Kyoto. This was something I learned while being there, and I found it to be a very interesting piece of information.
The company of Nintendo was founded in Kyoto in 1889 and was where their first headquarters was located. Long before Nintendo created games, they were making hanafuda cards (Japanese for flower cards, a type of card game) for their business in a small building that is being used as a hotel in Kyoto now.
To the same point as the aforementioned Pokémon center, the Kyoto Nintendo store was bigger and had far fewer people. It had everything the Shibuya one had to offer and even more, even making items far easier to find and the store easier to navigate. There were still many people, but nowhere close to the amount in the far busier stores so walking around was very simple to do.
Considering all of this, I was already having a great time in the store, but it had even more to offer that I had not known about. There was an additional floor where you could go to the roof and take some exclusive pictures with a large statue of Mario on a flagpole. When I entered the bottom level of the mall that includes the Nintendo Store, there was a huge statue of Mario’s head coming out of a pipe.
In my experience, the Kyoto store offered fewer people, more items and lots of photo opportunities. It had completely surpassed my expectations of both the previous store and my preconceived notions before entering.
The same could be said for the Pokémon center, so I would highly recommend visiting both as they’re nearby each other.
Being a fan of these massive series and visiting would feel like a dream come true. Even if you’re not that much of a fan, I promise you’ll be surprised about how much fun you could have as well.
