Pokémon Center Nagoya — Attraction in Nagoya

This Pokemon Center refurbished a few weeks/months ago and I think due to all the social media attention, it has been overrun.

From what I gathered in previous reviews, I prepared myself for stress and disappointment. Both were in the end result. Here is my survival story...

We arrived at the store around 9:30am. There was a small note on the window (only in Japanese) saying that there would be timed entry tickets handed out on that day. It showed a location, but when you went to that spot, nobody was there... We decided to wait to enter and see what would happen. Once the doors opened and we went up the escalator, a line started forming at the top, so we stayed in it. Turns out it was the line to obtain a timed entry ticket. The ticket was for 13-13:30. So we left again to quickly squeeze in a visit to the castle before coming back.

We made it back in time to enter, but the crowd there was still insane. You get rushed through the main entrance and passed the new display with the animatronics and video playing (the best and most unique part). They do not let you back in there to take pictures, even when that line is empty.

In the store, multiple shelves were (half) empty already. And the line for check-out warped throughout the entire store. On top of that, there was an event right when we were there with 3 starters in costume doing a dance. It was cute, but the little area could not accommodate for the amount of people. It felt suffocating. We stood in line for 40 minutes to pay even though there were 10 checkouts open. It goes immensely slow.

This was our ninth (?) Pokémon Center we visited and I can't say this visit was an...

It is located on the second floor of the Parco mall. I visited around 5 pm, and It was super packed. They had a large area in front of the main display screen to queue people to wait before entering. I waited about 5 mins before they let us in. The main display was definitely the most unique thing. Sadly, other than the queue time, not much time to watch it.

Inside was super packed. Had to squeeze by people to walk around. There's not much to see after the front display. There are little statues throughout the store for pictures. The biggest being by the plushies.

Item stock was decent, and there were employees restocking shelves to keep up as best they could.

Checkout was insane, I got in line with about 8 people in front of me to just enter the roped off line. They just started lining people up into other areas of the store with a lady holding the "end of the line" sign. The line was blocking access to some items like stationary and pins. As I got closer to the register area, I could see the line had gone far into the store. I couldn't even see the lady with the end of the line sign.

I waited in line for about 15 mins before I got to the register. 10 out of 12 registers were open. Definitely recommend having payment ready so the line moves faster for everyone else. Have your passport ready if you want tax free as well. A lot of people got held up by this.

This is the second pokemon center I've visited, and other than being overly packed with people, it's a nice...

A friendly place where they have a lot of Pokémon merchandise I would not be able to find in the Pokémon Center(aka Nintendo World)in New York.

There were a few event themed merchandise like Halloween, Pikachu ♡ Eevee, and one I am not sure about where everything had a drawing of Ash/Red running with Pikachu with a white background. I think it was by a special artist.

There is so much stuff like plushies, stationary, snacks, games, stickers, keychains, pins, night lights, clothing, some figures, etc.

Sadly the live events with giant Eevees and such were all happening right before I came to visit and after I am leaving. There was a large open space whre they had a large screen similar to the one in New York to hold the event.

There were tables set with the upcoming release of Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee.

I wanted to buy a Nagoya only Pokémon item and a gentleman working there was able to undertand what I was trying to ask for and showed me where to look.

I wanted to try out an arcade game that I had not seen before where it dispensed some QR code cards with Pokémon on them. One of the ladies working there was able to help me understand the game. I ended up collecting all Eevee cards as souvenirs.

Everyone was friendly and the store had a nice happy feeling to it. I even forgot my umbrella and the same lady found me and returned it right before I had left the building!

Thank you for the wonderful experience in the Nagoya...