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What it’s like to spend the night in a Pokémon hotel room

Oona McGee Sep 4, 2022
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Dreams come true for a Pokémon-loving father his equally obsessed six-year-old daughter.

Just the other day, the daughter of our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun celebrated her sixth birthday. If you’ve been reading our site for a while, you’ll know that P.K. is the most Pokémon-obsessed reporter on our team — even travelling abroad to catch ’em all — and ever since he welcomed his daughter into the world, he’s been sharing his love for the franchise with her, so now she loves Pokémon as well.

▼ She’s so into the anime that when she was learning to cycle, she would say to herself, “Satoshi [or Ash as he’s known overseas] wouldn’t give up!”

So when her sixth birthday rolled around, P.K. knew the best present he could give her — a night at the Pokémon Hotel. To be fair, this would be a present for both of them, seeing as P.K. had always wanted to stay there since he first heard about it in 2019, and he knew nobody other than his daughter who would appreciate it just as much as him.

The Pokémon Hotel is how it’s commonly referred to by fans, but it’s actually a themed room inside seven of the 21 branches of Apartment Hotel Mimaru, which has locations in Tokyo and Kyoto.

The Pokémon rooms are only available as four-person and six-person rooms, so P.K. booked a quadruple room, which cost a little over 30,000 yen (US$216.65) for the night. This was on a weeknight, and with a special “summer discount” applied, so Pokémon stays certainly don’t come cheap, but for a lot of fans, the memory of spending a night in a room like this is priceless.

Would it be good enough to impress his daughter, though? Children have no filter, after all, so she would be able to give us all an honest review of the room.

▼ Both P.K. and his daughter were in high spirits as they opened the door to their own private Poké World…

▼ …and as they made their way down the hall to the main room…

▼ …P.K.’s daughter let out a squeal of delight at the sight of Snorlax.

The giant Snorlax certainly made an impact, but that wasn’t the only Pokémon feature in the room. In fact, the walls were adorned with Poké Balls and pocket monsters, making them feel as if they had stepped into a boundary between real-life and anime.

▼ With Snorlax’s footprints by the bed, it’s as if he’d just been walking around the room!

Apartment Hotel Mimaru is known for its convenient kitchenette-equipped rooms, which make them great for long-term stays, but this particular room felt cosier than the others, with so many Pokémon hanging about to keep you company!

The table and tableware are also decorated with a Poké Ball design, so you can enjoy meals inside the room rather than eating out.

P.K.’s daughter’s eyes were as big as saucers when she saw the table and tableware, but what really filled her with joy was all the character art around the room, a lot of which was cleverly placed near her eye level.

As his daughter ran about the room, greeting all the Pokémon by name, P.K. opened the door to the bathroom and toilet area and found his smile dropping a little. Sure, it was clean and modern, but after all the excitement of the main room, it seemed a little plain by comparison.

▼ Surely they could’ve added at least one Squirtle or Lapras somewhere in the bathroom?

Parents who stay in the room with their children will probably find themselves sleeping in the bunks while the kids take the big bed, as there were absolutely no Pokémon in this area.

▼ C’mon — if you’re not going to add Snorlax to the bunk area at least give ’em a Slakoth!

While P.K. was a little disappointed with these areas, his daughter hadn’t noticed. She was busy throwing herself onto Snorlax’s belly with the momentum of a wrecking ball, wrapping her arms around him and showering him with smooches.

▼ “Can I take him home? Can I take him home? Can I take him home? Can I take him home? Can I take him home?”

Unfortunately, they weren’t allowed to kidnap Snorlax and take him home with them, and after P.K. explained to his daughter that the sleeping Pokémon would be sad if we took him out of this giant Poké Ball they were staying in, she eventually came to terms with it.

▼ When he woke in the morning, though, this is how he found his daughter.

Snorlax was certainly the highlight of his daughter’s Pokémon stay, but she gave everything in the room a big two-thumbs up, and when they closed the door on the Poké Ball, she asked if they could stay there again.

▼ Take a look at P.K.’s quick room tour below:

P.K. will have to work hard if he’s ever going to be able to afford to stay in the Pokémon room again, but given the joy it brought both him and his daughter, he might just consider it for her next birthday. But who knows, maybe by then she’ll have developed a soft spot for Hello Kitty, in which case, he’ll be booking a night in a Hello Kitty room instead!

Related: Apartment Hotel Mimaru Pokémon Rooms
Photos © SoraNews24 ©2022 Pokemon ©1995-2022 Nintendo/Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc.
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