Party Of The Decade!

At least, that's what organizers of the Pokemon 10th Anniversary road tour is calling this extravaganza. It was one of those crazy things that I felt I had to experience.

The Party arrived in NYC on Tuesday, setting up in Bryant Park (basically a block away from Times Square). The location offered much juxtapositioning of opposites; it is often frequented by mid-town suits, who were having lunch and working on their laptops around the perimter of the park. On Tuesday, these serious, money-and-status-driven people were upstaged by thousands of kids with Pokemon t-shirts, Pokemon hats, Pokemon backpacks, and Pokemon game machines.

I think New York was the last stop on the tour, and culminated in the National Championship (for the video game, I'm guessing). There were also stations to download characters onto your personal digital device (PDA's, cell phones, etc.), to try out the new game, and to read about Pokemon's history (began in 1996 in Japan, came to North American in 1998). A stage was set up for dance performances, audience contests, video shows, and appearances by real-life manifestations of the various characters.

I took plenty of photos of the uber-silliness, and how could I not, with so much cuteness around?!

A giant flying Pikachu was featured in the last Thanksgiving parade, and he made another appearance at this event:


People were dressed up as Ash, the nurse, Team Rocket, etc, and signed autographs and had their photos taken with and by tonnes of people:


This Pokemon needed a bit of help walking from the dressing tent to the staging area:


Everywhere around the park were placed pokemon sculptures, about 1-2ft. tall. Some pokemon were cooling off in the ornate fountain in this photo:


I hope I didn't come across as scary as these adults (who were playing the Pokemon card game):


As if a VW Beetle itself weren't cute enough:


How to emasculate a Hummer: