Tokyo Banana x Pokémon

Pokemon Theme Song - Jason Paige

I took a picture of the sunset before getting to Tokyo station. It was beautiful and probably would have been my Blip for the day, but then I came across the limited editions of Pokémon and Tokyo Banana snacks and cakes and thought, “Yup! This is it!”

I’m not a Pokémon fan, only because I was too old to get into it when I was in high school. Some of my classmates were into it but when I turned 13 I was interested in other things. So I’ve never had an interest in it.

Nonetheless, it’s pretty cute. Every city or prefecture has “a thing” to promote in terms of snacks or food. Nagoya has its own famous flavours as well as Kyoto, however, they always make sense either because the ingredients are foods that grow prominently in the area or there is a significant historical event initiating the tradition.

Tokyo has many great gifts or omiyage but the most famous is Tokyo Banana. Perhaps it’s the branding or that it has the word Tokyo in it that makes it the “go-to” for omiyage here. I’m not sure why or how bananas are famous in Tokyo. Red miso is famous in Aichi because the Emperor during the Meiji era had it transported to Edo from Okazaki. So a lot of food has it here… makes sense, right?

If anyone can tell me why bananas is the gift of choice in Tokyo, that will help settle me.

The storms were heavy today and there were flash rains and massive cracks of thunder clapping through the city. I was really lucky that my train was on schedule as the ones after were all delayed due to power outages.