Pika chu chu

More than six years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that devastated the Tohoku region of Japan on March 11, 2011, the "Pokémon With You" initiative continues to work to bring smiles and hope to affected children, many of whom are still living in provisional housing. Pokémon With You has continually made school and home visits, among many other events, to cheer kids up.

One of their many attempts to bring happiness with the Pokémon With You Train, which was decked out with various types of Pokémon and started running in 2012. Now the trains two cars have been renewed and plastered with Pikachu. Only Pikachu. The communication car is basically for actually sitting down, while the playroom car lives up to its name with lots of Pikachu dolls of differing sizes along with a fake driver cab and engine room.

On top of that, each station has a stamp you can collect to fill out a "memory note" as well as a unique tin badge if you get off the train there. There is even an even in the city of Kesennuma where you collect stamps from six different locations and win a papercraft version of the Pokémon With You Train.

The train runs between Ichinoseki Station in Iwate Prefecture and Kesennuma Station in Miyagi Prefecture. This Pikachu iteration is running from August 1, 2017 until at least March 31, 2018 if you would like a chance to ride. Specific dates and times are available on the Japan Rail website. The JR rail pass can be used, but all seats are reserved.'

I was all ready to go-aboard when Niero showed this too me, but it's quite a bit north from here. I'll just pretend I'm protesting the separated-head Pikachu design. Anyway, it's very touching that they work so hard to bring happiness to affected children. There is a creeping thought in the back of my head though, that considering this sort of thing obviously isn't cheap and is funded on charity it is worth asking if this is a better use of that money than providing resources to children.

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