Gotta Collect 'Em All!

September 12, 2020 6:50 AM

Poké Lids are Japanese utility covers with colorful mouldings of Pokémon characters. They are often in lesser known regions of Japan. Link goes to to browsable map; scroll down for possibly addictive merch.
posted by carter (4 comments total)

Scrolled down expecting an explanation of how these came to be and

Poké Lids, artistic covers for utility holes, have recently started to be spotted in some cities. Who knows if they are of Pokémonopolistic nature?

Right, ok, so this should be -

It seems that not all utility holes are man-made; rumor has it that Diglett may be responsible for digging large enough holes to be mistaken for utility holes and some artists took it upon themselves to “mark” the covers to differentiate them from ordinary ones. Where will the next “mark” be?

...ah. Got it.

They're really beautiful though, japes aside. I wish the gift shop was navigable in English, I bet my sister would love some merch of these.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:22 AM on September 12, 2020

It's incredibly cool but why oh why didn't they have the manhole covers for each of the towns in their real life counterparts? A Pallet Town manhole cover for Machida City, Viridian City for Hakone Town, Celadon City for Shinjuku, and so on.

It so obviously needs to be done.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:23 AM on September 12, 2020

It does appear that they have Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle in Machida, at least.
posted by vogon_poet at 7:43 AM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Cool site, just wish there was a way to see actual photos of the covers without having to open up a larger map. Also, I wonder how many of them are PokeStops in Pokemon GO?

Pop culture-themed manhole covers have been a thing in Japan for a little while now, though the Pokemon covers seem to be the most prevalent.
posted by May Kasahara at 8:59 AM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]