Magikarp Poke-Lids Appear In Japanese City

Ojiya, Nijigata is the latest city in Japan to get it’s own Poke-Lids, featuring the iconic Magikarp. The city will have several iconic manhole covers installed throughout the city, showing the koi fish Pokemon.

The city is receiving a total of four of the commemorative manhole covers, with one of them even featuring the Shiny Magikarp. One of them also pays homage to the mobile game Magikarp Jump, with the Magikarp being carried away by a Pidgeotto.

Ojiya is known as the birthplace of the Nishigikoi breed of Koi fish, hence the use of Magikarp as its Pokemon ambassador. The Pokemon Magikarp is based off of a carp, which is the same family as Koi fish. Additionally, Magikarp’s Japanese name is Koiking, further tying the two together.

Ojiya is the latest city to receive Poke-lids, special commemorative manhole covers adorned with different Pokemon on them. The idea is that each Poke-Lid is unique, meaning you’d have to explore the whole city to get a photo with each one of them, driving tourism.

On top of that, the Pokemon chosen for each Poke-Lid is also tied to the region receiving it. For example, Hokkaido is home to the fox village, and many of the Poke-Lids there all feature the Fox Pokemon Vulpix and Ninetails.

The Pokemon website has put out a special website for tracking the locations of Poke-Lids, sorted by region.