Young Conventioneer Attends World Summit

Some time ago - almost a year, I think - Ian reported to me, with great pleasure, that the Pokémon World Championship would be held in Boston in 2015, and of course, he immediately started trying to figure out his role in the worldwide event.  I was afraid:  whatever it was, it would likely welcome only the very best players (as the Pokémon jingle starts, "I want to be the very best, like no one ever was..."), and it would probably be very expensive.  As usual, I was wrong on both counts, and Ian had the experience of a lifetime, where his inner world of Pikachu and Charmelion actually met up with a real, international, conference-attending world of people who love exactly the same cast of characters.  We decided to humor the lad, for the first time ever - this time by devoting our entire weekend - the last weekend of summer vacation - to this lofty cause.  And now we, too, have "got to catch them all"...

Ironically, I was the first party to set foot in the solemn space of Pokémon 2015.  Since I work in Boston anyway, Amy and I decided that I would be the one to scope the convention and figure out what needed to be done so that Ian could participate in The Boston Open - a tournament for the more amateur crowd attending the convention.  Amy had a hard time figuring out, from the website, whether Ian needed to be there in person for registration, which began Friday night of last weekend, so I walked down to the Hynes Convention Center to find out for myself and report back to Ian Headquarters.

When I got to the main hall, they had tables already set up - probably about a hundred of them - with solemn black plastic table cloths, surrounded by equally solemn, black plastic chairs.  People had already started to arrive, and I was impressed by the cordiality and enthusiasm of the volunteers, ranging from  Englishmen to East Asians to Australians, probably almost all parents.  I read all the signs, in about 15 languages, providing instructions for sign-up for the Boston Open - Chinese, Korean, German, Italian, the many Scandinavian languages that look like misspelt-by-a-child German with slashes across random vowels...

It turned that only online registration was to begin at 7 p.m. Friday night;  on-site registration wouldn't begin until Saturday, the morning of the tournament itself.  Spaces were limited, competition for registration was expected to be high, and, the English lady in the Pokémon t-shirt explained to me, he had a better chance of making the cut if we registered him online Friday night.  So I called Amy and sternly warned her to get to a working, Internet-connected computer, rather than coming to Boston, and she did so.  Amy successfully registered him for this gruelingly-competitive spot, which turned out to cost all of five dollars.  I asked the very friendly East Asian man behind the table whether one of us could accompany the lad in the tournament without registering, just to keep an eye on him, and he said, "Of course!"  It turned out that the only people who had to pay to attend this convention were the tournament players themselves - if you don't count all the merchandise we ended up with, which might have financed the event by itself, Pikachus in all striped and colors for each of the children, etc... - so the  required, as opposed to elective, cost of the whole weekend was five dollars.

I thought I was going to be the Saturday chaperone, in contravention to all of our plans.  Amy had had this idea that she would take Ian in early for the tournament, and I would come with Daniel and Madeleine in the early afternoon, and Amy would come home and take a nap, and then we would all attend the Pokémon orchestral concert in the evening.  Of course, I had a hard time believing a small portion of this elaborate vision would ever happen.  I thought the only constant would likely be Amy sleeping... 

Of course, nobody made two separate trips to Boston that day, with a nap in the middle.  But what did happen was that Amy took Ian (and I slept awhile in the morning), and we all joined up in the evening for the concert.  The concert was held in a seasonal mega-tent like structure at the far edge of Boston Harbor, at the very end of one of those piers.  The entire content of the concert was music from Pokémon videos  - or programs, or movies, I don't really know the difference - all played by a serious-looking orchestra, with Pokémon video games, and captions, projected onto a screen behind them.  We paid very much money to attend this sophisticated event.  But seeing Ian there made it all worthwhile. 

At the very end of the concert - or what we thought was the end - the encores began - three in all, with standing ovations from the entire audience.  First they introduced the composer himself, an American youngish man who had been a big Pokémon fan, and then he went on to write music for them.  They also introduced the pretty soloist.  Finally, they introduced Mr. Pokémon himself - I don't remember his name - a very dapper looking early-middle-aged man, who addressed the audience entirely in Japanese, with young American interpreter on hand.  He gave a speech about how Kiseki - the theme song of one of the Pokémon shows - was actually the Japanese word for "miracle," and it was a miracle that we were all there that evening, from all over the world, sharing in the joys of Pokémon, and if, for example, he had been born 100 years earlier, he never would have gotten to attend this world event, and he hoped for goodwill and cooperation in the world, and he had always hoped that people would upload, to Youtube, their own renditions of the Keseki theme song.  And then he encouraged us all to sing along (in English) with word on the screen in the Karaoke manner.  And, of course, we all sang the Pokémon International itself, with an orchestral accompaniment; there was something very moving about seeing Ian, at this world event, wearing his Pikachu t-shirt and singing "Gotta catch 'em all ... Pokémon" with the utmost fervor.  In fact, we all sang, with the possible exception of Daniel, who, of course, was wearing a Minecraft t-shirt.  I was wearing my t-shirt from Ian's kindergarten class, where they all drew stick-figures of themselves, since, for me, this event was all about Ian.

Sunday afternoon, the family attended while I drove around Boston looking for a not-for-32-dollars parking, which I found, for free, in Chinatown.  But I got to the convention center in time for the closing ceremony, or just before it.  I arrived simultaneously with a lovely young lady dressed in a yellow Pikachu outfit, with purple hair, and I immediately recognized her as Tamashii Kiroka, the empress of the world of Pokémon youtube videos.  She's quite the celebrity, with many postings - or programs, or videos, or whatever the young people call them - sharing her thoughts on new developments in Pokémon  and other youth entertainment topics.  In spite of the name, she's American, from Oregon, and quite hip.   Ian has been talking about her for years, and has shown me her videos, so that made it easy to recognize her.

When I saw her, I pleaded to see if Ian could somehow meet her.  Tamashii was very gracious, and told me I could find her up by the stage at closing ceremonies, and she'd be happy to meet Ian.

The closing ceremony itself was quite an event, with all of the ooh's and aahhh's and virtual drum-roll moments that any good youth conference should have.  They introduced all of the champions for that year, including mention of their home-countries, with pictures of the victors and flags or symbols from their countries up on the screen.  Many of the victors were American this year, and, touchingly, people cheered when they heard each champion announced as "from America..."  They thanked the young'uns profusely for their attendance and enthusiasm, without which none of this could have happened.  And then they said, "Oh wait - one more thing.  Do you all want to know where the championship will be next year?"  (Apparently this is one of those guess-which-running-mate-I've-picked moments that everyone waits a long time for, receiving the news in a great crescendo of anticipation and subsequent exultation.)

It turned out that the crowd did want to know where the 2016 Pokémon Championship would be held, and after the requisite pause to build up the excitement, they announced, "San Francisco, California!" with a logo-like projection of the name of the city and a stick-figure of the Golden Gate Bridge cast on the screen.  Ian immediately started making plans for next year's hajj to the Coast, very excited that he just found out, as it were, that he'll be off to California in one year's time.

After that, I disappeared from the fam', for I knew that Amy would be trying to corral people out the door to the safety and predictability of our old New Hampshire lives, and I wanted to find Tamashi.  It took me a long time to wade through all the people up by the screen, including the long line of people waiting to have their picture taken by loved ones standing in front of the Pokémon World Championship logo at the front of the stage, and all the champions themselves, posing affectionately together for their own photos.  But eventually I found her at the far end of in-front-of-the-stage, and I immediately got on my cell. phone and started wading back to our own corner of the events hall to find Ian and bring him to his queen. 

Of course, by then Amy had prudently led the ducklings off toward the exit, but when I got her on the phone, she made her way back to where we had watched the closing ceremony, so that Ian and I could go meet The Great One.  Needless to say, Tamashii had moved on, as had most people, by the time that Ian and I could get back to the spot where I had found her.  Crestfallen, Ian and I kept looking, to no avail.  Eventually, we exited the main hall, in a long parade of departing conventioneers, only to find that we were all being cheered - with tremendous excitement and warmth - by a very large crowd standing in a half-circle around the exit, by the escalators.  They were apparently mostly volunteers from the conference, and this was their way of thanking people for attending.  What really impressed me more than anything else was the way that their cheer rose up into a great crescendo as we passed them.  At first I was wondering what was special about us, but then I think I figured it out;  Ian was a child - that's what made him a guest of honor.  Probaly his proper Pikachu uniform probably reinforced their recognition common cause that they held with him. 

I spent another 15 minutes or so methodically pacing the hall looking for Tamashii.  I was extremely methodical in my approach to finding her, and of course, it was to no avail.  Somehow, often taking things head-on like that is often the course of action least likely to bear fruit.  I had quietly slipped away from the fam' again, since I didn't think Amy would humor my second fervent search for Tamashii, and they were all waiting in the Prudential Center mall, outside the convention center.

Finally, I gave up - more disappointed than ever - and made my way to the mall to meet up with the family.  I found them there as soon as I exited the convention center, but, to my surprise and great pleasure, there was Tamashii, standing right next to them, readily recognizable in her classic Pikachu yellow outfit and chromish purple hair.  Tamashii wasn't talking to them, but she recognized me, and I excitedly, silently signaled for her to wait a moment - she got it - as I tapped Ian on the shoulder and raised my uplifted palm slowly, solemnly toward Tamashii, like Vanna White unveiling the grand prize at the end of Wheel of Fortune.  Ian looked up, and suddenly the magic overtook him; he couldn't hide his stunned delight.  I introduced each of the children to Tamashii.  People talked a bit.  Ian got out a Pokémon card and asked if I had a pen - usually I don't have one in my pocket  these days, but at that moment I did. 

He had Tamashii a card with her favorite Pokémon - which he readily knew.

[At sporadic intervals on the way home, Ian would erupt with, "We met Tamashii!" and also, "I still can't believe I met Tamashii!"  Meanwhile, Madeleine reflected that she really liked meeting Tamashii, and she would like to meet her again...]

Daniel subtly congratulated Tamashii on some commentary she had given regarding something outside the realm of Pokémon - some people still lived in that *other* world, even at this moment.

We took a group picture - Tamashii and her fond New Hampshire fan club, and reluctantly took leave of the 2015 Championship, off to Chinatown to meet Auntie Suzie and Uncle Greg for supper.

The aunt and uncle were surprisingly indulgent, for needless to say, the main topic anyone wanted to discuss was this first and splendid convention ever attended by our Pokémon-loving family.

(August 21 - 23, 2015)