Pokémon Go, Part Two

There's a bench on a tiny patch of grass in the triangle of a three-way intersection next to my apartment complex. Because it's not technically a park, it's not technically illegal for me to have an open container of alcohol, so sometimes in the evenings I go there to write.

Yesterday, a little after eight, three tiny children start wandering around with enormous smart phones. What's going on is obvious to me.

"Hey, are you guys playing Pokémon Go?" I ask them, pulling out my phone.

They get really excited, and we dig our heels into comparing notes on the pokémon in the neighborhood (all Pidgeys all the way down), a conversation that goes well until a harried soccer mom runs over and begins apologizing to me.

"I'm so sorry these boys are bothering you," she says, "but it's this Pokiemans app they're addicted to. God, it's just the dumbest thing."

"Yes, of course," I tell her, sneaking my phone back into my bag, "it absolutely is."

"I blame the Japanese," she continues. "It's them and their devil worship that leads to things like Pokiemans."

Although her wording is imprecise, she's not wrong. The eighteenth-century Neoconfucian drive to scientifically classify supernatural phenomena was appropriated by State Shintō during the Meiji Period, the cultural echoes of which can indeed be found in the Pokémon games. I think about explaining this to her and decide against it.

"Mmmmmmm," I respond, and she wanders off after the kids.

So that went well. At least she didn't think I was a molester.