Pikmin Bloom (Mini) Tour: Mino Washi Akari Walk 2023!
Mmmm...Bloom Buds! If this is your first time hearing about the Akari Walk mini tour event in Pikmin Bloom, don’t feel bad. It was only advertised within Japan and being in an area that’s pretty far away from just about everything, it was a difficult place to visit even for the locals. Although it wasn’t a proper Pikmin Bloom Tour event with missions to do and a commemorative badge to earn, this collaboration event between the small, countryside city of Mino and Pikmin Bloom had enough to offer that Gianni and I decided to make a last-minute journey to Gifu Prefecture. And man oh man, I can say it was definitely worth it. Gifu was actually among my top choices when I first applied to work in Japan. And although Akita rivals it with its beautiful mountains and lakes, I was happy to finally get the chance to visit for the first time.
Unlike regular Pikmin Bloom tours, there was no drawing to enter to attend. The event lasted about 3 weeks, giving players the chance to visit at their own convenience. Without a strict time limit, it had a very relaxed atmosphere which was only amplified by the beautiful and peaceful countryside environment. So what exactly did this “mini tour” entail? Let’s move over to Johnny and Gianni who are now live in front of Mino Station. Gianni? Hello! Today is Friday, October 20th, the 2nd to the last day of the Mino Washi Akari Art Exhibition. And we are not live whatsoever from Mino City in Gifu Prefecture. As you can see,
we are outside Mino Station! Well, not exactly. This is actually the site of the former Meitetsu Line here in Mino City, so it's more of like a museum kind of situation going on here. They've got some old trains, the shell of the former station still intact here, so it's more like a tourist attraction now.
But we did come from not very far away down the road, from the actual in-use Mino Station. -So are you ready? -Yes This is going to be like a mini tour event, so we're excited we have seven special spots to see today. Like a regular Pikmin Bloom Tour, they have Special Spots where you can get golden seedlings that has a large variety of decor. -So, let's go check it out! -Yes! Yaaaay! So, what do I mean by a "mini tour"? Well, I mean that this is not an actual Pikmin Bloom Tour, that was like advertised to the whole world. So, if you're watching this, you probably didn't even know that this "tour" existed.
It was only advertised in Japan, and it goes from October 8th to October 21st. So as Gianni said, we are at the last couple days of this event now, and it's also not a tour in the sense that there's a special badge to get or something. It's more like, you can visit seven special spots as you please, and you can swipe them to get a golden seedling. And it's just once during the entire event period that you can get these golden seedlings. It's not really a "Pikmin Bloom" event, more like a collaboration between Mino City and Pikmin Bloom. So it's really a "mini tour" I guess is what we're going to call it.
Anyway, it's the first one of its kind, as far as I know, and it's really awesome that it's kind of this three-week long event, so it gave us the chance to come out here to Gifu, 'cuz it's really far away from everything! So let's get going and see if we can find some Special Spots! If you'll check the map in which I have painstakingly translated into English, you can see that we are now at Special Spot A, Bar Est. Now, although, as you can see, the bar is closed, being afternoon now. But it does count as Italian restaurant in the game.
Yes, and I'm extra excited about this one cuz I still need one pizza Pikmin, my gray boy! So let's see what I got... -Oh boy, is it gray? -We've actually already swiped it and walked with it, so unfortunately, I got a blue Pikmin. He's just as cute and... better luck next time! Yeah... Oh, but let's see what I got! Here he is. Here he is!
It's--it's yellow! It's yellow! Do you need him? Nah, I've already completely finished my pizza set. But, look at that animation, that's really cute! Alright, well... So that's the first Special Spot and -I really like the logo that they have on the the Special Spot. -Yeah, yeah, yeah! -Like it has the actual Mino Washi Akari logo. -Aesthetics.
Yeah, it's a really nice Special Spot. -Alright, why don't we go to the next one? -Alright. As we were making our way to the next Special Spot, a button on Gianni's coat suddenly popped off! Although she was far away an eagle-eyed elderly woman saw the button fall to the ground, and asked us to follow her. She brought us to her textiles shop where she not only re-attached the fallen button, but even took the time to reinforce the other ones on the coat, free of charge. It was one more example, among the infinite other times, where we've experienced Japanese hospitality while living here! Alright, we have just arrived at Special Spot C, where you can find "udatsu-lined" streets.
Yeah, "udatsu" is a traditional Japanese architectural style, most notable for its tiled roofs and its high-rise walls on the second floor, which I believe was a sign of wealth back in the day. Swiping the Special Spot here will give us a red Pikmin with a gold present sticker Decor. -Yeah, so this is the coveted Decor of Pikmin Bloom! -Yes! And, if you've been paying attention to the recent news, If you happen to be near Nintendo Store New York City, Kyoto, the newly opened Kyoto store, Osaka, or Tokyo, previously swiping the Special Spot there would give you -a Nintendo-branded -Mario Yes, Mario Hat Pikmin! But, they've now changed that, and you can now get, randomly, red, yellow, or the highly-coveted blue Pikmin wearing the gold present sticker Decor! Aside from getting that, there is one more thing very nearby. -What is it? -Drumroll! It's the...
event-themed present sticker! Yeah, so not only do we get a gold present sticker Decor, we get an in-real-life event sticker -For submitting--they're calling it an "AR photo submission campaign" -Yes! Here at the Mino Tourist Information Center, which is... -10 seconds walk that way! A 10-second walk! -Right there! So, why don't we try to take our AR Pikmin picture and then, we can hashtag it with the specific--you have to write: "Akari Aato" and "Pikumin Buurumu". Post to either Twitter or Instagram, and show them the photo, and they'll give you an event sticker! While supplies last! -We are here at the end of the event, so let's hope they still have stickers in stock! -Yeah! -Alright lets go take our AR picture. -Let's go! Just as I was taking my AR picture, a group of players we met during the Yokosuka Tour suddenly appeared! It was surprising we actually ran into anyone else, considering it was one of the last days of the event. With everyone's plushies all lined up, we took more pictures in front of the Red Pikmin Lantern. After dinner, we were able to meet up one last time and took this video together! They even made custom pins with the event logo that they were nice enough to give us, as well as some hilarious pictures of Photoshopped Pikmin! Speaking of the event logo, it's about time for us to get our stickers! So we made the grueling, 12-second walk to the Tourist Information Center, and as you can see, I have now submitted, in our Twitter, "Akari Art" and "Pikmin Bloom" hashtags, with my AR Pikmin.
So, I'm hoping that they still have a sticker, let's go! Luckily, they still had some stickers left, so we got our two stickers, and... got this really nice paper event map here they also actually had it at the train station when we first rolled in. So it's the, of course, Japanese-only version of the map. All right, we have just arrived at Special Spot D, it's Nipponia Mino Hotel, where you can get... can you guess? Yeah, I think it's Hotel Pikmin, right? Yes! I actually got this one right here.
It's a pink Hotel Amenities Pikmin, but I've already finished my set, how about you? -Yeah, and I've got a yellow Pikmin! -Oh, there he is! And I've also already finished my set but this is a good um... -Souvenir? -Yes, souvenir, that's the word! Yeah, so yours comes with a little key, it's cute. They actually have some hotel amenities inside, as well as a little gallery in there, -so let's go check that out! -Alright.
I'm getting a little hungry, so why don't we get lunch after this? Okay! Aaaand, we have just arrived at Special Spot B, Happa Stand! Swiping the Special Spot here will get you... Café Pikmin! A café Pikmin, so which color did you end up getting? -I got red Pikmin! -A red Pikmin! Little-known fact, did you know the only case so far of enemies appearing in Pikmin Bloom -are the designs of the cup? -Yes. And I got... Purple! They don't actually have a huge selection of food here, but there was a restaurant right down the road-- -Yeah so I think we'll check that out. -Yeah.
Why don't we go get some lunch? It's already past 2, so we're really hungry! Right, let's go! It's just after "lunch" now, and we came across this little shrine, it counts as Shrine Pikmin in the game, but there's like five other things here, so I'm going to try to take a picture. And hopefully that will generate a Seedling for shrine... I got Park! Alright, there's one more chance.
I'm going to go ahead and use my detector. I'm not sure we're going to be able to find a really isolated shrine today, but it would be really awesome if I could somehow get that. 1 in 6 chance! Found two items. Wait, is this the blue one? Or is it the pink one? The blue one, no, the blue one's the park, so pink. I got a pink-something seedling. So we already know it's not Shrine, because
Shrine only comes in red, blue, or yellow. I got pink café. Wow.... Alright. So... double failure! But, can't win them all!
Let's get to the next Special Spot. It actually started raining so we decided to take shelter in Special Spot E, the Mino Washi Akari Art Museum. Yeah and of course, naturally, it counts as Art Gallery in the game, swiping the Special Spot gets us the golden seedling for. But, we've already finished our sets-- But, it's still a nice souvenir, I got another pink Pikmin! Yeah, imagine that. I always get these cute little pink girls flying around up there. And which did you get? And I got another... red!
-Another red? -Pikmin! That's fine, it's still very cute. Double red, double pink! The downstairs, the first floor of this museum was completely free. But, as you know, the paid DLC package, -200 yen to see the second floor, this paid DLC, -Yes! I'm so glad we did because all the best stuff is up here. -Yeah, it's worth it. -It's really cool! -200 yen is pretty cheap for it, I think. -Yeah.
It was actually 400 yen per ticket, and the extra 200 yen allows us to see another building nearby, so we're gonna check that out after this. -Why don't we get going, and hopefully the rain will stop soon. -Yes. The owner of this residence told us that pouring the water on these black stones makes a very satisfying and relaxing sound, so here's a little Pikmin Bloom Mini Tour ASMR for you! I have never felt more at peace.
We have just arrived at Special Spot F. The 2nd to last stop on today's mini tour. We are here at the beautiful Ogura Park. And it's not just the park that's here, actually it's famous for Ogurayama Castle Ruins.
-Which looks like... this! -Yaaay! Pretty cool, right? Right? It's actually a really nice-looking park. So, obviously, swiping the Special Spot here gave us both a golden Park seedling, which has been now 3 for 3 in the Pikmin Bloom Tours. And in this case it was not a guaranteed 4-leaf clover, but it was possible.
Gianni got her, amazing... white four-leaf clover Pikmin! Meanwhile, I did not get as lucky but I got this cute blue three-leaf clover Pikmin! Well... a little rainy, sun's coming down... Let's move on to the last Special Spot, the bridge! Like all good things, this mini-tour has come to an end. Nooooo! I don't want it to end! Noooo! We are finally at our last Special Spot of the day, Mino Bridge! Yeah... the last spot... The golden seedling here is, of course, the Bridge Pin Decor. We've both already finished our set, but I got this nice...
Blue one! Here he is! And, of course, it'll have the name of the bridge on the pin, -making it a nice souvenir. -Yes. And I got my yellow... bridge Pikmin! Ah, that's a cute one as well. I like his little animation.
So, of course, we found out today that the mini tour truly was "mini". There were not many people. -It had a very relaxing atmosphere. -Yes. And having no time limit, it was really nice to just be able to take our time at each one, take it in, going from place to place. It made it a really unique tour among all of them-- and I know, it's not formally a "tour", but it kind of is.
I mean, we visited all 7 Special Spots, we did not get a badge, but, you know. I think the only negative today I can think of is the rain, which... do you think it was even that bad? I mean, it was negligible, I think.
So what were your favorite Special Spots in this tour--mini tour, sorry "mini tour". My number one would probably be... the Udatsu-lined Streets. Because there's a lot of history there, great architecture, and, just overall, very impressive. How about you?
-I like it too, I'm excited for when we get to see the lanterns fully lit. -Yes! I, of course, have to go with the 2nd floor of the museum, Seeing all the lanterns lit in there. -It was fantastic seeing some of the really intricate Mino Washi art. -Yeah!
This was, just overall, a really fantastic collaboration event. I hope more mini tours like this will be done in the future, where you get several weeks to be able to go there and-- No time limit, just take it in. It's a very relaxing experience. -It was also nice to see some of our friends from Yokosuka, right? -Yeah! By pure chance, didn't plan it.
It was just like "Hey, we saw you at Yokosuka Tour?" "Oh, yeah!" It was amazing. There's just one last mission today. What is it? We are gonna go back to the main part of the event, the udatsu-lined streets. And we are going to see the lanterns lit up, and take in the finale! -The big show! -Yay! The Mino Washi Art all lit up! -I'm really excited! -Me too! -I think that's it for today, right? -Yes.
We will see you at the next tour. Which is where? Kyoto! Which is when? Uhh... -November! -Oh, November... 12th!
-12th? Is it the 12th? -Yeah, November 12th! -See you November 12th at Kyoto Tour! -Yes! Let's get out of here--it's raining! It's raining!! [Mino City Akari Art Exhibition x Pikmin Bloom. Johnny & Gianni @BloomBudsYT] [Thanks for coming with us!]
2023-12-11 03:10
