Japan’s Iwate Prefecture announced today that they are partnering up with The Pokémon Company to have the Rock Pokémon Geodude be their tourism ambassador.
The reason behind choosing Geodude of all Pokémon is due to Iwate’s kanji, which taken individually means ‘Rock’ and ‘Hand’. With Geodude’s basic design of literally being a rock with arms, it’s a perfect fit for the prefecture.
Of course, there’s the problem of the fact that Geodude just floats in order to move around, which isn’t really feasible for a tourism mascot. So The Pokémon Company have devised a way around this by having the legs be checkered in grey and white, like how transparent areas are displayed in programs like Photoshop.
Here’s Geodude beside the official Iwate mascot, Wanko (based off Iwate’s famous Wanko Soba noodles).
Update: Here’s Geodude’s official theme song below:
