Nara Prefecture Poké Lids
Image: The Pokémon Company

Back in 2019, Japan began its strange, but wonderful Poké Lid project, which promised to add Pokémon designs to manhole covers across the country. As of today, there are 148 of these lids in Japan, across 13 locations, all with unique designs and Pokémon. Five new ones were just added to the roads in Nara Prefecture, featuring Entei, Growlithe, Deerling, Bronzong, and Chimecho. The Pokémon Company is also working to make sure every one is a Pokémon GO PokéStop.

Customisable Manhole Covers in ACNH
Image: Lena Raine

You may have heard of the Japanese art of manhole covers, or you may have seen them in Animal Crossing (and wondered why they were there). It seems like decorative manhole covers may have been the idea of some construction bureaucrat back in the '80s, and since then they have increased in popularity to the point where there are now thousands of the things across the country.

Here's a gallery of some of our favourites:

If you want to check all 148 manhole covers yourself, there's a handy website that has them all listed by region. We thought Super Nintendo World was our main reason to travel to Japan, but now we're altering our plans to visit a bunch of manhole covers. Why not!

If you just want a closer look at the five newest Poké Lids, here you go:

Nara Prefecture new manhole covers

Which Poké Lids are your favourites? Do you live near one yourself? Let us know in the comments.

[source moshimoshi-nippon.jp]