A Giant Sleeping Snorlax Takes Over Yokohama’s Minato Mirai for ‘Pokémon Sleep's’ Third Anniversary

Summary

The Pokémon Company and Mitsubishi Estate are co-hosting a six-week 'Pokémon Sleep' third anniversary event across two Minato Mirai shopping centers

A roughly 3-meter sleeping Snorlax anchors Landmark Plaza, with a 29-item merch shop, a themed drink stand and a Toyota-developed nap pod filling out MARK IS Minatomirai

Free entry across the full activation, with a stamp rally rewarding visitors who complete both venues

Pokémon is marking the third anniversary of its sleep-tracking mobile app Pokémon Sleep with a sprawling activation in Yokohama’s Minato Mirai district, running from July 17 to August 23. Officially titled “Pokémon Sleep 3rd Anniversary 横浜でみっけ！ポケモンねがおリサーチ presented by MITSUBISHI ESTATE GROUP,” the event splits itself across two of the neighborhood’s flagship shopping centers, Landmark Plaza and MARK IS Minatomirai, and folds an unusual mix of installations, retail, food and even a Toyota-built nap pod into a single sleep-themed circuit.

The anchor sits inside Landmark Plaza’s first-floor Sakata no Tane Garden Square, where a Snorlax roughly 3 meters in scale is staged mid-nap under the banner “Sleeping Snorlax Plaza.” Photos of dozing Pokémon are arranged around the installation, and a message corner invites visitors to write notes on berry-shaped cards and add them to the space, turning the plaza into a slow-moving communal set piece rather than a static photo op. Three floors up, the same building houses a Mega Pokémon Gacha machine loaded with four Pokémon Sleep muffler towel designs.

Across the street, MARK IS Minatomirai takes on the retail and food weight of the activation. The first-floor Pokémon Sleep Shop stocks 29 items built specifically for the third anniversary, including Pokémon 30th anniversary pin badges featuring Snorlax, Pikachu and Eevee, an oversized Snorlax cushion, a 3rd anniversary festival T-shirt, a “Cyan Beach” clear bottle, bucket hats, sleeping stickers and carrying pouches. Entry to the shop during its opening stretch from July 17 to 26 runs on an advance lottery system, with post-event online sales for anyone who misses out planned from August 24 onward. Nearby in the Grande Galleria, the Pokémon Sleep Drink Stand serves four beverages inspired by in-game items, with the press release naming Early Bird Coffee Jelly and Devil’s Kiss Fruit Ole among them, and every order comes with one of six random original coasters.

The fifth floor is where the activation drifts furthest from typical franchise territory. There, visitors can try the “Nap Recovery Device supported by TOTONE,” a first-time collaboration between Pokémon Sleep and Toyota’s TOTONE, a strategic napping tool the automaker developed by applying its automotive cabin design know-how to sleep. The unit has been given a Poké Ball styling for the event, and the experience remains free with a Pokémon Sleep app screen shown to staff. For those wanting to go further, an optional brainwave measurement using the InSomnograf service is available on site, developed by S’UIMIN, the University of Tsukuba spinoff chaired by sleep scientist Professor Masashi Yanagisawa. Participants receive a custom-designed report of their brainwave results as a takeaway.

Threading the whole activation together is a stamp rally that treats the wider shopping district as its playing field. Sheets are available at MARK IS Minatomirai’s B4F Ekimae Hiroba, where a Snorlax welcomes arrivals stepping out of the station. Six stamp stations sit across the two buildings, three in each, and completing them earns a Pokémon Sleep original sticker.

Pokémon Sleep 3rd Anniversary 横浜でみっけ！ポケモンねがおリサーチ runs from July 17 to August 23 across Landmark Plaza and MARK IS Minatomirai in Yokohama.