Pokemon Hunters Çrowd in Park at Night (Tokyo)

How can humans come this far out of mind? Head-on collisions and bumping into telephone pole are not enough for the fanatics of the just-released Pokemon Go. An otherwise quiet park in Setagaya, a favorite of nocturnal joggers and pet-walkers, suddenly turned a weird meeting place tonight of hundreds of humans roistering about with smartphones in hand.

これがピーク時のミニリュウの巣「世田谷公園」#ポケモンGO pic.twitter.com/ukyK9W6Hzo

— ポケモンGO徹底解説Bot (@pokemon_go_ch) 2016年7月29日

You've guessed right - Pokemon hunters chasing the imaginary monsters hauting in the park. Nearby residents and passers-by are flabbergasted at the queer sight with surprise and apprehension.

Past eight o'clock at night, youngsters, still quite a few in number, kept on hunting for God knows what. A 25-year-old officer worker who had "played" the game for four hours, ginned:

"Oh, well, I came 'cause I was told rare Pokemen are around in this park. I've caught lots of them and grown stronger. I'm satisfied."

This is one of those isolated, quiet corners of Setagaya rarely visited in late hours. A middle-aged woman with her dog to walk told in amazement:

"I've never this place so crowded - not in these late hours. It's strange and most of all so weird - everybody looking into their smartphones and not ahead of them. Some even hit into something before them. I had better stay from this park for some time."

Up in Gunma Prefecture, the compound of a UNESCO heritage site, Tomioka Silk Mill put up a signboard warning Pokemon players against collisions with people around them.

Now, I'm not up against having fun - not at all. But, I'm quite at loss at the sight of grownups staring into a tiny display hunting for virtual beings at the risk even of their own lives - of wasting so much of their supposedly meaningful time.

Could it be a grand design to befool the entire humanity? By whom then? (Nathan Shiga)