What would be the biggest culture shocks for someone that comes from the world of Pokémon to ours?
listen if you’re thinking of making the move I don’t recommend it
but… well, I’m gonna guess the absence of Pokémon would be the big one, to be honest.
People in the Pokémon world rely on their Pokémon for all kinds of things, and it often seems like it’s kind of unusual to be a person who doesn’t care about Pokémon and isn’t in any capacity involved with Pokémon. Like, in the real world, telling someone you don’t have pets is not a big deal. In the Pokémon world, sure, not everyone is a trainer exactly, but almost everyone has Pokémon in their lives in some capacity, maybe as pets or co-workers or even spiritual advisors. How big a change this is might depend on when and where you landed – people in real rural societies do “live with animals” in a fairly meaningful sense, while urbanites tend to be largely oblivious of even the animals we eat (and actually, this is a total tangent but my IRL friend Flint Dibble, who is a zooarchaeologist, talks a lot about this stuff on Twitter and is very good at making compelling stories of his work). Of course, maybe then the culture shock is “you eat your animals!?” (but then, are we so sure they don’t eat Pokémon too?). They would probably be confused at how far animals, other than pets, are kept at arms’ length in their involvement in modern society – and might think that we must be very disconnected from nature on account of that.
The dependence of children on their parents is probably the other big thing. In the Pokémon world, it’s generally seen as pretty safe for kids to travel on their own if they have Pokémon, who can provide both protection and emotional support. Adults are not necessarily better trainers than children either, so Pokémon are a big equalising factor in the face of any dangers you might face. In the absence of that security and freedom, modern childhood (even modern life in general) in the real world would probably seem stifling.
Pokémaniacal 
Actually, I saw a TV show last night that was looking at the independence of children around the world. On there, a Japanese couple said that in their culture, children were encouraged to go out and do things on their own as it helps develop them as people. They said it’s a big part of Japanese culture (like, their 6-year-old son takes 2 trains and a bus to go to school by himself). That makes pokemon make a lot more sense!
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I mean… kinda? But two buses and a train to school, much as it seems like a lot for a 6-year old to me as a Westerner, is still something I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at an older child (say, 12ish) doing. Children in the Pokémon world get up to $#!t that *I* wouldn’t do alone as a grown-ass man!
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That’s kind of the point though: the Pokéverse children *aren’t* alone doing this stuff, but accompanied by their combination best friend and flamethrower. Bit of a different dynamic there.
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