Lavender Town: Pokémon Tower, Ghosts, Mr. Fuji's Orphanage

In eastern Kanto, Lavender Town is a town people visit first and foremost to remember. Departed companions rest in the Pokémon Tower, Mr. Fuji takes in orphaned Pokémon, and the tower's floors are haunted by spirits that only the Silph Scope can identify.

Contents

• Lavender Town, Crossroads of Eastern Kanto and Refuge for Orphaned Pokémon
• The Pokémon Tower, a Cemetery and Place of Remembrance
• The Tower Tragedy: Team Rocket, Mr. Fuji and the Ghost at the Top
• Lavender Town in Gold and Silver: A Radio Tower Where the Cemetery Stood
• Lavender Town on Screen: The Anime and Origins
• Manga, Cards and an Urban Legend Around Lavender Town
• Lavender Town at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Lavender Town, Crossroads of Eastern Kanto and Refuge for Orphaned Pokémon

To reach Lavender Town, in eastern Kanto, travelers have three routes to choose from: Route 8 comes in from the west, Route 12 comes up from the south and Route 10 links the town to the north. You can visit it in Red and Blue, Yellow, Gold and Silver, Crystal, FireRed and LeafGreen, HeartGold and SoulSilver and Let's Go, in both the Pikachu and Eevee versions.

Mr. Fuji opened the Volunteer Pokémon House there, an orphanage where neglected Pokémon find a roof over their heads, whether they've lost their family or suffered at the hands of Team Rocket. The kindhearted old man designed the place with its residents in mind: a play area to let off steam, a library, a small kitchen and plants to brighten up the rooms. He also watches over the graves in town.

Whatever the generation, the town center is home to the Name Rater: he renames any of the hero's Pokémon, but refuses to touch those obtained in trades, whose names he finds already perfect. In Let's Go, his role disappears, since the main menu lets you rename a Pokémon without going through him. Those two versions, however, place a woman in the Pokémon Center who trades away her Alolan Diglett for an ordinary Diglett and agrees to repeat the trade several times, a boon for anyone collecting regional forms.

The Pokémon Tower, a Cemetery and Place of Remembrance

In Red, Blue, Yellow and their remakes, Kanto's Pokémon are laid to rest in the imposing Pokémon Tower, a cemetery built over seven floors. Every day, crowds of visitors flock there to honor the memory of a lost friend.

Only the first two floors stay peaceful; above them, the tower is haunted. Cubone, Haunter and Gastly roam there, but without the Silph Scope, the hero can only make out a ghostly figure that can't be identified. The Channelers on site are powerless: though they're supposed to soothe lost souls, they seem possessed themselves and mumble nonsense. In Red, Blue and Yellow, one of them even greets the player with "Poyé Polomi", a chant from Chinese folklore meant to ward off spirits and a nod to the film A Chinese Ghost Story.

The fifth floor offers a breather, with a purified zone where your team gets its strength back midway through the climb. If you want to complete your Pokédex, the visit is a must: in Red and Blue, Haunter, Gastly and Cubone can't be caught anywhere else, and Yellow likewise makes the tower the only place to catch the two Ghost types.

The Tower Tragedy: Team Rocket, Mr. Fuji and the Ghost at the Top

Heads up: this section reveals the ghost's identity and how the tower adventure ends. It all starts when Team Rocket moves into the building to hunt Cubone, whose skulls fetch a high price on the black market. Mr. Fuji, a former scientist, tries to step in and calm the angry spirit haunting the place: he ends up held hostage by the grunts, at the very top, and it's up to the hero to go and free him.

Just below the top, one last obstacle awaits: a ghost far stronger than any encountered so far. The Silph Scope reveals its true nature: it's a mother Marowak, who died trying to save her Cubone. In the first generation, as in FireRed and LeafGreen, only winning the battle lets her spirit find rest; no Poké Ball can hold her, Master Ball included, unless you exploit the Pomeg Berry glitch in FireRed and LeafGreen. Red, Blue and Yellow leave a way out: a Poké Doll is enough to dodge this battle and opens up the top floor even without the Silph Scope.

Let's Go softens the scene. There, the hero battles the ghost alongside their rival, Trace, when the young Cubone bursts in: mother and son share one last goodbye, then the spirit, finally at peace, fades away in a spiral of light. The little one isn't left alone, though, since Trace takes it onto his team.

Lavender Town in Gold and Silver: A Radio Tower Where the Cemetery Stood

A generation later, in Gold, Silver, Crystal and their remakes, the airwaves have replaced the graves: renovated from top to bottom, the old Pokémon Tower has become the Kanto Radio Tower, the counterpart of the one Johto set up in Goldenrod City. The hero isn't allowed upstairs, for safety reasons, but still has to stop by: without that visit, the radio stays silent throughout Kanto.

The dead have not been forgotten, though. Their graves were moved to the Soul House, where a few candles pierce a hushed half-light. Mr. Fuji alone has access to the burial chamber at the back of the sanctuary.

The way to wake sleeping Pokémon changes too. In Red, Blue, Yellow and their remakes, Mr. Fuji, as soon as he's freed, invites the hero to his home to give them the Poké Flute: a few notes rouse the Snorlax napping across Routes 12 and 16, and the road to Fuchsia City opens up. From the second generation onward, the Radio Tower takes over: picked up on the Pokégear, its "Poké Flute" program plays a melody that wakes up sleepers.

Lavender Town on Screen: The Anime and Origins

Heads up: this section gives away the ending of several episodes. In "The Tower of Terror", EP023 of season 1, Ash Ketchum has just lost to Sabrina, the Psychic-type Gym Leader of Saffron City. He goes looking for a Ghost-type Pokémon in the Lavender Town tower at the suggestion of a stranger, who is actually Sabrina's father, something Ash only learns later. A Gengar, a Haunter and a Gastly scare visitors there mostly for fun; delighted by the good time spent with Ash, the Haunter follows him all the way to Saffron City to help him against Sabrina.

The group passes back through town in AG153, during season 9: this time, Ash comes to battle at the Battle Dome. The Pokémon Origins miniseries, for its part, devotes its entire File 2: Cubone to Lavender Town. Red learns there that Team Rocket grunts have taken over the tower and are holding Mr. Fuji captive; Blue, who overheard everything, intends to steal his thunder. Though he took the ghost for a trick by the grunts to keep the curious away, he still takes off running higher up in the tower, the moment a real ghost comes at him.

Red, for his part, doesn't back down and sends his Charmeleon against the ghost, to no avail. Blue rushes to the floor above, beats a grunt with his Wartortle and brings Red the Silph Scope taken from the enemy: the ghost is Cubone's mother. Reina arrives with the little one, the soothed mother fades away, then Red routs Team Rocket with his Jolteon and frees Mr. Fuji, who gives him two mysterious stones and a Poké Flute as thanks. In File 4: Charizard, these stones prove the old man right, as he saw them as the young Trainer's only chance of winning: thanks to them, the Charizard at Red's side Mega Evolves and Mewtwo ends up defeated.

👻 Gengar is one of the tower's prankster Ghosts in the anime: find it in our Gengar collection.

Manga, Cards and an Urban Legend Around Lavender Town

In chapter 13 of the Pokémon Adventures manga, the tower becomes a trap, and the trouble comes from Koga, one of Team Rocket's trio of commanders. His Gastly holds Pokémon remains under its sway there, and even Blue, who had gone to explore the place. Red, who came looking for him, has to put up a fierce fight against the commander before the two of them can get out.

The Trading Card Game dedicated a card to the Pokémon Tower as early as November 24, 1998, in an expansion released only in Japan that also made it the theme of a deck. It took until January 2002 and the Wizards Black Star Promos for it to reach the West, with no French translation. Lavender Town itself only got its first card with Team Up, an expansion in the Sun & Moon series released in France on February 1, 2019.

Then there's "Lavender Town Syndrome", a persistent urban legend usually filed among creepypastas. According to the story, children who listened too much to the town's original Japanese theme were left with all sorts of disorders, and its composer supposedly descended into madness. None of this has ever been established: it's a story told to scare people, and should be taken as one.

Lavender Town at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• What's inside the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town?
  Pokémon graves, spread over seven floors. Only the first two floors are free of ghosts: higher up, Gastly, Haunter and Cubone roam, and you can only identify them with the Silph Scope.
• Can you catch the Pokémon Tower ghost?
  No. In the first generation and in FireRed and LeafGreen, you have to beat it, and even a Master Ball fails; the only exception is the Pomeg Berry glitch in FireRed and LeafGreen. In Red, Blue and Yellow, a Poké Doll even lets you skip the battle.
• What happens to the Pokémon Tower in Gold and Silver?
  Completely renovated, it becomes the Kanto Radio Tower. The graves were moved to the Soul House, a sanctuary steeped in candlelit gloom.
• In which episode does Ash go to Lavender Town?
  In "The Tower of Terror" (EP023): he goes there looking for a Ghost-type Pokémon to beat Sabrina and leaves with a Haunter. He comes back in AG153 to take on the Battle Dome.
• What is Lavender Town Syndrome?
  A creepypasta-style urban legend: the town's original Japanese theme supposedly caused disorders in children who listened to it too much and drove its composer mad. It's just a scary story, with no established basis.

In short

Lavender Town has no Gym, but it tells a story other than the race for badges: grief for Pokémon and for those who loved them, between the graves of the Pokémon Tower, Mr. Fuji's orphanage and a ghost waiting to depart in peace. From Gold and Silver onward, the Radio Tower and the Soul House changed its face without taking away its hushed, reverent atmosphere, which the anime, the manga and even an urban legend have carried on.