Pokémon moves closer to becoming a reality with real-life gym opening next month

As Pokémon players know, the gym is one of the trainer's most intimidating and essential battlefronts: Success achieved facing off against Gym Leaders results in your advancement toward the definitive Pokémon League.

Next month, real-life Pokémon trainers can finally check out one of these gyms for themselves. The Pokémon Expo Gym is opening in Osaka, Japan on Nov. 19. According to an article by the Japanese site Inside Games, the Expo Gym is a "hands-on edutainment [facility]" that offers Pokémon training tips and related activities, as well as the chance to "[enjoy] a conversation with Pokémon."

Certain games and programs, as explained on the facility's official website, offer special Pokémon to be collected in-game as your reward for a good performance. There will also be a companion mobile app offered to help track your gym progress.

The Pokémon Expo Gym is not exactly like the ones familiar to those who have played through games like last year's Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. Still, with this and the recent announcement of Pikachu coming to Build-A-Bear Workshop, it appears that Pokémon's convergence with the real world presence is growing stronger by the day.