Yesterday, a tweet from what appeared to be a FIFA World Cup Twitter account said the Japanese soccer team arrived in Brazil in a Pokémon jet. And people fell for it. Lots of people. The tweet was retweeted over 7,000 times. USA Today, The Sporting News, SB Nation, The Toronto Sun, and even CBS Sports believed the hoax and mistakenly reported that Samurai Blue arrived in Brazil in a Pokémon jet. Yes, as Kotaku previously reported, Pikachu is the Japanese World Cup mascot. And yes, there are Pocket Monster planes. https://kotaku.com/in-japan-the-world-cup-is-sold-with-pikachu-1581619949 However, a quick internet search shows that the team arrived in Brazil in a very normal aircraft.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1589800201","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"kotaku-east","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"kotaku-east","TAGS":"pokemon","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); [Photo: Mainichi] [Photo: So-net] [Photo: World Samurai] So normal! Doesn’t anyone bother to check these things? And here is them getting on the plane, leaving the U.S. where they practiced prior to the World Cup. [Images via JFATV] Ah, the Samurai Blue was coming to Brazil from a practice in the United States, so maybe you think, well, perhaps they left Japan in a Pokémon plane. Um, no. They flew out on JAL, and the Pokémon planes are pg123 operated by ANA, a rival carrier. [Photo: Samurai Matome] Here is the plane they left on. [Photo: Samurai Matome] If you still don’t believe h25 com เข้าสู่ระบบ me, just look at the Twitter account that started this whole mess: “The unofficial FIFA football World Cup tweets. All the latest FIFA news and information on the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.” Unofficial! This isn’t the only Twitter account circulating this hoax. Don’t fall for it. Japan’s plane for the World โค้ดเครดิตฟรีสมาชิกใหม่ล่าสุด Cup. How awesome is that? [FIFAWorldCupTM] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.