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The official Pokémon movie blog has updated. We have added a section collecting every single blog entry for easy browsing. Translations of the new entry follows:

Location Scouting Report #2: Baptism by Fiery Heat and the Marble Mosque

After an 11 hour 30 minute plane trip, the scouting team finally arrived in Dubai.
The local time at their arrival was 6:15am.

The instant we exited the airport, the sunlight hit us with such intensity it felt like our skin was being scorched!
It's still early morning, but the temperature was already so high it felt like we were in a sauna!
This is when really hit us that we had truly come to a desert country.
In order to avoid the heat, we immediately headed for the air-conditioned bus!
The first day of the scouting had started.

The bus followed the highway towards Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
As we were driving along, the "Burj Khalifa" soon came into sight through the window!
The bus drove through the skyscraper-lined urban center of Dubai for a little bit, but soon set off to the undeveloped semidesert. And after a short drive through that, it arrived in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.



Unlike Dubai, which has developed thanks to trade and tourism, Abu Dhabi has become prosperous through its oil resources.

Abu Dhabi is also an active player when it comes to countermeasures against global warming, as we could tell from the many green trees we could see through the windows.
Looking at this scenery through the windows of an airconditioned bus almost made us forget we were in a desert country.



The scouting team's first destination was the "Sheikh Zayed Mosque".

This is said to be the largest mosque in the world, and feels almost like a marble palace.
We stepped out of the bus, taking in the majesty of the mosque, when... Ow, the heat!

As we exited the bus, Yuyama's glasses fogged up and the thermometer showed almost 40 degrees Celsius!
Again, it was still morning, but the heat and humidity was already well beyond what you'd consider an extremely hot day in Japan.
And the temperature just seemed to rise more and more throughout the day all the way until the afternoon...

We firmly inscribed our guide's instructions to "Always carry water with you" into our minds, then set off for the mosque!



The Sheikh Zayed Mosque was made using both traditional Islamic design and modern architectural technology.
It's a relatively new building, created during the turn of the century.
Known as the world's largest mosque, it's about the size of three soccer fields and has room for 40 000.
This is one of the few mosques in the world to admit non-Muslims, and it has become one of the biggest tourist attractions in Abu Dhabi.

That said, this is still a place of worship.
Shoes are forbidden, so all visitors are required to place their shoes in the provided shoe rack before entering the building.
Likewise, women are required to wear black ethnic costumes called "Abaya" to conceal their skin and hair.
Our guide was familiar with this practice and put on her abaya in no time.



The extravagant appearance of the mosque isn't just limited to its exterior.
As we entered the building, we were greeted by an enormous chandelier.
Not only that, but a massive Persian carpet, said to be the largest in the world, spread out across the entire floor.
The absolutely stunning floral pattern brightened up the entire hall!



When we looked closer at the carpet, we could see an elevated portion in the form of a line, which practitioners line up against to perform Salāt, Muslim prayer.
When lined up here, they face in the direction of Mecca, the holy place of Islam.

You can't fully understand something without trying it, so after hearing these explanations, Director Yuyama attempted such a prayer himself.

Source: http://www.pokemon-movie.jp/pokemovie_ch/?p=211
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