Japanese Olympian Runs Up $5,000 In Roaming Charges While Playing Pokemon GO In Rio

TV- A Japanese Olympics star has blamed Pokémon Go after being hit with a 500,000 yen (about $5,000) bill in roaming charges from his carrier. Artistic gymnast Kohei Uchimura, who won gold at the 2012 Games in London and is the reigning world champion, said he only downloaded the game after arriving in Sao Paulo to train for Rio, but quickly got hooked despite not having arranged a flat rate for data roaming. Uchimura “couldn’t believe his eyes” when he saw the bill, according to the Kyodo news agency, with teammate Kenzo Shirai saying “He looked dead at the team meal that day.” Even though Pokémon Go isn’t particularly heavy on data and there were likely other culprits — the game only officially came out in Brazil today, though Uchimura may have been playing the Japanese version — roaming charges can rack up extremely quickly when you use your phone abroad for pretty much anything online.

There’s only one crazy part about this story and it’s not the $5,000 phone bill this guy racked up playing Pokemon GO. It’s the part where he was voluntarily walking around Rio when he doesn’t have to be. It’s a minor miracle this guy didn’t get killed by Zika/gun shots/contaminated water while he was out and about trying to catch Charmander. It’s crazy enough that these athletes even agreed to go to Rio. The place is a literal death trap. It’s a whole separate level of crazy to be wandering around when there’s death EVERYWHERE. Pretty sure I read somewhere that the police are snatching people and holding them for ransom. The police! What do you do when the police become the bad guys? And the USA basketball team is staying on a cruise ship so they don’t have to be on Rio soil any longer than they have to be. But sure, gallivant around town and play a game that’s already no longer cool.

PS- That giant cell phone bill gave me flashbacks to when I first got a cell phone and our family plan wasn’t prepared for me to send 8,000 text messages in one month. Our plan was set up for like 50 text messages. That’s the closest my Dad has ever come to killing me. Or when I told him I was dropping out of school to become a blogger.