Kohei Uchimura's Pokemon Go Phone Bill Is Olympic Size

Kohei Uchimura, an Olympic champion Japanese gymnast, rang up a $5,000 cellphone bill in Rio de Janeiro while playing Pokemon Go.

The Guardian reported that, luckily, Uchimura's phone carrier service agreed to knock down the bill to 3,000 yen, or $29.56, per day.

Uchimura, a six-time world champion gymnast and reigning Olympics men's all-around champion, apparently was not as successful in Pokemon Go, since it has not been released yet in Brazil, noted ESPN.

Pokemon Go app players can boot up the app in Brazil, but they will not find any Pokemon or anything else since the game is not operational there, which upset members of the New Zealand soccer team, according to website Stuff.

"I wish I could run around in the [athletes'] village catching Pokemon,'' New Zealand soccer player told Stuff. "I just can't get it on the phone. It's fine, but it would have been something fun to do."

In fact, comments from athletes about not being able to play the app in Brazil left Stuff writers Ryan Nashima and Stephen Wade to wonder humorously if that is started to overshadow many of the other problems reportedly plaguing the Rio Games.

"So the plumbing and electricity in the athletes' village took several days to fix. Who cares? But no 'Pokemon Go?' That's an outrage," the Stuff writers stated. "If there were ever a more 'First World problem' for the Zika-plagued, water-polluted Rio Olympics, it's Brazil's lack of access to the hit mobile game, which has united players the world over."

The addictive Pokemon Go app allows anyone with a smartphone to capture virtual Pokemon creatures among real life locations, bring augmented reality technology into the mainstream, wrote National Public Radio. The app has taken the world by storm and has also led to embarrassing incidents and lawsuits along the way.

Forbes reported Wednesday that a West Orange, New Jersey man filed a request for a class-action lawsuit against Niantic, Inc., the Pokemon Co. and Nintendo Co. The lawsuit charged that Pokestops and Pokemon gyms have been placed on private property without the consent of the owners and then profited from players trespassing in those spaces, Forbes reported.

USA Today reported last month that officials at Washington, D.C. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Poland's Auschwitz Memorial called on Pokemon Go makers to take their sites off the game, saying that it was dishonors Holocaust victims.

• Nintendo Shares Plummet, Says Pokemon Go Worthless to It
• Auschwitz: No Pokemon Go