RE: The Isshu Region Speculation Thread
Alright, here are my speculations:
First of all, Isshu is almost certainly based on New York City, at least in shape. It's definitely not Shanghai; I've lived there and you would have to distort it a lot to get Isshu. The only big difference is there doesn't seem to be a Long Island Sound, but nothing's exact and it could be hiding under that cloud near the plateau thing for all we know. Now, if the desert really is supposed to represent Ground Zero, then I can see some lawsuits coming.
About the vortex, maybe that's the way to the White High-Link - that place in the clouds where you walk through a screen and your appearance changes. As for the two mountains, I think that which one has Reshiram or Zekrom could vary between versions, like maybe the mascot of your game is on the mountain closer to your starting town.
The airport is interesting, and not only because that's the weirdest place to put an airport. It will definitely fly you to another area akin to the Sevii Islands, but I agree that it couldn't lead to one of the old regions. Profits from remakes aside, picking 1 out of the 4 Japan-based regions which are relatively close together would be pretty arbitrary. Going to one particular old city without the rest of the region would be a reasonable addition, but I don't know how that would work story-wise unless that one city just happened to get an airport and you fly there but the way out of town is indefinitely blocked by a sleeping coffeeholic or whatever they think of these days. The plane could also go to a Battle Zone-like area or event areas like those faraway islands.