Hocotate is Captain Olimar's home planet.
The name "Hocotate" comes from Nintendo Japan's headquarters' street address, 11-1 Kamitoba hokotate-cho. From what can be seen, it appears to be a dessert-like planet, though, it is implied by the President that their are swamps as he notes a location known as 'Hocotate Swamp'. When viewed from space, the planet itself is purple coloured and possesses a set of two intersecting planetary rings (which alone do not necessarily imply that Hocotate is a massive planet, as rings can form around smaller planets as well). In the opening scene of Pikmin 2, Hocotate can be seen with two neighboring planetoids, likely moons. A incredibly bright star can be seen behind Hocotate, possibly a sun, indicating that it probaly takes place in another star system to ours. Stars are visible from the surface during the daytime, indicating a thin atmosphere. In a possible reference to urban Japan, a building resembling a capsule hotel is shown.
Hocotatian people are around 2cm (3/4 in.) tall, about the size of a nickel. It it uncertain what sort of gas they breathe as a means of respiration, though oxygen gas is known to be extremely poisonous to them; Olimar and Louie must protect themselves while on the Planet of the Pikmin by wearing a spacesuit.
The technology is very advanced, as minuscule Gluon particles have been utilized (evidenced by the Gluon Drive part in Pikmin 1) and even a source of endless energy (the Eternal Fuel Dynamo). This makes it ironic that comparatively primitive human-made objects are considered valuable.
The currency of Hocotate is the Poko, a small type of coin that resembles those from the Super Mario series. Items from the Pikmin Planet are considered extremely rare treasures, and can be worth a particularly large amount of Pokos, many of which helped Olimar and Louie pay off their company's debt of 10,100 Pokos. (In comparison, 100 Pokos is more than a year's salary for the President of Hocotate Freight.)