CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Due to an annoying New Year's resolution, I need to go to Japan by the end of the year, so I'll be there over Christmas and New Year's. Aside from Christmas eve, I have nothing planned and want to visit as many anime-related places as possible! Does anyone know any locations that are featured in various series? So far I have the big ones:

Nishinomiya city (Suzumiya Haruhi)

Washinomiya Shrine, Saitama (Lucky Star)

Mt. Hakodate (Noein)

Yuigahama beach, Kamakura (Elfen Lied)

Toyosato school, Hikone (K-ON!)


Any further ideas would be extremely gracious!

If you're going to have access to a car then I'd recommend hitting the mountain passes on these mountains, especially the first one. You won't be able to drive very fast due to rumble strips that have been installed, but they are quite amazing. All of them are key parts of the anime Initial D.
Mt. Irozhazaka
Mt. Haruna
Mt. Akagi
Mt. Myogi

While you are in and around Kamakura, I would highly recomend taking the enoden line to Enoshima, the "picturesque" island that was the setting for Tsuritama, Tari-Tari, and makes guest appearences in various anime, one of which I believe was Natsuyuki Randevous.

Sunshine Street in Ikebukuro is the setting for some scenes in Durarara!!; it's also just a generally very famous vista that I've seen in a few different manga I can't even remember the names of. If you walk down that street when you're in Japan, then continue watching anime and reading manga, chances are high that you will see it in something you watch or read later on.

Tokyo Tower is pictured in tons of anime and manga and is definitely a must-see if you spend any time in Tokyo at all.

Several locations in Tokyo were featured in X/1999. Besides Tokyo Tower and the Sunshine 60 building, the other non-fictional sites that were mentioned were the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku (great place to get a /free/ panoramic view of the city from the top of a high-rise building), Rainbow Bridge (hard to miss if you spend time in Tokyo), the Diet Building, the Yamanote train line (which you will almost certainly ride if you spend time in Tokyo), and a certain building in Nakano--Nakano Sun Plaza, I think it's called.

Tokyo Dome and the famous Kaminarimon gate near the temples Sensoji and Asakusajinja are both such famous sights that they're featured in multiple anime/manga; I'm pretty sure I've seen each of those in at least one anime or manga, but I'm not sure which.

Speaking of Nakano, these are not particularly featured in any anime or manga that I have seen, but both Nakano Broadway and Akihabara are big shopping areas for geeky interests such as anime, manga, and electronics, along with Ikebukuro. (All of these are in Tokyo.)

Definitely anime-related but not featured in any anime that I know of is the futuristic water bus you can catch in Asakusa (in Tokyo) called the Himiko; it's designed by Mastumoto Leiji and has cutouts of the Galaxy Express 999 characters in the front of the boat.

I also highly recommend a trip to the Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka (suburb west of Tokyo). While it is not featured in anime, it is all about anime and is absolutely enchanting. You do have to purchase your tickets in advance, though.

Kyoto has a manga museum, and you can see statues of Tezuka Osamu characters right in front of Kyoto Station.

Near Kyoto is a little village named Otsu, which is where Kenshin and Tomoe go to live together when Kenshin is going into hiding in the Ruruoni Kenshin Trust and Betrayal OVAs. This town is a little hard to get to (you have to take a bus that's a different company than the regular Kyoto city buses), but in it is a temple called Hosen-in which is renowned for its bloody ceiling made from planks taken from the floor of a castle where a large group of samurai, surrounded by enemies, all committed ritual suicide. However, if that doesn't interest you and you choose to ignore the traces of blood which can still be seen on the ceiling of the temple, it is still one of the most beautiful and enchanting temples I saw while in the Kyoto area and definitely worth checking out.

If you want to consider places featured in manga but not anime, there's a famous castle in Okinawa, Shuri Castle, that appears in the Basara manga. It is a great place to visit if you happen to be in Okinawa, but Okinawa is pretty remote from the rest of Japan, so your travels might not take you there.

Oohh Kaori those are good suggestions, thank you

I'm planning on squeezing every yen out of my JR pass, so few places are too remote (except Okinawa *sigh*)

In the opening of "Witch Hunter Robin", you get a glimpse of the Tokyo skyline. Although it is more impressive in the anime than in real life, if you walk out on the Rainbow Bridge, you can get a good panorama. I used a digital camera and Photoshop to get an almost 180-degree picture.

The overpasses from "Serial Experiments Lain" opening are everywhere.

If you haven't been to 'the' intersection in Shibuya, it's just outside the station. That's seen in... well, quite a few modern anime.

That's Tokyo. There's Fuji, which is often hit/miss from the JR line running between Tokyo and Osaka, but if you have time to take the detour, you can get to Fujiyoshida or someplace nearby for good pictures (assuming no cloud cover, again, hit or miss).

You are so lucky! I will have a few questions for you when you get back! I really want to go to Japan myself someday!

Out here in Okayama we're kind of out in the boonies, but I hear the Tenchi Muyo author came from this region and incorporated some of the local names and sites. Washu's name shares its spelling with the Washu-zan I ride to work over every day. The cave where Tenchi met Ryoko is also supposedly based on a local landmark.

The Naruto and Detective Conan guys are from here, too, and while I don't know of any references they used off the top of my head, the landscapes in Naruto aren't dissimilar from the sparser areas here, and Conan has been adopted as a sort of regional mascot.

I know your trip is based on anime and all, but if you get the chance you should really check out Hiroshima. I swear, it's one of the neatest places on the island (not to mention some of the best food!).

Reading these posts has made me realize that I live in a very boring part of Japan.

Seconding Tokyo Tower, the Rainbow Bridge, and Ikebukuro.

Crossfire (post: 1599580) wrote:I know your trip is based on anime and all, but if you get the chance you should really check out Hiroshima. I swear, it's one of the neatest places on the island (not to mention some of the best food!).

Actually, Hiroshima was probably used in Barefoot Gen. After all, it takes place after one of the bombs dropped.

Grave of the Fireflies too, now that I think of it. (Or was that Nagasaki?)

I found some cool posts that have anime screenshots compared with the real life locations (Most are shows mentioned already. And they're all KyoAni. X3)

Hyouka
K-On
Clannad
Kanon
Melancholy

Also, here's a TvTropes page with a decent list of anime with locations based in real life (It's where I found those links): http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealPlaceBackground

This is all super useful, thanks so much everyone! I was worried I'd end up spending all two weeks standing in front of Haruhi's high school taking pictures and staring at it... this gives me so much more to do!

I'm going to visit as many of these places as I can and photobomb them

rocklobster wrote:Actually, Hiroshima was probably used in Barefoot Gen. After all, it takes place after one of the bombs dropped.

Oh yeah, they sell Barefoot Gen at the bombing museum. Just around the corner from the life-sized melting bomb victim statues...

Cap'n Nick wrote:

rocklobster wrote:Actually, Hiroshima was probably used in Barefoot Gen. After all, it takes place after one of the bombs dropped.

Oh yeah, they sell Barefoot Gen at the bombing museum. Just around the corner from the life-sized melting bomb victim statues...

It's the only manga that is allowed in Schools.

Correction to my earlier post: The temple I mentioned that has the bloody ceiling, Hosen-in, is in Ohara, not Otsu. Both towns are somewhat close to Kyoto, though, and Otsu apparently also has several historic temples in it.

By the way, if you spend any time in Kyoto at all, Kinkakuji is a huge must-see. It's by far the most famous thing in Kyoto and very much worth visiting, even though I'm not aware of any anime that feature it (it probably is in several anime and manga I haven't seen; it's just that famous). Try to go on a sunny day if you can. In Kyoto I also highly recommend Sanjusangendo (contains one thousand life-size statues of Kannon, which does not begin to describe the amazing atmosphere of the place) and Fushimi Inari (fox spirit shrine; has paths lined with hundreds of orange torii gates). Ryoanji boasts what is possibly the most famous rock garden in Japan. There are also a couple of bamboo forests in the Kyoto area that you can go to, which is pretty awesome.

Kaori wrote:Fushimi Inari (fox spirit shrine; has paths lined with hundreds of orange torii gates).

Fushimi Inari is also featured in a chapter of the Aria manga.

Crossfire wrote:Grave of the Fireflies too, now that I think of it. (Or was that Nagasaki?)

Grave of the Fireflies wasn't about the atomic bomb. In fact, it's never even mentioned in the movie, though there is a shot toward the beginning that SEEMS like it, but it's not. It's about Kobe and Nishinomiya in Hyogo. The firebombing of Kobe was a big part of the attack against Japan toward the end of WWII. Nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki came after that, though obviously it happens during the course of the movie, all we hear is that Japan surrendered. We don't hear WHY. Apparently some news traveled slowly back then.

The DVD for Fireflies shows the modern day locations the movie was based on, but they're really different now.