Comments on: The Great Otaku Pilgrimage

By: anon

anon — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 16:21:00 +0000

Otaku aren’t all basement dwelling neckbeard hikikomori. A number of us have nice lives and/or travel internationally for work. That’s how I do my pilgrimages this year to Kamogawa (Rinne no Lagrange), Kanazawa (Hanasaku Iroha), and Takayama (Hyouka).

Anime is just another hobby and it’s a good form of stress relief. There is no reason why anime fans should have less disposable resources than other types of otaku out there.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:44:00 +0000

Don’t forget Tokiwa-sō in Toshima-ku!

By: Red Maigo

Red Maigo — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 12:13:00 +0000

What’s really funny is that I went on my own seichi junrei when I was in Takayama and visited Shirakawa-go. It’s the village which is based on the town of Hinamizawa in the anime Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (When They Cry).

It’s a few hours by bus to Shirakawa Village but everything was there.

Yes, the anime, game and live action movie was based on or around the Shirakawa Village. I took lots of pictures.

By: Raymond Chuang

Raymond Chuang — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 13:10:00 +0000

I can almost bet even money right now it’s kind of hard to get a ticket on the “Hida” limited express train from Nagoya to Toyama (one of its major stops is Takayama) because of hordes of otaku visiting the town to find the locations of the Hyouka anime.

By the way, the current anime series “Tari Tari” is resulting in a LOT of otaku running around the Fujisawa/Enoshima/Kamakura area because the series is based on many locations from this area.

By: CelestialSushi

CelestialSushi — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:02:00 +0000

Spain, huh? I wonder if there are otaku going to Venice because of ARIA the ANIMATION…
BTW, if you haven’t seen that series, I highly recommend it; it’s very beautiful and relaxing :D RightStuf has the DVDs in the US.

By: Red Maigo

Red Maigo — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 15:29:00 +0000

When I went to Japan a few years ago, I spent some time in Takayama (Gifu Prefecture). It’s a beautiful place and I highy recommend stopping by there if you’re visiting.

Anywho, fast forward five years, and I am watching an anime called Hyouka — which is still currently airing. Hyouka takes place in a town called Kamiyama but when I saw the original opening for the show something(s) looked familiar.

After investigating further, I found out that the studio who made Hyouka based the town of Kamiyama on Takayama. The background shots are so detailed that I can pick out certain streets and shops from my stay there.

I bet that the town is being invaded with anime otaku right now.

The production house that created Hyouka (Kyoto Animation) is notorious for using real locales for their anime series. Kyoto Animation also made Lucky Star, K-ON!, and the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise.