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Japan Trip 2023 - Day 4, Your Name Locations, Yotsuya, Shinanomachi

Japan Trip

Japan Trip 2023 - Day 4, Your Name Locations, Yotsuya, Shinanomachi

Been capturing morning time lapses and this morning's sunrise turned out good... Until a fly appeared at one point somehow outside the window.

Otherwise clear skies, a fairly warm day.

Tokyo skyline in the morning.

Bought this Suntory Tennensui brand of water marketed with Suzume and Shinkai's other movies. They changed the bottle so that it's easier to crush for the bin bags but also means they're harder to hold when opening...

Suntory Tennensui as promoted by Shinkai's movies.

Today was mostly going to be Your Name spots.

First off was Yotsuya Station where Taki's waiting for his date with Miki.

Shinkai mentioned he kind of wanted to capture the ever changing scenery in Tokyo during his Suzume blu-ray interview.

Here a new big glass building built in 2019, blocks out the tower on the right that was visible in Your Name.

Brief flash scene of the station towards the end of the movie 1:39:42 is fairly much the same though.

The Yotsuya-Mitsuki Bridge is a pretty busy place.

Yotsuya-mitsuki Bridge

There's a little side path for walks nearby on Sophia Street where you can see the tower near Ichigaya Campus in the distance, again that the glass building obsures.

The tower is actually part of the Ministry of Defence building next to the campus in Ichigaya...

You can see the tower again via Sophia Walking Path.

Interesting how construction sites in Japan has these decibel noise/tremor level monitors. Don't see them in UK but it's next to quite a noisy road so that will end up part of the noise probably.

Construction sites with realtime noise monitors.

On the way to the Suga Shrine now.

Some more flash scenery from towards the end of the movie. I think it's changed a bit but it's mostly the same. You'll see groups of kids being lead around the area since there are a number of daycare centres.

Your Name, school crossing scenery.

You can already see the Suga Shrine stairs in the distance as you walk in further in Toufukuin Hill.

Toufukuin Hill

Two ladies were standing chatting in the area so not much choice but to include them in the photo where Adult Mitsuha is frantically looking for Taki.

Quite a lot of foreigners at the stairs as seen in other Your Name tour videos and you can guess what they're all here for, including me of course, haha.

Your Name, Suga Shrine Stairs

Never noticed this nook where Taki and Mitsuha pass each other on the stairs until I watched someone else's video.

Your Name, Adult Taki and Mitsuha passing by.

There were around 12 other people but everyone was courteous, getting their pics and vids done quickly, trying not to get in the way of others.

"Trying" is the key word though since everyone's trying to get that perfect shot, lol. Especially those who came as a couple and wanted to pose as Taki and Mitsuha too.

Ssshh...

There was also a couple doing a anniversary shoot or something cradling their baby as they walked down the stairs.

Lots of traditional buildings, particularly temples everywhere.

Suga Shrine besides the stairs.

You can see the Ichigaya Campus tower again from here.

It's that tower again.

Some Peter Rabbit fan here.

Peter Rabbit fan somewhere.

Nicely kept hedges in this home.

Nicely kept hedges here.

There really are a lot of temples around here. Battle for supremacy.

Got to the point where I got bored snapping pics of them, haha...

Lots of temples in the area.

The spot where Adult Taki is searching for Adult Mitsuha on Entsuji Hill.

The postbox you see in the middle gets its own shot in the movie.

Star postbox.

For the entire time I was in this area, 4 or more helicopters were circling around annoyingly... Maybe some big event was going on or something.

As we make our way to the Le Boheme cafe, we come across another scenery shot featuring Shinkai's favourite Yoyogi Tower and the cocoon on the right.

Best following the inside inner road route along Shinjuku Gyoen where it's quieter which is also where the Garden of Words is set. I don't keep my GPS on so I ended up missing it because I turned in late.

Walking along outside Shinjuku Gyoen.

Mini shrines in urban areas seem pretty common.

Mini shrine.

There's no spot to stand and get the perfect spot unless you go into the park and raise your arms above the fence. not much of a queue despite being lunchtime.

More Mos Burger x One Piece.

More Mos Burger x One Piece

You'd think I would only be going for Japanese food while in Japan but was more interested in filling up and I was tired of fast food. Usually I have pasta back in the UK so pasta it was... and more importantly the cafe was spacious and quiet so my social anxiety doesn't scream so bad.

It's another chain cafe, Tully's Coffee of course which was doing some kind of Harry Potter collab.

Harry Potter themed food at a cafe.

Some of the meals were sold out so I just had bolognese again but not the sausage one. Seemed to be the same procedure as yesterday; collect drink first then wait for meal. Don't know if it's the same for UK or Starbucks since I don't go.

Bolognese wasn't too bad. Kind of dull actually... Sauce wasn't as good as Cinnabon. Mince wasn't very well done and spaghetti was still stiff.

Upside was the staff was friendlier than the Cinnabon I went to in Roppongi despite me struggling to remember what I had seen on the menu outside. Usually they have a picture menu outside and it's the same inside but it was mostly text inside.

More bologneseee.

Basket for your bag in restaurants here. Japanese chains in HK offer them too but no one uses them over there haha...

Had to neatly divide up everything again after I finished but this time, one of the girls called out and said I could just leave the tray behind and they'd sort it out. Might have been because they heard my foreign accent but it was a cute gesture. She had this voice and appearance Japanese idols usually have.

Basket for your bag.

Now we're recharged a bit, back to our Your Name tour.

And yet another "Fakkin". Not going to forget about what the Wendy's chain is shortened to in Japan any time soon...

Wendy's

Next was the Asakasa area were Adult Taki and Miki are taking a walk together while catching up.

While I was here I actually saw a humming bird! Thought it was a giant bee at first but it had a small head and long beak as it drank from the flowers. Didn't manage to capture much before people walked in and scared it off.

First time seeing one :O

Not quite the fishing area from Persona 5 but certainly looks the part.

Persona 5 fishing.

Benkei Bridge had some nice looking lantern shades not unlike the ones you around Glasgow University campus.

Shame I didn't really want to stick around til dark.

A shot of buildings at 1:35:03 as Taki and Miki continue their walk.

The artists often use Google Earth for reference as revealed in a magazine interview for Weathering so they might have done for this shot too since it's a river on the right.

New Otani Hotel in the distance.

It's obvious they put in a lot of effort to add greenery and some better aesthetics like the tile patterns on the ground.

People throwing trash into the river then.

No dumping.

Nice pillars along the way and the road is barriered off by a roll of trees as you walk on at this point.

Nice pillars.

Soon you see Yotsuya Station in the distance but again, the Ministry of Defence tower is blocked from view now of course.

This area is actually a baseball practice ground. A man stopped me to ask where a station was but I didn't know and he probably thought I was a local Japanese being East Asian as many locals have thought.

Anyway, as the camera pans left you see Yoyogi Tower yet again but in the real world, it's actually the Akasaka Guest House. They probably changed it so they don't get any issues when the hardcore fans try to enter the imperial grounds.

If you follow Google Maps as we head to the next walk way where they part, you'll see just how much ground that guest house covers.

There are guards patrolling and watching each entrance.

Akasaka Guest House

At this point GPS was failing me. it showed a route but following the dot made go on the wrong direction so this part set of places took some effort.

Never just follow the dot...

Akasaka guest house grounds are huge. Lots of guards.

On the upside I came across more mini shrines in the middle of nowhere much like the Weathering ones.

Mini shrine.

Also the famed Super Cub scooter Akari drove in 5cm. Possibly Yurucamp too.

Super Cub scooter like in 5cm or Yurucamp

The imperial guest house guards must have been wondering what this suspicious guy was doing walking pass them 3 times as I backtracked, haha...

Was supposed to turn right after passing this block of apartments where the no U-turn markings are on the road.

Should be turning right after this block of apartments.

I guess there is no wrong way, just a longer way as I aimed for the Shinanomachi Station walk way.

Back on track...

That said...

Just passing by a local playground.

It's a very hilly area...

So much uphill walking...

Finally, reached Shinanomachi Station and Yoyogi Tower in the distance!

And from a slightly different angle you'll find the dash scene with Adult Mitsuha. Should be further to the right with Yoyogi Tower obscured from view.

Funnily enough she's actually running West, away from the Suga Shrine where she finally re-unites with Taki on the stairs.

Last but not least, the walkway nearby.

Covered a lot of ground today. All done before rush hour too so I could get back to the hotel in time without the cramped trains. Not much of a fan of the hilly areas in both Yotsuya and Shinanomachi.

Been meaning to browse the book shops because they had some fun programming books the last time I was in Japan. Didn't really come by any this time that had Manga panels in them but saw some ChatGPT books... Not sure how long the AI fad will go on for.

Buy enough Meiji sweets and get an Anya file folder.

Spy x Family fans must love sweets.

Also, Smarties rip-off xD

Smarties rip-off in Japan.

Some pretty nice Christmas decor.

Japan Xmas decor.

Tonight's bento I said "iie" as in "no" when asked to reheat but the guy thought I said "yeah" in English xD

Tonight's bento dinner.

Tough Gummies turned out tough to chew as named. could be an alternative to chewing gum, haha. Quite like it though.

Tough Gummies for snacking on.

On another note, the 10k power bank I bought the other day from Donki has been serving me well, keeping my camera batteries and phone topped up throughout the day.

Just been alternating between two batteries while one charges in my backpack.

 

Why not take a break?

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