It’s been 3 months since I came back from Japan, and finally I have the chance to look back at all the most iconic locations where Makoto Shinkai set one of my favourite animation movie. So here’s my personal list with a side by side movie/reality comparison.
National Art Center Café
Can we all spend a second to notice that in my picture there are only two empty seats? The same where Taki and Miki Okudera had their coffee on their first date. That gives me the feels…really…
Suga Shrine stairs
This is the most iconic one but be sure not to look at the cover art of the movie. It’s not reliable for the exact location. It shows young Taki and Mitsuha with a modern cityscape that is actually at the very opposite side of the stairs. I discovered this listening an old man explaining this to a small group of tourist during their movie pilgrimage (do I know japanese?! No, but the reference was quite clear). If you look at the real ending scene voilà! the side by side.
Shinjuku Station Bridge
Ok, no snow when I got there but look at letters in the top left corner, here we are! Just go out of the Shinjuku train station and walk on the bridge right under the “Atari” bridge to shot this.
Intersection behind Shinjuku Police Station
Still Shinjuku. Behind the Police Station there’s the famous intersection of the initial Hyperlapse with Radwimps soundtrack. As you can see the original one is faced horizontally but I didn’t retouched mine to avoid reversed words.
Tokyo Skyline
Honestly I have no clue on how to get the perfect shot here but I found a similar view of the NTT docomo Yoyogi Building from the Tokyo observatory. I’m pretty satisfied with this one.
Shinjuku station bridge – from below
Same bridge, different angle. Before or after walking on the bridge just turn around and take this low angle shot from the street. I was lucky and if you look closer Taki was there even in my picture. Ah the feels…
Kimi no na wa – 君の名は。
End of the tour (for now). Consider this guide “in progress”. Any question? Curious about the exact location where I shot these picture? Contact me on my social networks!
