For the record, I had planned it such that I could do sightseeing in Nagoya itself the day after. Taking off from Nagoya at 7.30 in the morning, I was in Takayama a bit after 10, and had time until 19 (7 pm).
#Hyouka movie map full#
With my Takayama visit in September 2018, I was too cheap for Shinkansen, and my solution for still being able to spend a full day in Takayama was to stay in Nagoya and do a day trip from there to Takayama by bus, taking the first bus in the morning and returning in the same evening.
Even with Shinkansen and express trains, reaching Takayama from the two aforementioned regions generally takes 3.5–5 hours. From there, there are special JR lines up north, but timetables might be a bit more limited than what you’re used to, in terms of fewer trains and shorter operating hours. Thus, getting to Takayama most often involves getting to Nagoya first. Since Takayama is located in Central Japan, it is not close to either the Tokyo area or the Kansai region, and it isn’t located conveniently on the major Tōkaidō route between the two either. However, even though Hyouka is unambiguously set in the real Takayama, in the anime, the town is called “Kamiyama” (spelled with the kanji 神山, not the more intuitive 上山 even though some people mistakenly use that). It is most famous for its preserved Edo period old town and one of Japan’s top festivals. Takayama, also known as Hida-Takayama for extra clarity, is a modestly sized town of under 100,000 residents in Gifu Prefecture, surrounded by mountains and thus a bit isolated from other population centers. Granted, Takayama is not that “off the beaten track,” at least for domestic Japanese tourists, but it did get on many more people’s radars thanks to Kyoto Animation’s 2012 “everyday mystery” anime Hyouka (氷菓 alternative romanization: Hyōka), where the setting really adds to the ambience of the show. This would apply to Numazu (Love Live! Sunshine!!) and to Takayama. Then there are places that have a lot of their own appeal, where anime is the draw that gets fans to discover these destinations that are also wonderful in their own right. I enjoyed these locations, but I have to admit it was mostly just for the anime connection. I hope people won’t mind if I name Nishinomiya ( Haruhi Suzumiya series) and Hamura/Mizuho (Clannad) as examples. There are those that are otherwise rather ordinary, but where an anime being set there adds new meaning to the place, creating fresh appeal. I would say that there are two types of anime pilgrimage destinations. This visit happened way before the pandemic. Note: As stated in previous reports, I’m basically clearing my backlog of writing reports for old pilgrimages.