With only a few days left in Tokyo, and having visited most of the places I’ve wanted to go, I had to think of new places to visit. It was then, after reading some of my previous posts, to visit the places that where used in Byousoku 5cm.

It was a rather last minute thing as I haven’t had any idea where to head. After downloading the digital release of Byousoku 5cm and doing a bit of googling, I found a web link to a ”Yahoo! Japan” map which was specifically created for the famous places used in Byousoku. I started noting down the places that I could visit within my given budget and geographical location.

Armed with my PSP filled with the maps of the given location, my camera and a bottle of water, I promptly left my friend’s place and in the direction of Shinjuku. Just over a 45 minutes train ride, I finally reached Shinjuku Station. It was the start of the long journey.

I marked each map with numbers right beside the location markers. Each number has a image of the same number that represents a visual image of the location, making searching for the places much easier.

After arriving at Shinjuku, I searched for the location marker 5. It took me roughly 15 minutes of walking around before finding it, for I didn’t know Shinjuku that well. With marker 5 down, looking for the rest of the markers was easy. It kinda came with the flow.

5.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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6.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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7.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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With markers 5 - 7 down, I headed towards markers 1 - 4. Took the Oedo Line to Tochomae. Marker 1 was just the view of the building while marker 3 is a duplicate of 2 , so I won’t upload them.

2.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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This building is called Shinjuku Sumitomo Building 「新宿住友ビル」

4.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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With those places visited, I headed for the next marker - The ‘ampm’ convenient store that Takaki apparently visited. It was also only then I realized that I could actually walk from Tochomae to Shinjuku as they are so darn near! They were connected by the underpass you see above.

9.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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I wasn’t sure if this was the ampm store at first, but the yellow line that runs in front of the store and the two signs facing the sidewalk confirmed it.

There was another place with I didn’t mark on the map as I have already visited it while walking in Shinjuku the week before.

N/A

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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With that marker down as well, I was faced with the more exciting parts of these journey - The places where Akari and Takaki spent their childhood at.

However, getting there was a problem as the station was on one of the lines that were not owned by JR East, which was not listed in my JR East Railway map. I wasn’t entirely sure that the hiragana name on the map was the name on the station either. Seeing that Hatsudai 「初台」 station was the nearest station to there, I took the Keio line and walked from there.

The walk from Hatsudai station to Marker 11 took roughly 15 minutes or so. I had almost wanted to ‘borrow’ one of the bicycles parked on the streets to make this journey easier ^^;

11.

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Chapter - 1st, Oukashou 「桜花抄」

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12.

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Chapter - 1st, Oukashou 「桜花抄」

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13.

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Chapter - 1st, Oukashou 「桜花抄」

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16.

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Chapter - 1st, Oukashou 「桜花抄」

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I couldn’t find what Markers 14 and 15 referred to.

Following that, I headed to the most two important locations in the whole video - The two train crossings.

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Chapter - 1st, Oukashou 「桜花抄」

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18.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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18.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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I had intended to visit the places where Akari and Takaki met Chobi the cat, but given that it was already dark and I didn’t had my external flash, I decided not to. Was getting hungry as well ^^;

I then bought a bento set from “Sunkus”, a conbini (convenient store) nearby and ate at the steps of an overhead bridge that was just meters away from where Akari made her phone call in Marker 11 as I couldn’t find any benches nearby.

^ Itadakimasu!

And after dinner, I headed to Akihabara for some last-minute shopping.

\Other Misc Pictures/

The pictures below are labeled under Miscellaneous as they weren’t on the maps itself and I realized of these places only after reaching back home and rewatching the Byousoku 5cm again.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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This seems to be taken at Ichigaya 「市谷」 station, Chou Line - Sobu Line.

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Chapter - 3rd, Byousoku 5cm 「秒速５センチメートル」

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Well, not exactly the same as what is in the video itself; but I though it would be nice to show you guys how the interior of the trains in Tokyo look like. I think this was the Keio Line.

\Thoughts/

I felt that it was good to have visited these places, being able to somehow see how the story got spun from just these few places in real life. There are other places to visit as well, but I didn’t had the chance to make a trip there. For those who would like to visit the first and second train crossings, take the Odawara Line from Shinjuku and stop at Sangubashi 「参宮橋」 station. It should be easy to navigate from there.

I wouldn’t mind visiting these places again, and also the remainder which I have yet to visit. It would probably be nice to visit during March/April, as it would be the crossover from Winter to Spring, which was also the seasons that took place during Byousoku 5cm