Tokyo｜Pilgrimage to the Sacred Sites of 5 Centimeters Per Second!

How fast must I live to see you again?

——5 Centimeters per Second

Cherry blossoms fall at a speed of five centimeters per second. From their last meeting until their chance encounter at the railway crossing, exactly 13 years had passed for Takaki and Akari.

If separated by that railway track, it would be the greatest distance in the world.

5 cm/s * 13 years * 365 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes * 60 seconds = 20,498.4 kilometers.

This distance is exactly half the circumference of the Earth, the distance between the South Pole and the North Pole.

Takaki had been searching for Akari until he disappeared into the crowd.

After returning from my trip to Japan, I revisited 5 Centimeters per Second and gained a deeper understanding, because I traveled from Kagoshima in Kyushu to Tokyo, clearly realizing how extremely inconvenient rural JR transportation is. In remote areas, if you miss a train, you have to wait for hours. It is truly far from Shinjuku in Tokyo to Iwafune Town in Tochigi Prefecture, and the train tickets are really expensive. Moreover, they were only 13 years old at the time. How much courage must it have taken to travel across mountains and valleys just to meet the person you like?

Incomplete guide to pilgrimage of sacred sites:

1. Odakyu Line Sangubashi 1st Crossing (Photo 5)

Chapter 1 "Cherry Blossom Letter" - the railway crossing where young Takaki and Akari went home from school and promised to view cherry blossoms together the following spring.

Address: 151-0053, 4-8-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

(From the east exit of Odakyu Line Sangubashi Station, head south along the Odakyu Line on the right side, the first crossing. There is a vending machine nearby.)

2. Odakyu Line Sangubashi 3rd Crossing (Photos 1, 2, 3)

Chapter 3 "5 Centimeters Per Second" - the railway crossing where adult Takaki and Akari brush past each other, and at the moment they turn around, they are separated by the train.

Address: 151-0053, 5-59-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

(From the east exit of Odakyu Line Sangubashi Station, head south along the Odakyu Line on the right side, the second crossing. Next to it is the Keio Bus Dogenzaka 5-chome stop.)

I found these two railway crossings by following other people's guides online.

3. Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Shrine

After visiting the first and second railway crossings in order, follow the Odakyu Line toward Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Shrine by navigation; you can easily find it. The photo spots at the shrine are very easy to locate, and I quickly found several anime scenes. I didn't find the intersection where they walked to school together; perhaps I needed to walk further to Yoyogi Station to find it. I returned along the same path to Sangubashi Station, took the JR to Shinjuku for dinner, then went to Haneda Airport to return home. I didn't complete all the check-ins; I'll go again when the cherry blossoms bloom in spring.

Possibly due to a typhoon, the shrine gate was blocked off with some traffic cones, so I couldn't capture nice photos.

I started shooting at 16:44 after getting off the train. I spent a long time at the first and second railway crossings, constantly waiting for JR trains to pass. As I kept shooting, the sunlight began to disappear.

The photos I took at the railway crossing when the sun was shining bright were the best at the beginning.

Since it was a weekday, and the typhoon had just passed, and the summer vacation was over, many tourists had returned home. That day, there were basically no people when I took photos, so I could easily capture empty scenes.

There were many types of trains. The train in the anime was a light yellow one; with patience, I could also wait for it.

Personally, I like this railway crossing the most. The houses and trees opposite are very beautiful.

Walking on the streets here means constantly going up and down hills. I always felt that the road Takaki and Akari took to school was somewhere nearby. If I had enough time, I would have wandered around to check. (Because I had to fly back home in the evening, and it got dark, making photos without sunlight unattractive, I didn't do a City Walk this time.)

Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Shrine shows on Google Maps that it closes at 17:00, but I came anyway and went straight in. At this small shrine, "closed" means no staff are selling goods, but the gate doesn't close (some shrines put up signs prohibiting entry). So I could still go in and have a look; some people were still coming to pray.

Because I arrived late, there were few tourists, so I could easily take photos without any visitors in the frame. Moreover, with the lights on at night, it had a different charm.

It was already quite dark. I didn't think to use ISO 3200, but the photos I took turned out clear after some post-processing.

The path leading to the shrine gate.

I traveled alone to Kyushu and Tokyo for 15 days. I just returned home and am slowly organizing photos and videos to share with everyone.

Original text and photos, do not repost without permission.