Pilgrimage to Kameishiro for Clannad After Story
The majority of the settings in Kyoto Animation series Clannad (クラナド), including second season Clannad After Story, are based on locations in Tokyo. In After Story Episode 18, Tomoyo takes Ushio on a trip to Aomori Prefecture, but the ryokan where they stay is modeled on Kameishirō (亀石楼) in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. With the evening...
2019 Butaitanbou Summit in Uji
On 2019 September 21, anime pilgrims from far and wide convened at Kyoto Bunkyō University in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture for the Twelfth Butaitanbou Summit (第12回舞台探訪サミットin宇治). This is the annual all-hands meeting for the Butaitanbou-sha Community (舞台探訪者コミュニティ), or BTC, the highly engaged core of manga and anime-induced tourism in Japan. Prior to this, my fifth consecutive...
Pilgrimage to Uji for Hibike! Euphonium
After living vicariously through friends’ tweets and blog posts during the 2015 Spring broadcast, in 2015 October I was finally able to make my own pilgrimage to Uji, Kyoto Prefecture for Kyoto Animation’s Hibike! Euphonium (響け！ユーフォニアム). I study this kind of pop culture tourism—called seichijunrei (聖地巡礼 holy land pilgrimage) by casual participants, or butaitanbou (舞台探訪...
