Japan day 13/13 - Taitou, Harajuku, Chiyoda, Kawasaki Ogishima, Odaiba

I cleared out my sleeping space by 11 AM as agreed and prepared for the last big day. I thought I'd take it easy and start with doing some more laundry because almost all my clean stuff was gone again and it would be so much work with my tiny washing machine at home. They didn't mind if I left my other stuff at the hostel temporarily. I took some breakfast with me to the laundromat and caught up with messages while waiting.

Anime Pilgrimage - Monogatari Series @ Tokyo & Kanagawa 【 アニメの聖地巡礼 - 物語シリーズ @ 東京 & 神奈川 】

Monogatari, also known by the name of its first season Bakemonogatari, a beautiful controversial classic that released its first episodes back in 2009. The characters are believed to live in the fictional town of Naoetsu, but what if I told you that a lot of the scenery looked eerily close to that of Tokyo and Kanegawa? The coordinates weren't laid out as easily as the anime featured on AnimePilgrimage.com so I tried to do my own research before my first visit to Japan and found a lot of travel blogs and other sources that were doing the same. For convenience I created this Google Map and tried to credit all the different sources in the description. A lot of the locations were far out of the way or just unreachable due to time constraints, but I did my best, enjoy!

化物語 Bakemonogatari Episode 14 & 15

You can see a reappearance of this location, the Odaiba Dream Bridge in the second Kizumonogatari movie!
It was difficult getting the exact comparison shots here because a bunch of the lamps weren't working, and there was something going on called the Light Walk Event and much of the bridge was filled with decorations, and also anime and real life perspectives just don't always match! But the tiling, the shapes of the lamps, and The Towers (that's what they're called) give away the location. You may notice one missing detail, the ferris wheel! Apparently this one existed from 1999 to 2022 (Daikanransha) but was deconstructed to make space for a sports arena. Map

Japan day 12/13 - Asakusa, Chiyoda, Nakano, Kichijouji, Setagaya, Jiyugaoka, Shinagawa

We're nearing the end here, so today I was lowkey gonna be starting my speedrun of things I really wanted to see still but didn't get to because of having made plans. The last two days were gonna be travelpilled souvenirmaxxing experiencefarming picturegrinding and so on, but hey it's gonna be spontaneous and chill right? Today the train lines were gonna become my biggest friend.

Anime Pilgrimage - My Dress Up Darling @ Ikebukuro & Saitama Chichibu 【 アニメの聖地巡礼 - その着せ替え人形は恋をする @ 池袋 & さいたま 秩父 】

With My Dress Up Darling being such an amazing wholesome series, and its second season releasing during summer(?) of 2025, how could I not include this in my trip! I initially planned to do this the very first day after arrival but then realized my train to Saitama Chichibu would be going the week after so I postponed it to then (cause it was leaving from Ikebukuro). The reason for visiting Chichibu was for a winter night festival and only after arriving there I realized there was a picture I had to take for the show (see Season 1 Episode 12), the problem was that there were thousands of people every so it's a bit crowded, but I got the picture! After rewatching this episode it was so interesting to me that they also visited Chichibu for a festival but this happened to be during summer.
Bit off topic but while on the train I realized I was going the exact route as Shizuru and the gang in Train to the End of the World, between Agano and Ikebukuro!!!
Anyway most of this post will be centered around Ikebukuro since that is where Gojo and Kitagawa often hang out, and the outdoor cosplay events are on the Sunshine City mall and the park next to it, which is really close! Gojo lives in Saitama Iwatsuki which is in between Oomiya and Kasukabe, I was kind of close to there but sadly in the moment it was very out the way to take pictures, maybe next time... Well let's get started!
(By the way, this post was also made entirely possible thanks to the convenience of AnimePilgrimage.com!)

Season 1 Opening

First off the Animate store right next to the square (or Inner Ikebukuro Park (it doesn't strike me as a park?)). They have so many floors with cool stuff, if you're an anime/manga otaku I highly recommend paying a visit! They also had a lot of the My Dress Up Darling manga (in Japanese of course!) I just bought the first book for now, it was like 800 yen. Somehow I struggled to find the right angle of the store and then while rewatching the episode realized the perspective was pointed towards the exit, so if I turned just 90 degrees it would've been perfect...!

Map

Japan day 11/13 - Ikebukuro, Saitama Chichibu, Nezu Shrine

(how have these posts become so large 😵‍💫 this one 7200 characters, yesterday's 7800)

 

Today another late awakening, but my next destination was close! Today I wanted to go explore Ikebukuro. Wanted to do this earlier but later today I had a train to catch from here anyway, so it was the perfect timing! From today on my leg was really starting to hurt from all the extensive running and walking, but only had three days to go, so had to get the most out of it somehow. Thankfully I had a lot of painkillers with me! Idk if it was the painkillers or if I didn't eat enough but today I kept snacking and snacking, pocky, butter cookies, baumkuchen, no end to it!

Anime Pilgrimage - Rascal Does Not Dream of... @ Fujisawa / Enoshima【 アニメの聖地巡礼 - 青春ブタ野郎は...の夢を見ない @ 藤沢 / 江の島 】

Another area I was really looking forward to was Fujisawa / Enoshima mostly thanks to a certain anime! Sadly I could only explore the area in the dark cause I planned to do Kamakura and Enoshima in one day and it was just too much for one day, especially when the sun sets at 4 PM. It was still really beautiful and there are some things that looked especially amazing thanks to it being dark such as the sea candle, but unfortunately my phone doesn't do pictures in the dark that well, and for the sake of the anime I wish I was here during the day because some of the places I wanted to visit were already closed. Hoping to return this year (2026) so maybe it will be different! Either way I felt like my love for the anime was worth it to make a little comparison/compilation of the screenshots/pictures!
I really took my time walking as far along the beach as possible, it had been so long since I saw a beach/sea, it was very nostalgic and euphoric somehow. Also I was absolutely stunned by the lighting decorations on and around the sea candle and stuck around forever and then had to rush many of the locations to make it back for the last train (I actually managed to catch the very last monorail train back!!! And the surroundings were so dark and invisible!) so many aren't exact comparisons or places outside of Enoshima I've just happened to visit and had a picture of. Okay enough rambling, enjoy the post and go see my Japan daily travel report if you want more xD

Season 1 Opening

This one you'll undoubtedly know from the season 1 opening, and all the appearances throughout the show! Surprisingly from all the things in this list only Benny's/Denny's is really nearby.

Map

Japan day 10/13 - Kamakura, Enoshima, Fujisawa

This was one of the days I was most hyped for, a trip to Kamakura and Enoshima! Getting up at 8 AM I thought it would be early enough, but it was still a kinda long ride to Kamakura, somehow I arrived after 10 AM. The sun sets around 4:30 PM so that was pressuring me a bit as most non urban areas are of course prettiest during the day. And I'd rather walk an hour than spend 5 minutes figuring out how the bus system works!