I’ve been back home for a couple months now, and after procrastinating the entire time, I’ve finally got round to sitting down and writing up about the rest of my trip. Hibike Euphonium now, and more Yuru Camp to come. It’s gonna be a long post, so strap in.
Kyoto was super fun. I spent about half of it doing touristy stuff, and the other half visiting Hibike Euphonium stuff. If you didn’t know already, Hibike Euphonium (or eupho for short) is my favourite anime of all time.
While its main plot covers the story of a high school wind ensemble, there’s other themes such as growing up, romance, and friendship. I had planned to do a proper pilgrimage here a few years ago when I was backpacking, but that trip got cut short due to covid. I feel like many fully comprehensive documentations of Hibike Euphonium have been done already, and my usual style on this blog is to document my own experience mainly for myself. So don’t expect something super in-depth. Shout out to Michael Vito who originally inspired me to do all these pilgrimages though.
But what about Yuru Camp? I hear you cry. That’s my second favourite, but Yuru Camp has lots of cool and beautfiful places that they visit all across various prefectures. Hibike Euphonium is mainly set in the town of Uji, just south of Kyoto, and as it happens not too far from the Kyoto Animation studios, who are the ones behind it. And since I was in Kyoto, I had to pay a visit. Like some of my other recent excursions, it didn’t go to plan. But in the best way possible. Read on to find out.
Uji, meeting other fans and a crazy taxi driver
I started my pilgrimage by taking the JR Nara line to Rokujizo station. There is a Rokujizo that is featured in the anime, but it’s not this one. There are two Rokujizo stations belonging to two lines ran by two different companies, one by JR and one by Keihan. The latter have some sort of partnership with Kyoto Animation and their line is the one predominantly featured in the anime, with the characters using it to go to and from school and to other places.
Keihan Rokujizo
Rokujizo is where the characters use to get to and from school, which is a bit odd as Kowata is a lil closer. But I guess KyoAni chose this one probably for aesthetic reasons. This first shot is just up the road a little bit towards the station.
Turning around gets you a view of the station.
Getting a bit closer there are a few more shots.
I took some pictures of the crossing we see a few times at the start of season one and a few more for good measure.
Then I headed inside the station for some shots of the platform.
I spotted a eupho poster next to the clock that was the same one I saw last time I was here a good 4 years ago.
Keihan Obaku
I hopped on the Keihan line and got off a couple stops at Obaku. This one is also featured but not as much as the first. I didn’t really plan too much for this trip so no pictures here. I just kinda grabbed some screens from the recap movies and winged it. Just round the corner of the station is the bakery that Hazuki get’s her hotdog on a stick thing from. I wasn’t really feeling like it and I got one last time, but I got a pic of it anyway.
I tried to take a pic of the level crossing nearby but the rolling shutter effect made the train look a little slanted.
When I tell you it was bloody boiling, it was bloody boiling.
My next stop would be the kombini (the Japanese word for convenience store) nearest to the school that the characters go to a lot, and on a road along the way theres a wooden Midori perched on the side of the road. These are used to warn drivers of nearby schools and that there are kids about. But before I could snap my picture I noticed a few people in the way.
They moved on and it was my turn.
The three guys seemed to be taking the exact route that I was on towards the kombini and I kinda felt I was stalking them. They went in and bought some food, just before I did too.
After wolfing down an onigiri I approached them and confirmed my suspicions that they were eupho fans too! They wanted to bus up to the school that the anime takes place and check it out but I couldn’t be bothered to wait in the sun, so I decided to walk.
Kitauji high school (allegedly)
I say allegedly, because it’s not called that in real life (schools from animes rarely are). This is Todoh senior high school, and it’s also currently operational. I say that because many schools in animes are based on abandoned or closed schools, such as Yuru Camp or K-on to name a couple. There are lots of those dotted over the country due to Japan’s depopulation issues. But I’ve gone off topic now.
And almost perfectly timed, just as I reached the school I spotted them coming over the crest towards me. I snapped some pics just before they reached me.
Peering over the front gate I snapped a pic of the staircase where the band do their performance to the freshman every year. I was hesitant to take too many pictures though as school was in.
And one looking down the road. On the left you can see the netting for the sports pitch where Taki makes his students do laps before playing their instruments. It’s really mapped 1-to-1 in the show.
I let them take their photos too and then they asked to take a picture with me, all of us together. I agreed and here’s that pic.
I noticed they were using a taiwanese blog as a guide, and it had loads more pictures than my sparsly populated custom google maps. I used it to line up a lot of the angles, so I’ll give credit where it’s due here.
Very near the school is a little playground that the characters visit a lot to discuss many topics of conversation.
Following the little street down the hill takes you to a small park with a decent view out towards Kyoto.
I was going to walk down to Uji station but the Taiwanese blokes were taking a taxi. They offered to give me a lift, and I agreed. The taxi arrived and we all piled in. Just as we drove off, the driver (in very broken English) asked us if we were Hibike Euphonium fans, because he knew where he picked us up from was a spot. It turned out the taxi driver was a huge Hibike Euphonium fan too, and he offered to take us on a Hibike Euphonium location tour around the area for 1000yen each. We all were a little unsure, but after he gifted us official eupho stickers and guide maps he pulled out from a Kumiko plastic folder, we knew we were in good hands.
He put his foot to the floor and drove like an absolute maniac to the our first stop.
Uji Shrine
On the east bank of the river and a little further along from the main car bridge in Uji is Uji Shrine.
On the other side of the road of the gate by the river is where Reina gives Suichi and Kumiko an earful in season 1.
Heading into the shrine, just past the entrance is where Kumiko briefly stops to shelter from the rain at one point.
And this is also where Reina and Kumiko meet for their rather romantic hike up a nearby (small) mountain.
I would have followed in their footsteps but our taxi tour had a tight schedule.
Amagase Dam/Hakko Bridge
This place is featured near the end of season 2, and this is the dam that feeds the river that flows through Uji. Kumiko and Reina cycle over together after visiting Taki-sensei’s wife.
Since the dam is a little far from Uji, I hadn’t planned on going here and hadn’t prepared any screenshots. But now I had a taxi.
I snapped all the photos I could in the hope they would somewhat lineup with stuff from the anime. The place looked really stunning with overgrown foliage and all.
It wasn’t long until we all climbed back into the taxi to head back to Uji for the next location.
Tou-no-shima Island
There’s an island next to central Uji surrounded by the Uji river, and the bridge linking the island to the east bank and the surrounding area is featured a lot in the anime.
Unfortunately being obscured from view in the above image is Kumiko’s postbox. And behind that is the spot where Kumiko and Reina view the fireworks together at the start of season 2.
This bridge is also where Kumiko gets a shock from Suichi at the start of Chikai no Finale.
In the window of a nearby cafe were a few Hibike posters.
On the island itself they keep birds for bird fishing (an Uji thing people come and see from all over), and there was another wild bird that had come to say hello to them.
Back towards Kumiko’s postbox and in the other direction, we get to Kumiko’s house. At least we would if it actually exists. See for yourself:
It almost feels like it should exist, and we got transported to some alternate universe where it doesn’t.
A little side track for the turbo nerds, armed with all this knowledge we can plot a little route on the map of Kumiko’s commmute to school.
The southernmost red cross is Kumiko’s house. There are two walking routes she takes to and from the train station. Along the east bank, which goes through the riverside park and past Kumiko’s bench, and along the west bank, which passes by the shrine and Kumiko’s eupho practice spot.
The blue line is her train route, and then imagine the purple line is a teleporter that teleports the characters when they walk between school and the station (because they wouldn’t walk that far IRL but it’s where the locations are in the anime). Then the red line between the teleporter and the school first goes past the kombini, through the various parks and playgrounds, before reaching the school. Side track over.
Uji City Cultural Hall
I didn’t plan for this spot either so the shots are a little loose, like with the dam.
The taxi driver took us on a rollercoaster ride up the hill down the backstreets to the Uji city cultural hall. This is where Reina and Kaori have their 1v1 to decide who gets to play the trumpet for the school near the end of season 1. Unfortunately it was closed that day but I remember the taxi driver saying usually you can go inside since it’s a public building. But don’t quote me on that. So shots from outside the building have to suffice.
Kumiko and Reina have a pep talk of their own back round by the entrance, to the right of the front doors.
The taxi driver took a photo of me and the other guys to post on butai meguri, a Japanese site for anime tourism that awards you points for each spot you visit. He was #1 in Japan for Hibike Euphonium. Impressive. The site is set to terminate this October, so anyone reading this familiar with the site is welcome to try and track down the image. After that we set off for our furthest and second-last stop.
Yamashiro Sports Park
Just up the hill from the cultural hall, this is the location of two spots from the anime.
The first being the pool from the definitely not fanservice episode at the start of season 2.
It felt a bit weird peering over the fence of an outdoor swimming pool with my camera but hey, the pool was closed today too.
The same building is in the back of this shot
The bench they’re sitting on here is on the other side of the pool area, but you can see the weird stone structure and similar benches in both shots.
Yuuko and Natsuki have a spot among the trees somehere over here.
I’d love to visit in the summer, looks like a lot of fun.
In the other direction from the main building is the running track, where the marching band stuff happens.
It looks like since the anime aired a roof has been constructed over the main stands.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to go round the grounds to get other shots but again, I wasn’t prepared to be here so whatever.
We then bee-lined back to the taxi over some grass.
And we piled in to the taxi to take us to our last stop – JR Uji station. There’s a postbox shaped like a big tea urn outside the station here. If you didn’t know, Uji is known all over Japan for it’s high quality tea. This urn is featured in the festival episode in season one.
Before saying goodbye to the taxi driver we took a photo of all of us.
And then I parted ways with the Taiwanese dudes because they needed to get back to where they were staying in Osaka. I had a lot more pictures to take around Uji so I set off down the road back towards the river.
WordPress is lagging a ton due to the sheer size of this post now, so I’ll stop for now and upload this in parts. Stay tuned for that!
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