The Birds are Hungry

Factor in being surrounded by hundreds of pigeons. The sound of their warbles and flapping wings are one day of you, getting louder as they plunge to soak up space for your shoulders, backpack, and all the issues else you should well perchance perchance very properly be holding.

The birds are hungry.

You are an innocent traveler who has determined, both by preference or by some extra or much less error in judgement, to budge into the zone where patrons have to aquire pigeon food and, properly… feed them. No topic your non-public motivations, you are now their jungle gym to climb on, and likewise you should well perchance perchance be both 1) barely of freaked out, 2) hoping your buddy will get a photograph of your unbelievable fresh rooster compose, or 3) barely of little bit of each. Your entry into the pigeon lair could well perchance perchance merely no longer be what you were looking out ahead to if you signed for a time out to Japan, however at this point, it be positively going to changed into a fun tale you can declare various of us. You are, in essence, for your hang wacky moment that feels esteem it will most certainly be the comedic beat of a reduce-of-existence anime, however it be essentially happening – to you. Welcome to Osu Kannon Temple, a legendary Buddhist location (and pigeon playground) positioned within the heart of Nagoya in a neighborhood that shares the temple’s name.

Since I first began working within the sphere of stride for anime followers, there is been a working joke amongst my guests: it is never in actuality all that rare to hear somebody stammer that they “feel esteem they’re in an anime” after we cross a park stuffed with shapely cherry trees or hasten on a rural prepare line to find somewhere. I positively heard this bit reduce up again in Osu as I watched guests looking out out for Gunpla figures or vintage fashions on the receiving stay of a rooster tornado.

Whereas announcing, “feels esteem we’re in an anime” does advance off as a uninteresting one-liner, it also shows a definite truth. For a few years, the of us that tap their creativity to raise us manga and anime find made no secret of their be pleased of attention to component. Editors on a normal foundation head into the sphere to find reference photos for manga artists, while animation team find executed the same to raise certain places to existence of their work. In many cases, these references lengthen a ways beyond easy landmarks to side streets, stores, and even pavement markings, rendering spots many would name “unremarkable” with unbelievable component. The examples of this dedication are boundless: manga versions of Kabukicho’s neon signs are one-to-one suits of the actual thing, while drawings of rural prepare stations are rendered with the same colours and tones that outline the picket waiting rooms and concrete platforms. As a consequence, this has resulted in a small originate greater in anime-centric tourism within Japan; followers of The World Ends with You can on the total find their system round Shibuya on their first focus on over with, while of us that accelerate to the Osaka suburb of Nishinomiya will discover a various appreciation for the metropolis within the occasion that they are partial to the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise. Whereas “accelerate back and forth rep 22 situation tourism” of this form has consistently existed to a degree, for a complete lot of creators in anime and manga, it be non-public. As an instance, Studio Ghibli background artist Oga Kazuo has remarked in interviews how the agricultural fields and mountains of his childhood home in Akita were his reference field fabric for developing the mood and feel of My Neighbor Totoro.

Whereas no longer loads is identified about manga artist Tsurumaikada, what we cease know is that they name Aichi Prefecture (where Nagoya is) home. Their first serialized manga, Medalist, and its anime adaptation by Studio ENGI each wear the affect of Osu on their sleeves, bringing the neighborhood and its temple to existence in a system that locals find at once recognizable. To me, the depiction of Osu in Medalist suits its tone perfectly; it be the extra or much less location where the myth of an impulsive young skater and her conflicted-but-vigorous coach match the freewheeling, pleasant vibe of the neighborhood to a T.

The historical previous of the Osu neighborhood and the temple it is called after is all about transition and upheaval. Our myth begins within the 1300s, when a community-oriented monk named Noshin saw a imaginative and prescient in a dream of developing a monument to the benevolent Kannon goddess. Noshin established the most predominant temple rapidly after, however no longer in Nagoya – the most predominant Osu changed into once in Gifu Prefecture to the north, in a neighborhood that also carries the “Osu” name to for the time being. The Kannon statue changed into once moved to Osaka and enshrined there unless the damage of day of the Tokugawa generation, when the Tokugawa shogun Ieyasu ordered that the Kannon statue be moved to Nagoya to anchor the metropolis that lay correct on the lend a hand of the most predominant gates on the avenue leading against Nagoya Castle. Whereas the temple and its eminent Kannon statue fast changed into a focal point for the area, its area beyond the gates resulted in one thing else: the advance of the extra or much less neighborhood that homes row after row of retailers selling their wares, places of leisure, and a no longer-insignificant number of companies that provided weary travelers the chance to exhaust time with magnificent girls folk.

No topic its unfamiliar aptitude and historical previous, the destiny of the Osu area following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 is no longer in actuality all that dissimilar from the tragedies that came about various neighborhoods in Japan. The temple’s big 5-tale pagoda burned down in a neighborhood fire in 1892, and merely about all the neighborhood and the temple changed into once destroyed within the 1945 air raids in Nagoya that also wiped the metropolis’s iconic fortress off the design. Within the fast aftermath of the war, the area saw locals compose what would changed into some of Nagoya’s most iconic brands, including the miso katsu (miso pork cutlet) institution Yabaton and local division store KOMEHYO. More critically to our tale, Japanese resolve skater and Nagoya native Mitsuhiko Kozuka formed a Japanese skating federation that will attend spur redevelopment of an former baseball floor into the Nagoya Sports activities Center – greater identified to locals as the Osu Skate Rink. The rink helped remodel Nagoya into the proving floor for some of Japan’s most embellished resolve skaters.

Unfortunately for the leisure of Osu, the post-war enhance changed into once fast-lived. As urban re-pattern shifted against the areas round Nagoya Place and the centrally-positioned Sakae area within the 60s and 70s, Osu changed into one among Japan’s “shutter towns” – a nickname that reflected the closed metallic shutters that denoted closed or deserted retail spots. With tiny curiosity from main developers to present a enhance to Osu, local students and college from nearby Meijo College stepped in. Limited electronics outlets, slight cafes, and all system of counter-cultural trend stores began taking medications within the broad network of lined browsing arcades that lead against the temple. By the time the 1980s and Nineties rolled round, Osu re-emerged as a accelerate back and forth rep 22 situation for barely of of all the issues correct around the same time as the 2d incarnation of the Nagoya Sports activities Center/Osu Skate Rink opened its doorways in 1984.

On the new time, Osu-dori and the encircling Osu Shotengai feel esteem a uncommon amalgamation of various disparate aspects of urban Japan, mixed collectively as if their very hang existence changed into once also ordered by Ieyasu himself. Or no longer it is home to each gaudy flashing lights and monstrous tea stores with prolonged histories; a location where a big fortunate cat statue towers over spots for seating in a plaza anchored by mark resellers, izakaya, and a Nagoya outlet for the Maidreamin maid café franchise. To declare that it feels esteem a aggregate of a complete lot of neighborhoods from various cities feels appropriate on the birth, however really does your total area a disservice. Dwelling proof: the area’s high density of outlets catering to subcultures and anime followers find led some to name Osu the “Akihabara of Nagoya”, however most of the established stores selling old-fashioned figures, manga, and toys feel extra esteem a flea market, each housing a host of treasures for anybody queer ample to peruse. The KOMEHYO division store now has extra than one smaller places around the area, however all of them aloof preserve a smaller, extra certain feel than the wide browsing division stores of Shinjuku or Shibuya; even KOMEHYO‘s Kimono store has a façade that evokes the textures and patterns of the fabric however does no longer resemble the peruse of their main outlet. Osu is a location where an unfamiliar combination of the previous and future is on full display conceal round each corner; essentially the most contemporary incarnation of the centuries-former Banshoji Temple even has an animatronic dragon that breathes smoke and a mechanical “karakuri” doll depicting feudal ruler Oda Nobunaga. Even the neighborhood’s outpost of old-fashioned anime goods retailer Mandarake carries the subtitle “Rulers of Time” over its entrance, as if to replicate the area’s ties to its many previous incarnations.

The unfamiliar feel of the Osu area very grand carries into Medalist, especially that of Osu Kannon Temple’s grounds, which play host to conversations between characters in many scenes. Younger skater protagonist Inori hides in narrow alleyways that appear within the anime as they cease in right existence, with narrow shadowed walkways that lead to hole-in-the-wall cafes. The shadow of the browsing arcade roof looks over the koban (police field) in an early episode, while skate trainer Tsukasa weaves by the neighborhood in frequent scenes that bookend moments of skating that (in truth) feature the Osu Skate Rink. Moments spent at cafes and various spots within the anime, even briefly, are reflected in right-world spots esteem Kannon Coffee and local clothing outlets that line the avenue.

Having the flexibility to focus on over with a location esteem Osu after seeing Medalist will get at one among the magical issues about “accelerate back and forth rep 22 situation tourism” in anime and its affect. What makes a focus on over with to Japan as an anime fan is no longer in actuality consistently the browsing, the Instagram-fueled hip spots, and even the storied historical previous. Continuously, it be correct the sensation of being in a easy, terrifying-looking out neighborhood or location that takes on a total fresh which system for the traveler due to the you can feel correct how grand a manga-ka, their editors, and the myriad team of an anime production crew labored to raise that location to existence of their work. As grand as my old guests find joked about how Japan as a total “feels esteem anime”, it in actuality is the truth.

Within the third episode of Medalist, there could be a transient scene one day of which Ema is sitting in front of Osu Kannon, blankly staring ahead, as a flock of pigeons surround her and hop one day of her. Or no longer it is a scene executed for laughs; one which looks to the informal viewer as a visual gag that will happen within the context of an anime, however never in right existence. And but, if you were to focus on over with Osu Kannon, there is a ravishing chance that you just too could well perchance perchance no longer sleep as an accent to an unreasonable number of birds.
Even supposing I am biased as a stride educated, I voice you that while the net could well perchance perchance merely desire to convince you that there are “must-find” experiences on a time out to Japan, there could be never any greater feeling than strolling into a location you should well perchance need gotten seen in media and having that location changed into half of your tale. Perhaps it could perchance well perchance perchance no longer be the spotlight of your stride, however it is a testament to the energy of anime: the energy to raise its viewers correct barely of bit nearer to the of us and places that originate Japan special.

What to abilities it in its put of reading about it? Join us in Japan and focus on over with Osu Kannon and find an queer tour of Studio ENGI‘s right animation studio. All this and plenty extra on the ANN in Japan 2025 Tour by PacSet.

Outing Highlights:

• Discuss over with Studio ENGI, Outlandish to this time out and this time out most efficient!
• Outlandish meet and Greets with anime alternate consultants.
• Uncover the actual-existence places that inspire anime, and focus on over with the animators about how they inspired them
• Discuss over with scenic towns featured in anime
• Discuss over with an explosive live put
• Hump within the footsteps of samurai and feudal leaders in castles, temples, and shrines in Kyoto, Osaka, and Himeji
• Store AKIHABARA, OSU-DORI, OTA ROAD, and OTHER LEGENDARY ANIME-CENTRIC NEIGHBORHOODS

More small print here.