One of my favorite ways to travel around Japan and visit new places is seeing the real-life locations behind all my favorite anime movies. As long-time Ghibli fan, I was really excited to see the real-life city behind one of my all-time favorite Ghibli movies, Whisper of the Heart (耳をすませば).
It is located in the far west part of the Tokyo metropolis, in a suburb city called Tama City. I actually lived briefly in a city nearby called Mitaka, but I had never heard about this place until this year. Fortunately, I was able to visit on a sunny day, since Tokyo is perpetually raining all the time (in my opinion). The easiest way to get there is to take the Keio Line from Shinjuku to Seiseki-Sakuragaoka Station. I believe it takes about 30 – 40 minutes.
There is a guide map you can pick up along the way that shows you all the spots that the movie is based on and you can stamp your map along the way. Honestly, the real city really looks just like the film for the most part. Ghibli is really amazing.
So here are some of the photos that I took visiting all the different locations. The city is not that big, so you can just walk to all the locations. The photos are in order of the walking route I took.
I hope you enjoyed my little photo tour, and I definitely recommend visiting if you enjoyed the movie. It is not too far away from central Tokyo, and it is very beautiful, quiet, and peaceful.
framed in beige 
It’s very beautiful, thank you!
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