Japan Anime Tourism Guide

Attending travel shows, one can gather up a lot of literature on resorts, attractions, hotels, transportation (airlines, cruises, rail, etc.) along with maps and guide books.

One such guide book I picked up at the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show last weekend in Long Beach was the Japan Anime Tourism Guide (I mentioned this guide in an earlier blog) published by the Japan Tourism Agency.

The guide's contributors included the Tokyo International Anime Fair Executive Committee, Takayoshi Yamamura of Hokkaido University and Toshimichi Kakizaki (Anime Tourist).

My first exposure to anime was the original Astro Boy cartoons of the 1960s when they aired in Los Angeles. 

The Japan Anime Tourism Guide contains information on anime and manga sites of interest to fans of the genre(s).

 

For example, in the Kanto area of Japan, the guide spotlights Niiza-shi, Saitama as "The Home of Astro Boy."  Osamu Tezuka, the father of Astro Boy (known in Japan as The Mighty Atom), a "robot with feelings."  Tezuka Productions, the studio which created the character, is located in Niiza City.  The city honored Astro Boy on year Astro was born, April 7, 2003 with a "special residential status."  The city also adorns street seals with the image of Astro and, also, hosts a stamp collection rally annually starting at Niiza and Shiki Stations.

Another example is in Niigata (a city I visited in December 2010) in the Hokuriku area.  The baseball manga of Shinji Mizushima has been turned into a bronze statues that is located at Managa Street.   The "charismatic" characters featured in Mizushima's work have been turned into bronze statues and placed at Niigata's Manga Street.

Above, inside a Niigata tourism loop bus.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

While we're talking about Niigata, the guide also spotlights the "Dokaben" and "INUYASHA" characters that adorn the tourism loop buses (photo above) that run between the municipal history museum, municipal aquarium, municipal art museum and Nihonkai Tower.  I took a loop tour on these buses in 2010 and noticed the characters on them.

 

Along with these examples from the Kanto and Hokuriku areas of Japan, the guide contains anime and manga sites in Tohoku, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu areas.

If you are a manga or anime fan and plan on visiting Japan, this guide will get you to the places that celebrate the culture.

The Japan Anime Tourism Guide is available through the Japan National Tourism Organization at http://visitjapan.jp.