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Take a Tour of Tokyo's 'your name.' Film Locales

Have you seen Makoto Shinkai's box-office hit your name. (Kimi no Na wa.) yet? Even if you haven't seen the anime, you could have the opportunity to experience part of the film's world. Japan's H.I.S. travel agency is offering a walking tour this month of the Yotsuya area of Tokyo's Shinjuku ward, a main part of the film's setting.

The "Shinjuku Yotsuya Walking Tour" will start at Yotsuya Station, which is where the anime's male lead Taki and his restaurant coworker Miki meet for a date. The tour will visit the famous staircase near Suga Shrine where the two main characters, Taki and Mitsuha, cross paths. The shrine itself and the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden's Cafe La Bohéme restaurant are also stops on the tour. Taki works in the anime at a restaurant modeled on Cafe La Bohéme.

The tour will be one part of "Shinjuku-ku Wakamono no Tsudoi 2016 -WA ni Narou Shinjuku-," an indoor festival to promote Shinjuku targeted at people in their 20s and 30s. Local artist and film critic Vivienne Sato will serve as a tour guide and have a talk event at the festival. Performers from the Yoshimoto talent agency will attend and hold a live show.

People participating in the tour will meet at Yostuya Station at 8:45 a.m. on November 19. The tour will start at 9:00 a.m. and end Shinjuku Culture Center at 12:50 p.m. Participation is limited to 25 people who pre-register through H.I.S. The tour will cost 2,500 yen (about US$24), which includes the price of lunch.

H.I.S. has offered a variety of anime- and manga-themed tours in the past.

Hida, a small town in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture, already became a "pilgrimage site" due to its appearance in Shinkai's popular film. Love-seeking your name. fans can also attend attend a matchmaking event in Osaka on November 12. The film's first matchmaking event took place in Shinjuku on November 5.

The anime opened in Japan on August 26 and earned 17.97 billion yen (about US$172 million) as of Monday. It also returned to the top of the Japanese box-office rankings in its 11th weekend. The film is now the the sixth highest-grossing film of all time in Japan.

Funimation confirmed on Monday that the anime film is on the official consideration list for the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 89th annual Academy Awards.The film's Oscar-qualifying theatrical run will take place from December 2-8 at Los Angeles' Laemmle Music Hall. Funimation is planning a broader theatrical release for the first quarter of 2017.

Source: Yahoo! News Japan via 0takomu