Originally published by myself on medium.com
https://medium.com/@kken62/love-live-sunshine-follow-the-sunshine-numazu-part-1-8b5b9bd1d53d
Introduction
Hello everyone! My name is Ken, and I'm Thai, so my grammar might not be perfect, but I really wanna share my story, so hope you guys enjoy it. Let’s get start! Last week, I went to Japan with my family because, in Thailand, It’s Songkran Festival, which is equavilant to “New Year” for Thai people. That’s mean it’s National Holiday and everyone get to take a break from work and study. Anyway, we planned the trip about 6 months ahead, but unexpectedly, on 12 April 2017, the weather didn’t stand our side and there were a lot of clouds, so much that Mt.Fuji was gone! Well, our plan to enjoy the scenery at Mt.Hakone was ruined. :( Anyway, we need to find something to replace it.
Personally, I enjoy watching Anime and listen to Japanese songs. I decided to take Japanese Language course because of this reason. Recently, I watched Love Live! Sunshine!! and I really enjoy its songs, and as we all know, second season is coming this Fall. I opened the map and noticed that Numazu, the city where Love Live! Sunshine!! was set, is just on the opposite side of the Mt.Fuji. I decided to told my dad to diverted our trip to Numazu!
As my DSLR camera, the Canon EOS 7D Mark II, featured a GPS tracker, I will share my whole route, so you are interested, you can follow to where I went. Please find the link to the map down below!
https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1UVd6SfbhGgjbIQQCcHPe4GNeB7k&hl=en_US
Numazu Downtown
First stop was JR Numazu Station. Why? Because the station is the nearest place to the expressway. To get there, just search the Google Map for JR Numazu, then you will find everything you need to get there!
Since I have my Dashcam installed on the car, I will also share the video from it too!
The video above shows how to get to the north exit of JR Numazu Station. Numazu is a small town with the population of 200,000 people, so the area around the station is not crowded like the big city like Tokyo or Osaka. My first feeling after enter this town is, “This city is very calm!” Back to the story, after stepped down from the car, I spotted LL:SS taxi and poster immediately(Gonna shorten Love Live! Sunshine!! to LL:SS)! This is a very good start, as it means that we came to the right place!
Walking around 50 meter from the parking lot and the north exit of the station can be found easily. Well, correct copy! This scene was featured in the 3rd episode of the Anime
Parking lot beside the north exit also the same as the one featured in the anime!
The walkway in front of the north exit is almost 100% same as the Anime. Big round of applause to the producer.
Next, Let’s go to the front of the station!
This train station was featured in the several episode of Anime…
Well, there’s free WiFi inside the station too, so I took this opportunity to load the map and mark the waypoint of key locations in the anime.
After walked out of the station, I spotted another LL:SS sign. Well, this town is really full of LL:SS!! stuff
I crossed the street to the opposite side of the station’s front. Here’s another map for reference!
Sorry for a little bit of mess. Originally, I posted this story on Pantip.com, which can be call “Thai’s Reddit,” so I originally made the map in Thai. After crossing the road, you will find “Nakamise” which is the shopping center of this town.
Walking around for a while and I found the book store that was featured in the 3rd episode of the Anime.
In the store, there are a lot of Japanese books and comics. I guess that’s why Hanamaru like to comes to this store as she loves to read. Anyway, there was a poster of “Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale” too! We left the store and walked to the next alley and I noticed a coffee shop that featured in the January 2016 Dengeki G’s Magazine, YABA Coffee Shop! In anime, this is the Guilty Kiss Coffee.
There’s free WiFi available here too, so you can check in or check the map.
Next stop, Animate Numazu Shop, store where all anime related goods are available. On the way to the shop, this colorful wall can be seen on the right hand side.
That’s right, it’s where Chika-chan and Aqours chase down Yohane. Anyway, there are a lot of things ready to pull your money out of your bag here! You are now warned!
Next is Gamers Numazu, which got its sign modified by Yohane.
Aqours T-Shirt and Goods are available here too. After walking around in Nakamise, I spotted LL:SS goods all over the place! This anime is really a big thing here!
Ok, so we’re done here at Nakamise, here’s a video of how to get there from the front of JR Numazu Station.
5 minutes driving from Nakamise, we were arrived at Numazu Riverside Hotel or Yohane’s apartment in the anime. The opposite side of the Kano River in the back of the Hotel is where Aqours performed MIJUKU Dreamer. The alley between 2 buildings is where Yohane ran away from her friends in the 5th episode.
Here’s the map as usual!
Next station, You’s house. Anyway, the house itself is not featured in the real location, but from what we see, it must locate over here!
Someone over here must really like Nico-chan!
Here’s how the scenery of the Kano River looks like from You’s house
Really beautiful, right? BTW, the map can be found below!
Okay, let’s end the first part over here. In the next blog, I’m going to take you guys for a tour around fish market, where 2nd years radio show took place, View-O where Mari talks to You in the 11th episode and also we gonna travel down to Awashima Island too, so stayed tuned! Leave a comment and give me some feedback too, so I can improve in the next blog! Bye!