User blog:LuciaHunter/Love Live! Sunshine!! Pilgrimage Guide

There's been a lot of photo albums from people making their pilgrimages down to Numazu & Uchiura but there's actually not been a lot in the way of practical advice. These advice are generally left on forums when people ask but it's not really been compiled into a post. This is partly because everyone's idea of a pilgrimage is different and advice is best catered to the individual, but it doesn't really help the people who don't wish to make posts on public forums. Here, I'll try to address the more commonly seen questions as well as compile relevant resources. As this is also a guide in progress, if anyone comes across anything useful that should be added in here, do drop a comment to let me know!

At the same time, this also isn't going to be a comprehensive guide because a lot of things change on the ground frequently, so it's far better for me to link to the JP sites instead of trying to translate news that is easily outdated. If you're going to make a pilgrimage, you'll really have to put in some work yourself! Google Translate is your best friend for this.

This guide is split into two sections: The key questions around structuring a pilgrimage, and then reviews of the locations I visited in my recent trip. As the latter half is a personal view of these places, please take them with a pinch of salt.

How long should I go?
This is one of the most common questions I've seen, and it really depends on the individual. For the average traveller, I would recommend 2 days 1 night. I've seen people recommend a single day-trip down from Tokyo and this is honestly not great advice as you are not making the most out of your money. A one-way train down from Tokyo already takes a couple of hours, and costs 2000++ yen. Even with a JR pass and shinkansen, the time wasted travelling isn't ideal. Of course, a day-trip is still better than not making the trip at all, but given the chance, do plan a night down in Numazu/Uchiura to save yourself some agony.

For a more relaxed pace or someone who wants to really visit every single site, you can try 3 days 2 nights. This was just enough for me to visit every single site in Numazu and Uchiura, as well as drop by Nebukawa and Kozu on the way back to Tokyo. This is most likely enough for everything until Season 2 hits and adds more localities to visit.

Where do I stay?
So given that you'll be lodging down in the area for a night or two, the next question is where to stay. Ideally you want to stay in either Numazu or Mishima due to the transportation options (more on that later), or perhaps even Uchiura for a night (more costly but other pilgrimage perks).

Numazu + Mishima options: A great place I stayed at this past trip was Numazu Grand Hotel, which cost 4500 yen a night and gave free breakfast, plus it's only 3 minutes walk from Numazu station. This is probably the best deal I could find at this point for Numazu. Airbnb might provide better options, especially for larger groups. There are also other lodging options in nearby Mishima. And of course for Yohane fans, you can consider Hotel Riverside, which is the hotel right next to Yohane's apartment. And if you stay there, there's also a special bonus item if you take the SHINY LINER tour. No shortage of options here, really, but finding the best deal can be difficult.

Uchiura options: The obvious choice here might be Yasudaya Ryokan, which is the very inn which Chika's family runs in the anime. Or if you're feeling a little more luxurious, there's also Awashima Hotel, the hotel which Mari stays in.

At the same time, there're also a bunch of other Japanese inns (called ryokans) involved in the LLSS promotions. There's an ongoing stamp rally until June 30, but aside from that, the participating ryokans are also selling their character hand towels if you spend above 1000 yen (either by staying, paying to use their bath, or eat there). More details on the participating ryokans here. I stopped by Tosawaya ryokan for the Yohane towel by chance and will be reviewing that later too.

Do note that staying at ryokans is usually a more expensive option than a budget hotel if you have meals included (recommended because not much else to eat in Uchiura anyway). Yasudaya starts at 15120 yen a night, though the others can start as low as 9000 and be as high as 28000. Check out each ryokan's site using the link above and pick a place suitable for your budget.

When should I go?
There're pros and cons to going during peak periods: Peak periods you'll meet other LLivers which can be a fun experience, but on the other hand securing seating/parking can be an issue, especially in smaller places like Shougetsu. Peak periods generally include Japanese holidays (Golden Week in particular), as well as the week before and after a live concert (this is generally the period when both local and overseas concert attendees do their pilgrimages). Based on hearsay, Golden Week was particularly intense in traffic so it might not be the best of experiences.

During normal periods, there's the choice of weekends and weekdays. Unless you're aiming to do scenery photography and need your sights clear of people, I would recommend doing it on a weekend. The issue with weekdays are the shops and attractions' closing days. Despite what they publish online, some places have irregular closing days that happen as and when they need to. Shougetsu, for example, is supposedly only closed on Tuesdays, but actually closes on some Wednesdays as well. These shops expect traffic from locals to appear mostly on weekends so they won't close on those days. The ongoing Love Live! Kitchen Car also runs only on weekends so that's something you can't see on a weekday.

Where should I go?

 * Love Live! Sunshine! Location Map

There're no shortage of pilgrimage locations within this franchise and it's surprisingly hard to try and clear them all. These would be more personal decisions based on both what you value in the franchise (best girl etc), as well as prevailing situation on the ground. But here are how I split the areas into tiers based on accessibility.

Numazu
 * City center: SUN! SUN! SUNSHINE!! Cafe, Marusan Bookstore, Gamers Numazu.
 * Slightly further out: Yohane's Apartment, the riverside scenes, Cafe Orandakan (You's home), Senbonhama Beach
 * Harbour: Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium, Numazu Burger, View-O (the harbour gate)
 * Quite far (40 mins biking distance): Cafe Azumino, Cafe Mission Bay.
 * Reaaally far (1 hr biking distance): Numazugoyotei Memorial Park (the area where Dia and Yohane had several art of them based)

Uchiura is a little more complicated to sort into tiers because it's all along one straight line. So rather than a distance thing, these are more of recommended spots to hit up. And then there's everything else that's on the map. Rarara Sun Beach is relatively far out by bus while Osezaki is so distant you'll probably want to take a ferry ride and enjoy the scenery while you're at it.
 * Not to miss: Yasudaya Ryokan, Shougetsu Confectionery, Sannoura General Information Center, Nagaisaki Junior High School
 * Great places: Izu-Mito Sea Paradise, Awashima Island, Nagahama Castle Ruins

Each year also more or less has a location associated with it: If you're a first year fan, you'd want to spend more time in Numazu. Second years take most of Uchiura, while third years are focused on Awashima island.

How do I get there?
When getting around in Japan, HyperDia is your best friend. It's a site that helps you check all routes between your selected stations and calculates travelling time and cost. For those with a JR pass, hop onto a shinkansen and you can go from Tokyo to Mishima in under an hour. Mishima is the closest shinkansen stop to Numazu, as well as where the Izu-Nagaoka line connects to the JR line (There are multiple routes to proceed on with your pilgrimage here, check the next section for more details). If you're travelling cheaply, you'll have to take a local train down to Atami and then transfer- the whole journey will take you about 135 minutes on average. To see these options on HyperDia, scroll down and untick the Bullet Train, Nozomi/Mizuho etc and Limited Express options to display these slower routes.

Either on your way down from/back to Tokyo, you may wish to take the local trains just like the girls in Aqours did- this will let you stop at both Kozu and Nebukawa, which are important pilgrimage spots in the Love Live! and Love Live! Sunshine!! franchises.

How do I get around?

 * Uchiura Transportation Guide by sicxer

The guide above is a very detailed one so it pretty much explains the different methods on how to get to Uchiura, all of which will still have some collaboration running in the near future. Be certain to look up the timings. The issue with some of the collabs are how they are not conducive to maximising the usage of your time. The LLSS Tokai collab bus, for example, only runs in the late morning and afternoon. Catching the Izu-Hakone Railway collab train can have you at Izu-Nagaoka an hour or two before the next collab bus (in which case you'll have to either wait or just skip the collab bus).

There's also the option of taking a ferry between Numazu (from the harbour area), Uchiura (outside Chika's inn) and Osezaki (a very minor pilgrimage site but where you can do diving), but there's not enough data on that from us EN pilgrimage-doers just yet.

Getting around Numazu, you have a few choices. One is bus, which Google Maps is actually pretty decent at (it has bus stops, bus numbers and even bus timings all included). The second method is to rent a bike. There're actually quite a few places that rent out rental cycles for free, but you have to return them within 3 hours. This other map also has a detailed listing of places with rental cycles and rental cars. I got my own rental bike from a shop down in Numazu Central Park: It's 300 yen for 3 hours or 500 yen for the entire day (they open at 11am and close at 9pm). 3 hours is enough for you to hit up the harbour area and finish touring the spots there, but not if you intend to clear all the outlying areas in Numazu. Do note that biking is relatively easy all the way down to the harbour but the areas further south get slightly harder due to narrower roads and traffic.

Getting around Uchiura, not really much options here given that only the Tourist Info Center has rental bikes and that's subject to availability. For the most part you could simply walk, but keep in mind that walking times will stack up along the day. Preferably you'll want to start on one end and walk in one direction, probably from Awashima Island's connecting port and then southwards. Awashima Island is a good place to start because it takes longer than most other places, both with the Marine Park as well as the climb up to Awashima Shrine (more on this later). Just remember that most shops along the path tend to close by 5pm or so if you plan to visit them. If you start on the north end, the last relatively-worth-visiting checkpoint on the south end that has a time limit is the OH!MOS! Farmer's Market, which closes by 5pm.

Location Reviews
This is meant to be a brief location review of all these pilgrimage locations. As such, I won't be posting a lot of pictures, only enough for people to get a feel for the area. Wouldn't be fun to explore if I spoiled it all already, right? Plus honestly my camera sucks so I'm sure others can get way better photos.

Numazu
City Center

Uchiura

 * Work in progress!

Closing Comments
All in all, it's actually pretty common to come across random LLSS merch or signs in the weirdest of places with absolutely no connection to the franchise. Some of them make sense: A coffee shop that was already named Daiya Coffee puts up Dia merch on their window display, that's pretty cute. A resale/recycling store using LLSS art for their signs, that's pretty iffy.

There are of course, a variety of motives. The most obvious one is to take advantage of the increased customer flow and lure in fans, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I just wanted to note that some of these shops are really actual fans of Love Live! Sunshine!!, and have chosen to express their love that way. These are usually the shops that actually display merch focused on one character, and you can tell they possess knowledge of the franchise beyond just how to milk it for what it's worth.

In the years since the project started, I've seen local fans comment on Twitter that for the first time in their lives, they were glad to have been living in Numazu. It's that kind of sentiment that really strikes you about how much these fans love LLSS, and just makes you feel so happy for them as well. It's always nice to meet other fans, but meeting local fans is really something else. This is a totally different sort of experience than from LL, which was based in Tokyo. It's really here, in a city that offered nothing else much of note, where you can see just how much this one anime is changing a city and its citizen's lives.

Whether by luck or by choice, Love Live! Sunshine!! was based in Uchiura and Numazu, and this is the town that the girls of Aqours really love and wish to protect. And just like in the anime, beyond the girls themselves is an entire town, many of whom are similarly proud of the achievements that this franchise is making and are filled with love for it too.

So if you ever get the chance, please, please make a trip down to this small town. It'll help you come to understand how the girls are living day to day, why they are so frustrated with the place, and yet at the same time still in love with it. And maybe, you might just come to love it too.