Top Gun (1986) is set at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego and was filmed there, in Oceanside, at Kansas City Barbeque and at NAS Fallon in Nevada.
This route follows Maverick and Goose from the Miramar flight line to Charlie's house in Oceanside, the piano bar where they sing "Great Balls of Fire", the Nevada skies of the dogfights and North Island, where the sequel Top Gun: Maverick puts its school. Miramar, Fallon and North Island are active military bases.
Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds is set in Brooklyn, New Jersey and Boston, but it was filmed in Newark, Bayonne, Athens on the Hudson, Lexington, Virginia, and Naugatuck, Connecticut. Ray Ferrier tries to get his children to their mother as alien tripods rise around them.
The route follows the film's flight in story order and shows where each scene was actually shot, from the first tripod to the final reunion. Several stops are film stand-ins, so pins mark towns rather than exact addresses.
Attila the Hun's campaigns run from Margus and Viminacium on the Danube to Orléans, the Catalaunian Plains in France and Aquileia in Italy. This route follows the Hun king from the 435 treaty to his 452 meeting with Pope Leo I.
Six stops trace his rise as ruler of the Huns, the sack of Danube cities, the check in Gaul and the invasion of Italy. Several battle sites are approximate or disputed, and the pins say so.
Quigley Down Under is set in Fremantle, Western Australia, but it was filmed in the Northern Territory and Victoria: Alice Springs, Apollo Bay and Warrnambool.
This route follows the sharpshooter from the dock to the Outback ranch, the desert and the coastal town to the final wharf. Warrnambool played Fremantle, so the Western Australia stop marks only the real port the story names.
Gran Turismo, Forza and Assetto Corsa race on real circuits: the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Spa-Francorchamps, Monza, Le Mans, Suzuka and Laguna Seca.
This route lists six tracks you can drive in racing games, with what each game does with them and the real circuit behind the screen. Game appearances differ by title and year.
Dawn of the Dead (1978) was filmed at Monroeville Mall, east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with other scenes shot at a downtown Pittsburgh dock, a Monroeville airfield and a truck yard in Irwin.
George A. Romero's zombie film is set in Philadelphia and a mall, but it was made in the Pittsburgh area. This route follows the survivors from the police dock to the mall, with the real places that stood in for each scene. Several of those places have changed or disappeared.
The Via Francigena is the medieval pilgrim road from Canterbury Cathedral through France and Switzerland to St Peter's in Rome, recorded by Archbishop Sigeric around 990. This route follows it from Canterbury over the Great St Bernard Pass to Lucca, Siena and Viterbo.
Sigeric's return trip ran to 80 stages of about 20 km each, some 1,700 km in all. Pilgrims still walk it today. Stops are landmarks on the route, not proven overnight stays.
Overwatch (called Overwatch 2 until February 2026) sets maps in real places across Africa and Asia: the Temple of Anubis is on the Giza Plateau near Cairo, Petra is in Jordan, Busan is in South Korea, and Neon Junction is inspired by Tokyo.
This route follows ten maps west to east, from Morocco to Tokyo, with the mode, the date each arrived and the real place behind it. Other routes cover Overwatch maps in Europe and in the Americas. Aatlis has no pin because Blizzard names no city in Morocco; Oasis and Suravasa pin only their country.
Seven Samurai was filmed at Toho Studios in Tokyo and in Shizuoka and Hakone, because no single location could cover the whole area.
Kurosawa's 1954 film has one mountain village, but it was stitched together from different places: studio rice fields in Setagaya, a valley above the Tanna Tunnel, a mill site in Izu, a waterfall in Shizuoka and a mountain pass in Hakone.
The stops are approximate because the screen village never existed as one place.
Where was Yamatai, the kingdom of Queen Himiko? The two leading answers are Yoshinogari in Saga, northern Kyushu, and Makimuku beside the Hashihaka Kofun in Sakurai, Nara.
The route follows the Wei Zhi account of Himiko from Iki Island and the Shikanoshima gold seal to the two rival sites, and ends at the burial mound often linked with her grave. The location of Yamatai is still unsettled.
Amachan, the 2013 NHK morning drama, is set in Kitasanriku, a fictional town modelled on Kuji, Iwate; this route visits Kuji Station, Kosode Coast and railway stations along the Sanriku Coast.
Aki, a shy Tokyo girl, becomes a sea-urchin diver and a local idol in a small seaside town. This route follows the hometown chapter through five real places: Kuji Station, Kosode Coast, Horinai Station, Tanohata Station and Taneichi High School. Several stand in for places the drama names differently.
Emperor Go-Daigo overthrew the Kamakura shogunate in 1333 after holding out at Kasagi Temple, being exiled to the Oki Islands and escaping to Mount Funanoue, and he ended his life at Yoshino. This route follows him from Kasagi to Kyoto and the Southern Court.
The six stops trace 1331 to 1339: the failed stand at Kasagi, exile on Oki, the escape to Mount Funanoue, the short Kenmu Restoration in Kyoto, the temporary palace at Yoshimizu Shrine and the emperor's tomb at Nyoirin-ji. Several pins are approximate because the sources describe regions or traditions, not exact spots.
Kusunoki Masashige, Japan's famous loyal samurai, fought from Akasaka and Chihaya Castle in Osaka Prefecture and died at Minatogawa in Kobe in 1336. Five stops follow his life from a temple school to his statue in Tokyo.
The route runs from Kanshin-ji in Kawachinagano, where he studied, through the two mountain fortresses that made his name, to the shrine at Minatogawa and the bronze monument beside the Imperial Palace. Where the exact spot is not known, the pin marks the area.
NHK's 2008 drama Atsuhime follows Tenshō-in from Kagoshima and Sakurajima in Satsuma to Edo Castle in Tokyo, where she became wife of the 13th shōgun.
Born Okatsu in the Imaizumi branch of the Shimazu clan, she is adopted by Shimazu Nariakira, moves into Tsurumaru Castle and leaves for the shōgun's court in 1853, the year of Perry's Black Ships. The route follows five places from the drama's first half in Satsuma to the Ōoku. The Imaizumi pin and the Kurihama stop are approximate.
Yotsuya Kaidan, the story of the ghost Oiwa, is set in Yotsuya in old Edo and first played at the Nakamura-za theatre in 1825; Banchō Sarayashiki, the tale of Okiku and the missing plate, is set in Banchō, Edo, and claimed by Himeji Castle.
This route follows both kabuki ghost stories through Tokyo and Himeji: the premiere theatre's replica, the Oiwa Inari Tamiya Shrine in Yotsuya, Oiwa's reputed grave at Myōgyō-ji in Sugamo, the Banchō district and Okiku's Well. Several identifications are traditional or disputed, and each stop says so.
Minamoto no Yoritomo founded Japan's first shogunate in Kamakura. This route follows him from his exile in Izu and Mishima Taisha to Ōkura, Hiraizumi and Tsurugaoka Hachimangū.
The stops trace his rise from exile in 1160, his first residence in Kamakura, the fall of Hiraizumi in 1189, the shogunate of 1192, his grave and the Hōjō regents who followed. Some sites, including the exile and the grave, are traditional identifications.
Kintarō, Japan's "Golden Boy", is said to have grown up on Mount Ashigara near Hakone, wrestling bears before Minamoto no Yorimitsu met him at Ashigara Pass and took him as a retainer.
The route follows the folk legend from several claimed birthplaces, Oyama and Yuhi Falls, through Mount Kintoki and Ashigara Pass to Mount Ōe, home of the demon Shuten-dōji. Versions differ, so most pins mark traditional sites rather than proven ones.
The Shinsengumi, the squad of Kondō Isami and Hijikata Toshizō, began in Hino in the Tama region and ended in Hakodate. Their story runs through Mibu-dera and the Ikedaya Inn in Kyoto, the battle of Fushimi, and Kondō's execution in Itabashi.
The route follows Kondō Isami and Hijikata Toshizō from a dojo in Hino to the Boshin War. Several stops can still be visited, though some pins mark an area rather than the exact spot.
Lycoris Recoil is set in Tokyo, and its café LycoReco sits in Sumida, near Kinshichō Station, with Kinshi Park, the Sumida River water bus, Sumida Aquarium and Tokyo Skytree nearby.
This route follows the series from the café and the real streets around it to the river, Ryōgoku and the aquarium, ending at the tower of the finale. LycoReco is fictional, and the link between the story's tower and Tokyo Skytree is a guess.
Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, a series of 119 ukiyo-e prints, shows Edo, as Tokyo was then called: Nihonbashi, Kanda Shrine, Shinobazu Pond, Kameido Tenjin, Zōjō-ji and Sensō-ji in Asakusa.
This route follows seven of its views in print order, from Nihonbashi in snow to the gates of Sensō-ji, each tied to a place you can still visit. The Sumida River bridge of the famous sudden shower, and the Nihonbashi stop, have approximate pins.
The legend of Shuten-dōji, the ogre-king of Mount Ōe, is tied to shrines and temples in and around Kyoto: Iwashimizu Hachimangū, Sumiyoshi Taisha, the Ōeyama range, Byōdō-in and Nariai-ji.
In the story, abductions plague the capital and the warrior Raikō leads a band against the ogre-king. The route follows the hunt from prayers at the shrines to the lair, the beheading and the places that claim the head or the sake. Versions differ, and the exact mountain is disputed.
Date Masamune, the One-Eyed Dragon, was born at Yonezawa Castle and ended his life as lord of Sendai. This route follows him through Yonezawa, Aizu, Iwadeyama, Sendai Castle, Zuigan-ji at Matsushima and his mausoleum at Zuihoden.
It covers the castles he took, rebuilt or founded between 1584 and 1636, and the temple and tomb that survive him. Most of the original buildings are gone, so several stops are sites or rebuilds.
In This Corner of the World is set in Hiroshima and Kure, Japan, during the Second World War. Suzu Urano grows up in Eba, sketches at the Atomic Bomb Dome building, and marries into a family in the naval port of Kure.
The route follows Fumiyo Kōno's story from Suzu's hometown of Eba to the Kure Naval Arsenal and Niko Park, where the Hōjō family goes to see the cherry blossoms in spring 1945. Kure's Hōjō home is only approximately placed.
The legend of Benkei, Japan's warrior monk, runs from Gojō Bridge and Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto to the Ataka Barrier in Ishikawa and the Koromogawa battle site at Hiraizumi.
Benkei is said to have lost a duel to the young Minamoto no Yoshitsune on a Kyoto bridge, then served him to the end. The route follows that story through five places, from the duel to the famous "Standing Death of Benkei". Most tales come from later writings, and no records from Benkei's own time survive.
