Drive My Car: Hiroshima and Hokkaido

The Hiroshima International Conference Center plays the venue of the Hiroshima international theatre festival, where Yusuke directs a multilingual production of Uncle Vanya. The film lingers on its circular approach leading down to the underground car park. The building replaced a public hall designed by Kenzo Tange in 1955 and went up in 1989; its inorganic, modern style sets off the characters' feelings on screen.

Visitor guidance: A public conference hall in Hiroshima; the circular approach can be seen from outside.

The festival actors rehearse outdoors in front of the benches of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, with performers from different countries speaking their own languages. Japan's tourist board counts this among the film's high points, because it shows two actors who cannot talk to each other still connecting. The park is a memorial in the centre of Hiroshima, built where the city's busiest downtown district once stood.

Visitor guidance: Open public park in central Hiroshima.

Misaki, Yusuke's driver, shows him a place she loves: a real waste-incineration plant in Hiroshima. The site spreads out at the end of the axis that runs south from Peace Memorial Park, so her favourite spot lines up with the city's best-known memorial. The Hiroshima prefectural guide to the film's locations lists the plant among its stops.

The port town of Mitarai on the island of Osakishimojima is Yusuke's base during his stay in Hiroshima. The town took shape in the mid-17th century and thrived as a relay port for shipping on the Seto Inland Sea until the early Showa era. Its historic port works survive, and in 1994 Mitarai was designated an important preservation district for groups of traditional buildings.

Location precision: The film's exact house is not documented in the sources used; the pin marks the town.

Visitor guidance: A preserved historic port town on Osakishimojima.

The police arrest Koji at a rehearsal, and Yusuke has two days to decide whether to take over as Vanya himself or cancel the production. He asks Misaki to take him to her childhood home in Hokkaido. There, Yusuke shares his guilt about not coming home to the conversation Oto wanted to have. This climactic scene was shot in Akabira, and the film brought new visitors to the town.

Location precision: The sources place a climactic scene in Akabira but not an exact spot; the pin marks the town.