Root Letter: Searching for Aya in Matsue

The player reaches Matsue looking for Fumino Aya, the pen pal from high school who disappeared 15 years earlier. One of the first places you see after arriving is the Shimane Art Museum, a real building on the south side of the city. The museum opened in 1999 and holds Japanese and Western art, including paintings by Corot, Sisley, Monet and Gauguin. The game keeps a guidebook with an entry for every location visited, because each one is based on an actual place.

Visitor guidance: A public art museum on the south side of Matsue.

The game's background designs are directly inspired by actual locations, and one reviewer picks the Matsue Kyomise shopping district, along the Kyobashi River, as one of the best examples. The game's guidebook has an entry for every location you visit, because each place is based on a real one. The sources name the district but no single shopfront, so this stop is left without a pin.

Location precision: The sources name the Kyomise district but not a single spot, so this stop has no pin.

The game uses the Lake Shinji Footpath, one of several locations based on real places, alongside Shiroyama Park and Hinomisaki Lighthouse. The in-game sightseeing boat, the S.S. Swan, recalls the boats that cross Lake Shinji. The real lake is a brackish coastal lagoon in the northeast of Shimane, with a circumference of 48 kilometres.

Location precision: The pin marks the lake itself; the sources do not say which stretch of the footpath appears in the game.

Visitor guidance: Lake Shinji is in northeastern Shimane.

In the game, Yaegaki Shrine is where you draw fortunes and acquire important items. The real shrine honours Susanoo and Kushinada-hime and is dedicated to marriage and matchmaking. In the Yamata-no-Orochi legend, Susanoo meets a couple who have lost seven of their eight daughters to an eight-headed serpent. The shrine was built on the spot where he made a home for himself and Kushinada.

Visitor guidance: An active Shinto shrine in Matsue dedicated to marriage and matchmaking; many visitors pray for a marriage partner.

One reviewer describes the game's tour of Matsue as a jump from museum to castle to shopping areas, with a UFO research centre thrown in. The castle is real: built between 1607 and 1611 for Horio Yoshiharu, it keeps its main keep in original wooden form, unlike many reconstructed castles. The keep and its turret have been a registered national treasure of Japan since 9 July 2015.

Location precision: The review mentions a castle without naming a scene, so the pin marks Matsue Castle as the likely model.

Visitor guidance: The keep is original and a registered national treasure.