Suzume: From Miyazaki to Tōhoku

Suzume lives with her aunt Tamaki in a town in Kyushu, and one morning she meets a young man searching for abandoned locations with doors. She tells him of a nearby abandoned onsen resort. The novel says only southern Miyazaki, but map apps point to Nichinan, and the harbour on her school road, where she meets Souta, is said to be modelled on Aburatsu Port. Shinkai chose Miyazaki because Japanese mythology begins there. Beside the port, the restored Horikawa Canal district is known as the location of another film, Otoko wa tsurai yo.

Location precision: The novel names only southern Miyazaki; map apps point to Nichinan and the harbour is only said to be Aburatsu Port, so the pin marks the port.

Visitor guidance: The film's producers ask visitors to respect neighbours and behave with restraint.

Suzume follows the man to the abandoned resort and finds a free-standing door that opens on a starlit field she cannot enter. She trips over a cat statue, which turns into a real cat and flees. At lunch she sees smoke from the resort that no one else can see, runs back, and helps Souta lock the door with an old key. Japanese Wikipedia lists this roundhouse as the site of the first locking and a background of the key art. It ran from 1934 to 1971 and is the last roundhouse in Kyushu.

Location precision: The film's ruin is an abandoned resort; Japanese Wikipedia names this roundhouse as the place of the first locking, so the pin marks a likely model, not a filming site.

Visitor guidance: A door in the style of the film's was erected in front of the roundhouse in 2023.

Suzume and Souta chase the cat onto a ferry headed for Ehime. On arrival they find that netizens have dubbed the cat Daijin. The ferry is modelled on the Kyushi Orange Ferry, and the arrival scene shows Yawatahama's old terminal, since demolished. Shinkai scouted Ehime the year before and routed Suzume through it to lift the mood of the film's first half. Here she meets Chika after catching her oranges, and together they seal a door at an abandoned school. A door like the film's was set up at the port in April 2023.

Visitor guidance: Regular ferries link the port with Usuki and Beppu on Kyushu; the old terminal from the film is gone.

The next day Suzume and Souta hitchhike to Kobe with a woman named Rumi, and Suzume helps at Rumi's bar. Then Daijin leads them to an abandoned amusement park, where the worm tries to emerge through a Ferris wheel gondola. Souta explains that the doors lead to the Ever-After, where souls go after death. Sources disagree on the park's model: Chinese Wikipedia lists the Oku-Maya amusement park ruins and Kikuseidai's night view on Mount Maya, Japanese Wikipedia names Kobe Otogi no Kuni. The pin marks Mount Maya.

Location precision: Chinese Wikipedia points to the Oku-Maya ruins on Mount Maya and Japanese Wikipedia to Kobe Otogi no Kuni, so the pin marks Mount Maya, not a confirmed model.

Visitor guidance: Kikuseidai, a park beside the summit, looks over the Osaka Bay area; its night view is ranked among Japan's top three.

Tracking Daijin to Tokyo, Souta asks Suzume to take them to his apartment. Ochanomizu is the station nearest it: in the film they change at Tokyo Station and ride the Chuo Line here. At the apartment Souta explains the legend of the worm and that he is the last descendant of a family who locked doors to the Ever-After. He warns that if the worm emerges in Tokyo, the damage will be similar to the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. The real station straddles the Chiyoda and Bunkyō wards, and the Marunouchi Line briefly runs above ground over the Kanda River beside it.

Visitor guidance: Hijiri Bridge crosses the Kanda River near one of the station's exits.

Japanese Wikipedia says the film puts the door in a Marunouchi Line tunnel right next to Hijiri Bridge. Suzume sees the eastern keystone pulled out and jumps from the bridge rail toward the river where the worm appeared. She and Souta climb onto the worm as it breaks fully free and find Daijin. Souta starts to crystallise, and Suzume is forced to use him to seal the worm. The bridge crosses the Kanda River near a station exit, a short walk from Souta's apartment stop.

Visitor guidance: The bridge is beside Ochanomizu Station; the producers ask pilgrims to respect neighbours.

Suzume's hometown is the Akamae district of Miyako, in Iwate. After Tokyo she convinces Tomoya to drive her and Tamaki to her childhood hometown in Tōhoku, destroyed by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed her mother. At a rest stop she discovers that her aunt is possessed by Sadaijin, the eastern keystone. At the ruins of her old house she finds the door and enters it with Daijin and Sadaijin. In the Ever-After she gives her younger self the chair that had been Souta's body, built by her mother as a birthday present. A door like the film's stands in Miyako as a pilgrimage spot.

Location precision: Japanese Wikipedia gives Akamae, Miyako as Suzume's hometown, but the film shows ruins rather than a real street, so the pin marks the district.

Visitor guidance: The producers ask pilgrims to respect neighbours and behave with restraint.

At the film's Orikasa Station, Suzume and Souta embrace and part at the end of the journey; Souta returns to Tokyo while Suzume and Tamaki return to Kyushu. Japanese Wikipedia says the film's station is modelled on the real Orikasa Station, and that some people visit as pilgrims. The real station opened on 10 November 1936 and was washed away by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. It was rebuilt somewhat north of the flooded site and passed to the Sanriku Railway in March 2019.

Location precision: Japanese Wikipedia says the film's station is modelled on Orikasa Station, but the animated station is not a filmed one, so the pin marks the real station.

Visitor guidance: The rebuilt station is run by the Sanriku Railway; some fans visit as pilgrims.