Locating My Queerness in Japan: A Solo Anime Pilgrimage

I’ve had a lot of writer’s block when it came to writing about my time in Japan so far. Even thinking about the topic of identity, I felt like I didn’t have any substantial advice to give, especially about my own queerness while here in Japan.

In many ways, queer life can feel lonely, especially in a culture that’s socially more hegemonic than what I’m used to. So if you were to ask me if there was anything interesting to write about from the past few days, I’d shrug and say “I really don’t know.”

But I’ve realized that these feelings aren’t hurdles I have to sprint over, either. If anything, I’m learning that I want to get better at spending time with myself. I looked at my calendar, and I had nothing to do on Saturday, so I decided it might be time for a solo trip.

On my search for what to do on this solo trip, I found out about 聖地巡礼 (seichi junrei) and I knew I had to do it.

The literal translation for seichi junrei is “a pilgrimage to a sacred place,” but a recent trend has been to  visit sites as seen in manga or anime. 

If you look online, you can see how people have been able to find the exact sites and match them to frames from their favorite franchises, from famous buildings to the exact spot in a train station by matching up the signs and ads in the background.

One particular video I saw was of someone going to the beach from Given, and when I found out it was right in Yokohama, I started mapping it out on Google Maps. What better time to do an anime pilgrimage than when you're in Japan?

Given was an anime I watched six years ago (I’m sitting in a restaurant counting the years back on my fingers and I can’t believe it’s been that long…), but it holds a special place in many fans’ hearts, including mine. It follows a young aspiring musician, Mafuyu, as he tries to find his own voice to finish the song his ex-boyfriend wrote before he passed away.

Mafuyu goes to this beach multiple times in the series, a place where he finds inspiration and love. So in search of my own inspiration to write again, I set off to Kamakura, Yokohama, which took two hours by train with some walking.

But by the time I was nearing Kamakura station, the sky was already darkening, and I still had a 20-minute walk once I got there. It was only 5 P.M., so I thought I had more time, but I began to worry if I would be able to see the beach or not.

Once I finally got off at the station, it was still blue hour, which was still perfect for pictures, and meant that there was still enough daylight left to see the beach.

It was just a 20-minute walk, but I didn’t smell the ocean. Before I could begin to doubt Google on where I was, I turned a corner and immediately saw the beach.

Just like the others who had done this pilgrimage, I tried to look for the landmark on the boardwalk. I went back and forth on the boardwalk like crazy trying to find it, but I decided it was more worth it to spend the last bit of sunlight walking along the beach.

The beach and Kamakura itself were a great escape from the bustle of Tokyo, where things can feel abundant, yet lonely, too. Just walking, thinking about Given and what it’s meant for people and the people who have done this pilgrimage before me, was a great reminder that queer stories and queerness have a place here.

I didn’t end up finding the landmark, but I was happy to walk along the beach as the sky got completely dark. The sand was fine and soft, the water wasn’t so cold, and the wind had the right amount of bite. I had traveled pretty far out by myself, and instead of feeling lonely as I did in the beginning, traveling out there was peaceful and freeing and let me out of my own head. And just enjoying the scenery of the bars starting to light up along the boardwalk with the mountains in the back, with the water shallowly washing up to my ankles, it hit me – the inspiration to write again.