「レッツゴー キャム！」Cam, Ikuzo! Come follow Camden’s journey! May 2023

Recently I took part in “seichi junrei” (literally meaning pilgrimage of sacred land), a culture where anime fans visit real life places that were used as a setting for an anime. In high school I became obsessed with the anime “Hyouka” and ever since I have wanted to visit Takayama City, Gifu Prefecture, the place the anime’s setting is based on.　When I heard that Takayama was going to hold their spring festival for the first time in 6 years, I thought it would be a great timing for a trip to check it out and also do seichi junrei.

So many foreigners gathered in Takayama for the festival, and after researching for a bit, it turns out that it is one of Japan’s “Big three beautiful festivals.” And I thought that the festival, which was based around mikoshi (portable shrines), was amazing. I was blown away by the intricate designs on the festival floats, which carried mechanical dolls. For those interested in such sculptures and traditional Japanese art, I would recommend Takayama as it is certainly an intangible cultural property of Japan. On a personal level, I would also like to go to Matsudo Shrine's "Shinkosai" festival held every few years, which is said to be one of the more unique festivals in Japan, and see the "wooden sculptures of the four deities" that can be viewed there.

Alternatively, if you want to get a taste of Japan's traditional arts in Matsudo right now, I recommend the Matsudo Museum. When I visited the "Children's Museum" that was held there I thought that the traditional artifacts, such as ukiyo-e and the old remains of earthenware left from what used to be Matsudo City, and it turned out to be a really awesome experience. The Matsudo Museum is holding a new exhibit from now until June 11th called the "Dokidoki Chronology" or "Chronology of Japan's Pottery," were you can view Japan's traditional earthenware, so I highly suggest you check it out!

Children also played a huge role in the festival events, and each of them were calm and collected in carrying out their role in front of the huge crowd of people, whether it be dropping flower petals from on top of the portable shrine, or doing a “lion dance” in the street while wearing a guardian lion costume.

For the Seichi Junrei, I wanted to visit some places that were quite far from Takayama station, but luckily I was able to easily visit all of the places from the anime I wanted to see by taking the bus. The places that were the most worthwhile were the coffee shop from Hyouka’s episode 3 (Bag Pipe), the hot spring from episode 7 (Hirayu no Yu), and the huge sakura tree from the 2nd and final episode (Garyuzakura).

There are also plenty of places in Matsudo City that are used in anime. The easiest one to visit for Seichi Junrei is the pedestrian deck outside of Matsudo Station's west exit which is used in multiple anime including "Happy Sugar Life." The background work is done very well in the scenes of this anime, it's like I am actually looking at the pedestrian deck I have walked through so many times before. Looking for anime that use places that are familiar to you is another very fun way to go about seichi junrei.

Actually, I have already done a "seichi junrei" in America before. 5 years ago I visited the prison that was used as the setting for the movie "Shawshank Redemption." In the story the prison is set in Massachusetts, but its real life location is actually in Ohio.

I plan on doing a seminar later this year to introduce to the people of Matsudo the more places in America where "seichi junrei" can be done. For those that have an interest in American films, please be on the look out for it!

先日、アニメの舞台とされた場所を訪れる文化（聖地巡礼）に参加しました。「氷菓」というアニメは高校生の時に夢中になり、以前からその舞台の岐阜県高山市に訪れたいと思っていました。今回、高山市の春祭りが6年ぶりに開催されると聞き、聖地巡礼をする良い機会だと思い、行ってきました。

そこではたくさんの外国人が集っており、調べたところ、この祭りは特に美しいと言われている「日本三大美祭」の一つでした。その神輿を中心とした祭りの活気はものすごく、神輿自体のデザインの細かさと乗っているからくり人形の技術に感動しました。このような彫刻や日本の伝統的な美術に興味がある方には国の重要文化財や市の無形文化財のスポットをお勧めします。個人的には数年ごとに行われる松戸神社の「神幸祭」で全国的にも珍しいと言われる祭りの「木像の四神」を見てみたいです。

又、松戸市で日本の伝統的な美術や歴史を今感じたいということであれば、松戸市立博物館がお勧めです。以前、そこで開催した「こどもミュージアム」に訪れた際に浮世絵や松戸市内から見つかった土器の遺跡などの伝統的な文化に触れることができ、貴重な体験が出来ました。松戸市立博物館の「どきどきクロノロジー」は6月11日まで開催中です。日本の伝統的な土器を見れるので、ぜひ行ってみてください。

祭りの行事に高山市の子供も一人一人が役回りを一生懸命に取り組み、屋台の上から花弁を落とす役とか、道路で獅子舞をする役とか、大勢の人の前で全然緊張せず、慌てることなく役割を果たしていました。

聖地巡礼のために駅から離れた場所に寄りたかったので、バスでアニメに出た場所を全部楽に巡ることができました。一番訪れた甲斐があった場所は氷菓の第3話の喫茶店（バグ・パイプ）と第7話の温泉（平湯の湯）と最終回の第22話の大きい桜の木（臥龍桜）です。

松戸市にはアニメで使用された場所があります。最も聖地巡礼として訪れやすい場所は「ハッピーシュガーライフ」というアニメに出る松戸駅西口駅前広場です。実際に使用されたシーンは松戸駅の広場にいるような感覚を味わえるほど再現性が高いものが多く、聖地巡礼にはこのような魅力があります。

実は、アメリカでも聖地巡礼の経験があり、5年前に「ショーシャンクの空に」の舞台の牢屋に訪れました。ストーリーでマサチューセッツ州の牢屋ですが、実際はオハイオ州に位置しています。

これからも松戸市の魅力を伝えていくとともに、アメリカで聖地巡礼できる場所を松戸市の皆さんに広く知っていただきたいので、今年それについて講座を開催したいと思います。アメリカの映画などに興味がある方ぜひお待ちください！