Summer Time Rendering: An Anime Pilgrimage to Tomogashima and Kada

Overview

Summer Time Rendering, Yasuki Tanaka's time-loop thriller, unfolds on an island called Hitogashima that does not exist — though almost everything on it does. Hitogashima is Tomogashima, an uninhabited group of islets off western Wakayama City; its lanes, shopfronts and school belong to Kada, the fishing port facing it. This round-up matches each scene to its real place.

The crossing is itself a scene: the Tomogashima Kisen ferry takes about twenty minutes from Kada Port, weather permitting, so check the sailings first. On the island, the information centre stands in for the story's police box; the Takanosu observation deck opens onto the Kitan Strait, with Shikoku beyond; and the Meiji-era Third Battery — brick tunnels and gun pits half swallowed by forest — is the photograph everyone comes for. The slope to the First Battery is quieter, its observation posts almost intact. The shoreline black pines recur throughout the manga; look, but don't climb them.

In Kada, Kojimaichi Shoten plays the story's Koba Mart and still sells yomogi mochi, five for 650 yen, until they run out; Kishimoto Shoten nearby is loved for its 100-yen agepan, fried bread packed with house-made bean paste. Add the tourist office by Kada Station, the three-way junction, the primary school and the old brick soy-sauce warehouse (旧丸治醤油レンガ蔵) by the river. For the flavours: Gyokurin-en's Green Soft green-tea ice cream, and haya-nare sushi with a bowl of Wakayama chuka soba. These are working shops in a lived-in neighbourhood — ask before you photograph.