5 Centimeters per Second Pilgrimage Guide: Tanegashima Coast & Nagano Live-Action Stations

In Episode 2 ('Cosmonaut') of 5 Centimeters per Second, Nakayama Coast on Tanegashima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture is the sandy beach where high school student Kanae Sumida practices riding the ocean waves on her surfboard day after day. Makoto Shinkai's acclaimed 2007 animated feature film pairs Kanae's quiet, unyielding determination in the surf with protagonist Takaki Tono gazing far up into the night sky at a rocket launch—making the open island horizon of sea and sky the defining visual image of the chapter.

For the 2025 live-action feature film adaptation, Toyono Station, Mure Station, and Komoro Station in Nagano Prefecture served as real-world railway filming locations. Below, we introduce these active regional stations along the Kita-Shinano Line, JR Iiyama Line, and JR Koumi Line—including their historic station buildings, forecourt plazas, and rail connections—while tracing the characters, behind-the-scenes production stories, and release history of both Makoto Shinkai's original anime and Yoshiyuki Okuyama's live-action adaptation.

Tanegashima’s Coastline and Three Nagano Stations from the Live-Action Film

Nakayama Coast on Tanegashima appears in Episode 2 of the animated feature film, whereas Toyono Station, Mure Station, and Komoro Station in Nagano Prefecture are officially credited railway filming locations from the 2025 live-action movie. From the open sandy island beach where Kanae paddles out into the waves to the snow-country railway platforms that framed the live-action cast, these four pilgrimage stops let travelers experience the landscapes of both films.

1Nakayama Coast: The Tanegashima Beach Where Kanae Faces the Waves

Nakayama Coast is the real-world island beach where Kanae Sumida practices surfing in Episode 2, 'Cosmonaut.' Standing on this quiet stretch of sand along the eastern shore of Tanegashima in Nakatane Town brings back vivid memories of Kanae paddling out into the rolling surf beneath a vast summer sky.

In a published 2011 interview, director Makoto Shinkai explained that the primary reason he chose Tanegashima as the real-world setting for Episode 2 was the pivotal scene in which the characters watch a rocket launch together. As Kanae and Takaki look up at the rocket ascending into outer space, Kanae realizes that Takaki's heart is looking somewhere far beyond her reach—and Tanegashima was chosen as the real Japanese island where such a rocket launch could actually take place.

During his on-site location research on the island, Shinkai learned how popular surfing is among local high school students and discovered that the special transporter vehicle carrying the rocket moves at a slow walking pace of just five kilometers per hour—two real-world island details that naturally expanded the story of 'Cosmonaut.'

Director Shinkai conducted extensive location scouting for the entire film, spending a full month living and walking on Tanegashima and taking thousands of reference photographs. In addition to shots painted directly from location photos, the production team drew layouts on animation paper and painted digital backgrounds from scratch for camera angles where a physical camera could never be placed, ensuring hand-drawn perspectives matched the visual density of photo-referenced art. Even the character linework preserved subtle brush breaks and pencil textures, with each frame colored like an individual standalone illustration.

Source: Production Studio Published Interview with Makoto Shinkai on Choosing Tanegashima

Sources: Kagoshima Prefecture Guide to Nakayama Coast & Cosmonaut / Tanegashima Tourism Association Anime Pilgrimage Guide

Nakayama Coast lies just east of the Nakayama settlement in the Noma district of Nakatane Town. While the coastal parking area is equipped with outdoor showers and public restrooms, mobile phone reception can be weak along the beach, so travelers should save maps and contact details in advance. If visiting Tanegashima in summer, bring sun protection and check local sea and weather conditions on the day of your visit.

Source: Nakatane Town Official Guide to Nakayama Coast

2Toyono Station: An Active Nagano Junction Station Used in the Live-Action Film

Toyono Station in northeastern Nagano City served as an official railway filming location for the 2025 live-action film. Acting as the key junction where the JR Iiyama Line connects with the Shinano Railway Kita-Shinano Line, this busy regional transfer station hosted location filming with the cast and crew in January 2025.

Source: Nagano City Archives Catalog of Toyono Station Development Records

Sources: Nagano Film Commission Location Guide / Live-Action Film Official Website

3Mure Station: The Iizuna Town Station Featured in the Live-Action Adaptation

Mure Station in Iizuna Town was also used as a railway filming location for the 2025 live-action feature film. Served by the Shinano Railway Kita-Shinano Line and connected to local community buses and shared taxis, it functions as an everyday transit hub for town residents and commuters.

The station forecourt was redeveloped under a municipal town-planning project, with the newly completed rotary plaza opening for public use on April 26, 2019. Advance registration for the station-front parking lot is handled directly by the tourism association desk inside the station building.

Mure Station's official street address is 4921-1 Oaza Toyono, Iizuna-machi, Kamiminochi District. Although the street address contains the district name 'Toyono,' it is a completely different railway station from Toyono Station in neighboring Nagano City. Checking both the railway line name and the municipality makes it easy to distinguish the two filming locations when searching on a map.

Sources: Iizuna Town Mure Station Area Visitor Guide / Shinano Railway Mure Station Page

Sources: Nagano Film Commission / Iizuna Town Mure Station Access Guide / Shinshu Film Commission Network

Inside the wooden Mure Station building—which celebrated the 100th anniversary of its original construction in 2022—visitors will find the Iizuna Town Tourism Association information desk. In September 2024, the station unveiled a newly illustrated platform sign featuring Iizuna Town mascot 'Mitsudon' alongside Tetsudo Musume character Remu Ueda, giving visitors a distinctive local highlight right on the platform as well as in the station plaza.

Sources: Iizuna Town September 2024 Station Sign Announcement / Shinano Railway Mure Station Sign Unveiling Event

4Komoro Station: Live-Action Filming Location Next to Komoro Castle Ruins Kaikoen

Komoro Station in Komoro City was the third Nagano railway station used to film the 2025 live-action movie. Connecting the Shinano Railway Line and the JR Koumi Line, the station sits at the very heart of a historic castle town.

Sources: Nagano Film Commission / Shinano Railway Komoro Station Guide / Shinshu Film Commission Network

Sannomon Gate of Komoro Castle Preserved Just Steps from the Station

Komoro Castle Ruins Kaikoen Park is only a three-minute walk from Komoro Station. Guarded at its entrance by the historic Sannomon Gate—a designated Important Cultural Property of Japan—the park lets visitors pair a stop at the railway filming station with a quiet walk through castle-town history. If visiting the Nagano stations in winter, check snow conditions, weather forecasts, and train operations before setting out.

Sources: Komoro City: Sannomon Gate of Komoro Castle / Komoro City: History of Kaikoen Park

The Three-Part Story and the Bond Between Takaki, Akari, and Kanae

The title 5 Centimeters per Second originated from a personal email sent to Makoto Shinkai by an audience member who mentioned that cherry blossom petals fall at five centimeters per second. After asking the sender's permission to use the phrase as a film title, Shinkai wove it into the opening of the story as a memorable remark made by childhood friend Akari Shinohara that Takaki remembers for years afterward.

Makoto Shinkai's animated feature is structured as three interconnected short stories revolving around protagonist Takaki Tono. Episode 1, 'Cherry Blossom' (Oukasho), portrays the childhood bond and snowy reunion between Takaki and Akari Shinohara. Episode 2, 'Cosmonaut,' shifts the narrative perspective to Kanae Sumida, a high school classmate on Tanegashima who harbors unspoken feelings for Takaki beneath the island's expansive sky and sea.

Episode 3, '5 Centimeters per Second,' depicts the characters as working adults in Tokyo. Director Shinkai has noted that this three-part structure reflects the subjective sensation of time compressing as people grow older: while Episodes 1 and 2 each unfold over more than twenty minutes, Episode 3 is intentionally the shortest chapter, layering passing days and years into a brisk montage set to Masayoshi Yamazaki's theme song.

Source: CoMix Wave Films: 5 Centimeters per Second Official Profile

In a published interview, Director Shinkai recalled wrestling with the decision to conclude Episode 3 over Masayoshi Yamazaki's song. Rather than spelling out every detail of the characters' later lives, he wanted to leave emotional room for viewers to reflect on their own lives after the credits rolled, while still delivering the thematic satisfaction of a complete theatrical film.

Source: Production Studio Published Interview on Episode 3 and the Ending Structure

Explore Deeper: How Takaki, Akari, and Kanae Connect

Source: Production Studio Character & Story Guide

Mitsuki Takahata, who portrays the adult Akari in the 2025 live-action film, remarked that until stepping into the role she had perhaps always viewed the anime's Akari through Takaki's eyes. Meanwhile, Episode 2 ('Cosmonaut') belongs to Kanae on Tanegashima; before visiting Nakayama Coast, rewatch Kanae facing the ocean waves and struggling to put her feelings for Takaki into words.

Sources: Live-Action Film Official Cast Comments / Production Studio Interview on Kanae's Perspective

Key Scenes to Rewatch Before Your Trip

Episode 1 ('Cherry Blossom') follows the day Takaki and Akari reunite after being separated at elementary school graduation. Boarding a series of regional trains through worsening snowdrifts, Takaki endures agonizing delays at rural stations before finally meeting Akari late at night.

Before visiting Nakayama Coast, the surfing scenes and rocket launch in Episode 2 ('Cosmonaut') are essential viewing. As Kanae practices standing on her board in the waves, she longs to confess her feelings to Takaki—until watching a rocket rise into the night sky together makes her realize how far away his gaze truly is.

Even the small detail of a dog sitting in a metal washbasin near Kanae's house came directly from Shinkai's fieldwork on Tanegashima. While scouting locations on the island, the director spotted a real dog sitting inside a metal tub that occasionally lifted its head to bark, and incorporated that exact sight into 'Cosmonaut.'

Source: Production Studio Interview with Makoto Shinkai on the Title and Tanegashima Fieldwork

In the 2025 live-action adaptation, the film also expands upon Takaki's daily life working as a systems engineer in Tokyo and Akari's everyday work at a bookstore.

Read the three episode synopses on the official anime website

How the Director’s Own High School Train Commute Shaped the Railway Scenes

The recurring presence of trains across the animated film grew out of Director Shinkai's own high school commute, when he rode the train for roughly forty minutes each way and saw the carriage as a place for studying, eating, and chance encounters. He has also described railway crossings as visual symbols of separation and connection—dividing 'this side' from 'the other side' while a train passes and reconnecting them once the barrier rises.

Source: Production Studio Interview on Why Trains Appear Throughout the Film

Characters and Production of the 2025 Live-Action Film

Directed by Yoshiyuki Okuyama, the 2025 live-action film stars Hokuto Matsumura as protagonist Takaki Tono, with Mitsuki Takahata as the adult Akari Shinohara, Nana Mori as Tanegashima high schooler Kanae Sumida, and Yuzu Aoki as high-school-age Takaki—bringing characters long known through animation and voice acting to life through physical performance.

Filming took place entirely on location across four seasons from 2024 into 2025 in Tokyo, Tanegashima, and beyond, with the three railway stations in Nagano Prefecture serving as key real-world locations.

The live-action theme song is Kenshi Yonezu's '1991'—a title that marks both the year Takaki and Akari first meet in the story and Yonezu's own birth year, prompting the artist to reflect on his own life while writing the song. Masayoshi Yamazaki's signature song 'One more time, One more chance' also returns in the film in a newly remastered and upmixed version.

Composer Ayatake Ezaki traveled to Tanegashima himself to create a concept album directly from the screenplay before composing, arranging, and performing the film's score, later fine-tuning each cue alongside Director Okuyama and the editor. In September 2025, Matsumura and Okuyama attended the Busan International Film Festival to present the film.

Sources: Live-Action Film Official Cast & Production Guide / Official News: Busan International Film Festival Report / TOHO Opening Day Stage Greeting Report

Pre-production on the live-action adaptation took shape inside the house of Director Okuyama's grandparents, which he uses as his creative studio. Meeting lead actor Hokuto Matsumura for the first time in March 2024—roughly five months before principal photography—the director sought to weave the personal memories and formative landscapes of the cast and crew into the film.

Responding to Matsumura's wish to begin discussions early, the actor and director spent months exploring Takaki Tono's inner life across every age, compiling period background research, technical notes on his job, and personal letters from the director into a 110-page character sourcebook before the production's safety prayer ceremony, alongside a visual mood-board book prepared by the producer.

Director Okuyama shared that rewatching the original anime around age thirty felt very different from seeing it as a student: feeling a sense of restlessness about his own life and work allowed him to see himself in Takaki, motivating him to take on the adaptation at roughly the same age Shinkai was (33–34) when he made the original film.

Throughout casting, the team prioritized not only screen presence but whether each actor's vocal delivery and cadence sounded like a real person living in the world, applying that same standard from the leads down to the smallest supporting roles.

Source: Live-Action Film Official Production Notes 02–04

A 132-Page Visual Study Analyzing Every Camera Angle of the Original Anime

Before stepping onto set, Director Okuyama compiled a 132-page analytical study cataloging and charting the camera work of the original anime. Principal photography then began on Tanegashima in August 2024 and continued across autumn, winter, and spring.

The study categorized camera movement, angles, focal framing, and character blocking across the anime, while on the live-action set the crew paired that preparation with long takes and compact unit shooting to capture spontaneous moments on camera.

For the childhood and teenage chapters, the cinematography uses handheld camera work that breathes and moves with the young characters, whereas scenes of adult Takaki rely primarily on locked-off static frames showing him alone—widening the frame only when he interacts with others so that camera movement and lens width mirror his emotional state.

The narrative structure also differs between the two versions: whereas the 63-minute anime presents three distinct chapters—Takaki and Akari's reunion, Takaki seen through Kanae's eyes, and their adult lives—the live-action screenplay places Takaki's half-lifetime at the spine of a feature-length narrative, preserving the anime's core while adding new scenes.

Rehearsals with the Child Actors and Surfing Training for Kanae’s Role

Child actors Yuto Ueda (young Takaki) and Noa Shiroyama (young Akari) were selected from an audition of roughly 500 candidates and took part in more than five workshops and rehearsals starting two months before filming. Rather than drilling line readings, Director Okuyama met with the children repeatedly to talk, play games, and play sports together so they could build genuine trust on camera.

Nana Mori, who plays Kanae in the live-action film, trained in surfing for two months from scratch prior to filming on Tanegashima, recalling at the opening-day stage greeting how she shed frustrated tears when she could not catch the waves at first. Yuzu Aoki, who plays high-school Takaki, highlighted the hill scene talking with Kanae on Tanegashima as one of his most memorable moments.

Sources: Live-Action Film Official Screenplay & Filming Notes / Official Child Cast Profile (September 29, 2025) / Official Anime Three-Part Story Guide

Tracing Eighteen Years of Character Growth in the Live-Action Film

In the live-action film, the story begins with Takaki and Akari meeting in spring 1991 at a Tokyo elementary school, staying connected through letters after graduation separates them, and reuniting on a blizzard night in Iwafune, Tochigi during their first year of junior high—where they make a promise to meet again on March 26, 2009.

By 2008, Takaki is working as a systems engineer at a software company in Tokyo while feeling that part of himself remains stranded in the past, while Akari works quietly at the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Shinjuku. Mai Kiryu plays Takaki's coworker Risa Mizuno, and Aoi Miyazaki plays Kanae's older sister Midori Koshimizu, a high school teacher on Tanegashima.

Source: Live-Action Film Official Story & Character Guide

Release Timeline from the 2007 Anime to the 2025 Live-Action Film

Sources: CoMix Wave Films Home Video Release Archive / Kodansha Manga Volumes 1–2 Release Dates / KADOKAWA Bunko Novel Release Record

Makoto Shinkai's 63-minute three-part animated feature opened in theaters in March 2007, followed eighteen years later by Yoshiyuki Okuyama's live-action feature adaptation in October 2025.

Sources: Official Anime Work Profile / Live-Action Film Official Website

Seeing the Same Landscapes Through Different Eyes in the Novels and Manga

Beyond theaters, 5 Centimeters per Second has expanded across prose and manga, including Makoto Shinkai's own novelization, Yukiko Seike's two-volume manga adaptation, and Arata Kanoh's spin-off novel 5 Centimeters per Second: One More Side.

In a published conversation, Director Shinkai noted that writing the novel himself made him aware of visual meanings he had included instinctively while making the anime—such as a cut of two birds flying across the sky—allowing him to rearticulate visual transitions as the characters' unspoken emotions.

Source: CoMix Wave Films Published Interview with Makoto Shinkai

The 2025 live-action film also inspired its own novelization, 5 Centimeters per Second: the novel, written by screenwriter Fumiko Suzuki, following Takaki in 2008 Tokyo as his approaching thirtieth birthday draws him back toward the places of his memories and his promise with Akari.

Because Makoto Shinkai's anime novelization and Fumiko Suzuki's live-action novelization are written by different authors and based on different versions of the film, check the author name and subtitle when choosing which edition to read.

Source: KADOKAWA: 5 Centimeters per Second the novel

DVD & Blu-ray Editions and Live-Action Film Merchandise

The animated feature can be rewatched on DVD (released July 19, 2007), Blu-ray (April 18, 2008), and International Edition Blu-ray (November 18, 2011). Official merchandise for the 2025 live-action film is also offered through official retailers; check current store listings for availability.

Lab Notes | Business Perspective: Connecting Station Filming Locations with Nearby Attractions

While the Tanegashima Tourism Association introduces Nakayama Coast and island sights tied to the 2007 anime, Nagano's film commissions highlight Toyono, Mure, and Komoro Stations from the 2025 live-action movie—demonstrating how travelers searching for the same title may be looking for either animated or live-action locations.

For regional tourism guides, clearly stating the release year, whether a spot belongs to the anime or the live-action film, and the exact municipality and railway line prevents confusion—especially when pairing a station stop like Komoro with nearby cultural landmarks such as Kaikoen Park just three minutes away on foot.

Related Oshi Lab report: How Travel Agencies & Destinations Design Pilgrimage Products

Official Sources & Primary References

• CoMix Wave Films: Official Work Profile
• Live-Action Film '5 Centimeters per Second' Official Website
• Tanegashima Tourism Association: Anime Pilgrimage Guide
• Nagano Film Commission Official Location Guide
• Shinshu Film Commission Network: Supported Productions

Exhibition dates, opening hours, admission fees, and ticket details are current at the time of writing. Always check the official websites for the latest schedule updates before setting out on your pilgrimage visit.