5 Centimeters per Second
Makoto Shinkai's film (2007) in three segments following, over the years, the growing distance between Takaki and Akari, two children pulled apart by life. As in all of Shinkai's work, the backgrounds reproduce real Japanese places in photographic detail: the snowy trains of Tochigi, Tanegashima island and its rockets, and the railway crossings of Tokyo's Sangūbashi neighborhood.
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Iwafune Station — Akari's Waitthe snowy station
location
The small rural Iwafune Station in Tochigi is the closest station to the town Akari moves to. In the first segment ('Ōkashō'), Takaki travels for hours through heavy snow to reunite with her, as she waits in this station's wooden waiting room.
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Sangūbashi Neighborhood — The Final Railway Crossingthe film's finale
location
The quiet residential neighborhood around Sangūbashi Station (Odakyu line) is the setting of the film's poignant finale. Nearby, the 'Sangūbashi No. 3' level crossing is where, now adults, Takaki and Akari pass each other for an instant as petals fall like snow.
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Tanegashima Space Centerthe Cosmonaut rockets
location
JAXA's rocket launch center on Tanegashima island. In the second segment ('Cosmonaut'), the rocket launches Kanae watches — and the metaphor of impossible distance — revolve around this real place.
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i-Shop Ishido — The Cosmonaut Convenience Storethe island shop
location
A small convenience store in Nakatane, Tanegashima, appearing in the 'Cosmonaut' segment as the shop Takaki and Kanae often visit: he buys coffee milk; she buys Yogurette.
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