Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 film. Sisters Satsuki and Mei move with their father to a house in the countryside to be near the hospital where their mother is recovering, and there they discover Totoro, an enormous, gentle forest spirit, and the Catbus that races across the rice fields. Miyazaki built that idyllic countryside from a real Japan that still existed in the late 1950s: the Sayama Hills in Tokorozawa (Saitama) and the area around Higashimurayama (Tokyo). Much of that landscape survives today thanks to the Totoro Fund (Totoro no Furusato Kikin), which buys up plots of woodland to protect them; Satsuki and Mei's own house was rebuilt at full scale for Expo 2005 in Aichi and still stands in Ghibli Park.
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Totoro's Forest (Sayama Hills)model forest
The Sayama Hills, straddling Saitama and Tokyo, are the model for the forest where Mei and Satsuki first see Totoro. They are one of the last remnants of the old wooded Musashino landscape, and the Totoro Fund keeps buying plots — numbered 'Totoro Forest No.1', 'No.2'… — to save them from development. Miyazaki donated part of the seed money that launched the fund.
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Kurosuke's Housemuseum
A century-old farmhouse in Mikajima (Tokorozawa) that the Totoro Fund uses as its base and visitor center. Named after the soot sprites (makkuro kurosuke) of the film, it houses a giant Totoro presiding over the main room. The main house, the storehouse and the old tea factory have been registered as Tangible Cultural Properties since 2013. Visits are by reservation.
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Kotesashigahara battlefield (Shirahatazuka)name origin
Totoro's forest is called 'Tsukamori' in the film, and fans believe the name was inspired by Shirahatazuka, the burial mound on the old Kotesashigahara battlefield in Tokorozawa. Here Nitta Yoshisada fought the first battle of the campaign that would topple the Kamakura shogunate in 1333. The tree-lined path evokes the scene where Mei chases Totoro, with an extra layer of legend.
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Inarichō Bus StopCatbus scene
The film's 'Inarimae' bus stop — where Satsuki lends her father's umbrella to Totoro and the Catbus first appears — is thought to take its name from the real Inarichō stop in Tokorozawa. The real stop looks very different from the film's (a rice field behind it instead of forest), but fans come with an umbrella to recreate the scene.
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Hachikokuyama Parkbicycle scene
In the film, the mother is hospitalized at 'Shichikokuyama' (七国山) hospital — a pun on the real Hachikokuyama (八国山): only the 'eight' is swapped for a 'seven'. This wooded hill on the Tokyo–Saitama border is recognizable in the scene where Satsuki, Mei and their father cycle to visit their mother.
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Shinyamanote Hospitalmother's hospital
Right beside Hachikokuyama Park is Shinyamanote Hospital, the model for the 'Shichikokuyama Hospital' where the girls' mother recovers. Its setting at the foot of the wooded hill matches that of the film's hospital, which Satsuki and Mei reach after crossing the countryside.
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Baiganji TempleMei gets lost
About a twenty-minute walk from Hachikokuyama, this temple in Higashimurayama is recognizable from the scene where Mei, lost and exhausted on her way to the hospital, sits beside six Jizō statues (the guardian deity of children). Those six statues really exist at the temple, whose entrance is flanked by trees over 600 years old.
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Satsuki and Mei's House (Ghibli Park)official recreation
A full-scale reconstruction of the Kusakabe family home, built for Expo 2005 in Aichi and now part of the 'Dondoko Forest' area of Ghibli Park in Nagakute. Every room — kitchen, bath, the father's study, drawers that really open — reproduces the film's house in obsessive detail, down to everyday 1950s objects. It is the most faithful official recreation of Totoro's world.
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Totoro Bus Stop (Saiki, Ōita)tribute
In the city of Saiki (Ōita, Kyushu) there is a district called Todoro, written 轟, whose reading coincides with 'Totoro'. A decade after the film's release, illustrations of Totoro, Mei and Satsuki appeared at its small bus stop, which became a pilgrimage spot. It did not inspire the film — it's a happy coincidence of name — but anonymous locals keep the place up, and nearby is a little park with a Catbus cutout.