During my 5-week stay in Japan, thanks to my prior thorough preparations, I was able to visit or just briefly stop at quite a few places that appeared in some anime or game. Probably the most impressive experience was my visit to the real life model for Sakura High School from anime K-ON. The school is located in Toyosato, Shiga Prefecture and it's the old building of Toyosato Elementary School. Many people gather at this place on weekends, that's why it's best to plan your visit so that you come on Sunday. You will very likely get to see some itashas, you could meet some interesting folks, etc. Anyway, Toyosato School is a lovely place and the people there care and cater for the countless otaku visitors, who come to see the place where Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, Azusa and others spent their high school lives, where they would practice, where they would eat some delicious cakes brought by Mugi, and where they would just hang out together after school.At the café there, you can even buy the Purple Argentina shaved ice that Yui wanted to have. It's a flavor that doesn't exist anywhere but there. If you'd rather have something else, you can choose a cookie guitar (Giita, Elizabeth, or Muttan), Ton-chan sweet bread, etc. That's not all, of course. There is a lot of goods there that people have brought there over time, and even the instruments the girls played are displayed there. All of it donated by fans. I think that's enough talking; pictures tell a thousand words times the number of pictures ^^Just one more thing, the directions. Toyosato is accessible by train. From Osaka and Kyoto, get on Tokaido Line and transfer to Omi Line at Hikone. From Tokyo, get on Kodama Shinkansen and head to Maibara, where you can transfer to Omi Line. The final station is Toyosato.You can see my shadow, lolSawa-chan's collection of costumes XDThe famous Purple Argentina shaved ice that Yui-chan wanted to eat. You can get it only here, nowhere else, because this flavor doesn't exist. Well, except in K-ON.The timetable for the local train.The directions.The tortoises there look extremely pissed off. Every single one of them.If you would like to see even more photos from Toyosato, check out my Flickr account and the set called Toyosato. Well, you don't have to search for any set, just simply click on the link that will lead you there :DMore K-ON pursuits and even more will be coming soon, hopefully XD
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