Visit the Real-Life Tokyo Locations of the Film Perfect Days

Perfect Days is one of those low-key indie films that takes its time to savor every scene. With minute attention to detail, the movie reveals its characters little by little, keeping you guessing about what lies just around the corner. If you appreciated the film, revisiting some of the real-life locations of its pivotal moments is a true delight.

The film paints the portrait of Hirayama (played by Koji Yakusho), a middle-aged man who drives across town every morning to do his job cleaning designer public toilets around trendy Shibuya. After work, he resumes his solitary life, enjoying simple pleasures in Asakusa and Sumida. The German filmmaker Wim Wenders co-wrote and directed the movie with an all-Japanese cast, entirely and site-specifically set in present-day Tokyo.

The story itself was directly inspired by The Tokyo Toilet project, which fully documents each of its famously styled restrooms around Shibuya. The older spots around the Sumida River are also all within easy and scenic cycling distance, so anyone can retrace parts of Hirayama’s routine and get a feel for his nostalgic neighborhood lifestyle.

We selected 12 locations that are both significant to the film and interesting to visit in their own right, from off-the-radar sites in Asakusa and across the river in Sumida to off-the-scramble spots in Shibuya and Shimokitazawa.

Asakusa & Sumida: Timeless Haunts in Old School Tokyo

Straddling the Sumida River, Tokyo’s classic Edo-period district is landmarked by Senso-ji Temple in the heart of Asakusa on one side and the 21st-century Tokyo Skytree in Sumida on the other. This is where Hirayama lives and plays.

Hirayama’s Apartment

Hirayama’s two-story apartment is located in the northeast of Tokyo, on the east side of the Sumida River, just around the corner from Koto Tenso Jinja. In the morning, he hears the street cleaner sweeping in front of its concrete west wall and goes to pray at the shrine. This old and spiritual, tranquil residential neighborhood lives in the shadow of the Tokyo Skytree, whose titanic glowing silhouette towers over the western horizon.

Even without the coffee vending machine in the parking lot, the apartment building is immediately recognizable from the film (and people actually do live there now).

Denkiyu

The old-fashioned public bathhouse Denkiyu (電気湯) is where Hirayama goes for a refreshing soak after work, with a mural of Mount Fuji on the white tiled wall. Two elderly men are joyful regulars here. Niko (played by Arisa Nakano) accompanies her uncle to bathe here on their last day together.

In a neighborhood with many other old and renovated sento (public baths), Denkiyu remains a family-run community gathering place, founded in 1922 and housed in the same Showa-era building for the past five decades. Look out for neighborhood regulars, both older residents and young families, parking their bicycles in front or walking up in slippers with their towels and baskets. Some are even waiting outside the door when Denkiyu opens at 3pm.

Sakurabashi

Sakurabashi (桜橋) is the iconic x-shaped bridge over the Sumida River that Hirayama frequently cycles across between Sumida and Asakusa, with its stone pyramids, a dramatic backdrop of Tokyo Skytree, and river views with Niko as they pedal off into the sunset chanting 今度は今度。今は今。 (“Next time is next time. Now is now.”) Sakurabashi is also where Hirayama and the bar owner’s ex-husband (played by Tomokazu Miura) chat and box with their shadows at night under the bridge on the Asakusa side.

Sakurabashi was inaugurated in 1985 as the first pedestrian bridge across the Sumida River. It spans out directly from the northern end of Sumida Park, which is lined with cherry blossoms in spring and extends down to central Asakusa. Just a scenic river walk away from the tourist crowds, the bridge seems to be particularly appreciated by commuting cyclists, locals walking their dogs, and the rest of us leisurely taking in the views.

Asakusa Yakisoba Fukuchan

Asakusa Yakisoba Fukuchan (浅草焼きそば福ちゃん) is the subway yakisoba stand where Hirayama has a bite to eat after his shift and where at least a few regular clients come to watch the baseball game on TV. The location is set in a dingy underground shopping arcade with stylishly saturated neon lighting.

Fukuchan is located at the extreme inbound end of the Asakusa Underground Shopping Street (Japan’s oldest underground shotengai or traditional shopping street), leading out to exit 6 of the Ginza Line inside the Asakusa subway station. The yakisoba stand is quite a lively place, especially on weekends, just across from bargain racks of second-hand DVDs. Continue along the bright corridor to catch a glimpse of other vintage “underground” izakaya (traditional Japanese bars), restaurants and pop-up shops, all the way to the corner barber shop at the bottom of the stairs to the street exit.

Chikyudo Books

Chikyudo Books (地球堂書店) is the used bookshop where Hirayama browses ¥100 paperbacks to read at night. The friendly shopkeeper always comments on his choices, from Aya Koda’s Trees essay to Patricia Highsmith’s Eleven short stories.

Chikyudo is one of several small shops with Edo-style storefronts on the bustling Denpoin commercial street extending from Senso-ji Temple. The shop has been operating for over 50 years, specializing in books and magazines related to the arts. Once you step inside, the street noise fades into the distance as you browse the shelves. Remember to get there early, as the shop closes at 3pm.

Beni no Akari Novu

Beni no Akari Novu (紅の灯 ノヴ), the old-school bar marked by a red lantern just north of Senso-ji, is where the Mama (played by Enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa) has been fondly greeting Hirayama for the past six years, ever since she opened the joint. A warm, windowless room where Mama knows all her customers by name and where Hirayama is happy to spend a while in good company. No screens, no sound system, no stage, no mic. Just an acoustic guitar and a soulful voice that transcends space and time.

The actual venue is a casual restaurant serving French-inspired cuisine, specializing in pork dishes. Outside, music leaks out from an obscure live house next door. The surrounding neighborhood is full of similar ground-floor establishments simply marked by a sign above a door on quiet side streets.

Shibuya & Shimokitazawa: Contemporary Toilets and Vintage Music

Tokyo’s largest and most progressive district of Shibuya is known for both its tony residential areas around central Yoyogi Park, and the commercial frenzy of designer shops, street fashion and pop trends bubbling around Harajuku and the famous Scramble Crossing. This is where Hirayama works, cleaning public toilets. Further out west, up-and-coming Shimokitazawa is relatively down-to-earth with more of a vintage vibe.

Toilet in Nabeshima Shoto Park

The public toilet in Nabeshima Shoto Park is where Hirayama finds a lost child inside the children’s stall. It’s the first toilet featured in the film where something significant happens. After the child is led to safety by Hirayama, his mother wipes his hands clean without acknowledging the cleaner; as they walk off, the little boy turns around to wave goodbye.

Architect Kengo Kuma’s signature wooden planks make this toilet one of the more playful ones. The inside of the individual “huts” are also decorated with cedar, reused cherry, and metasequoia wood in various organic shapes. Situated in a quiet residential neighborhood of Shibuya, the woody toilet fits nicely within Nabeshima Shoto Park, which comprises a large pond and an old watermill. Some people sit here quietly reading while children amuse themselves in the adjacent playground.

Toilet in Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park

The public toilet in Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park is where a woman asks Hirayama in English: “How the hell does this work?” It’s one of the more well-known toilets of the series, designed by Shigeru Ban, notable for its transparent orange and purple walls that become opaque when the door is locked (transparency mode is not guaranteed in colder weather). Yoyogi Fukamachi Park is also where Hirayama often sees the homeless man (played by dancer Min Tanaka).

Just a short walk away is Shigeru Ban’s twin transparent toilet with blue and yellow walls in the neighboring Haru-no-Ogawa Community Park, also on the west side of Yoyogi Park, where Dera-chan comes to play with Takashi’s ears.

Flash Disc Ranch

Flash Disc Ranch is the upstairs vintage record shop where Hirayama’s young and restless co-worker Takashi (played by Tokio Emoto) takes Hirayama to try to sell his old cassette tapes, albeit unsuccessfully.

Although the actual shop is more focused on vinyl records, Flash Disc Ranch is a fun stop for anyone who loves browsing popular Japanese and Western music from the 1960s and ’70s on record covers as retro tunes whistle out of the overhead speakers. It’s located on the south side of Shimokitazawa, where you’ll find plenty of vintage used clothing to match your musical style.

Toilet in Ebisu Park

The textured concrete maze-like public toilet in Ebisu Park is where Niko decides to assist Hirayama in his cleaning work — another pivotal bonding moment between uncle and niece. 

Walking into this public restroom architectured by acclaimed interior designer Masamichi Katayama feels almost like entering a contemporary upscale hotel, with its spacious rooms, discrete lighting, and unified design. The unimposing structure blends elegantly into its community playground environment on the calmer west side of Ebisu Station.

Toilet in Yoyogi-Hachiman

The public toilet in Yoyogi-Hachiman is where Hirayama first finds the tic-tac-toe paper and ends up playing the game with an invisible stranger over the following days.

Architect Toyo Ito’s cylindrical “Three Mushrooms,” with their clean gradient tiled exterior walls, stand out almost comically in front of the forest, right next to the steps leading up to Yoyogi Hachimangu.

Yoyogi Hachimangu Shrine

Yoyogi Hachimangu contains the shaded shrine grounds where Hirayama sits on a bench to break for lunch with a sandwich and milk at the top of the stairs, observes the woman with a calico cat, and nods at the office lady who never quite nods back. It’s also where he contemplates the komorebi effect of sunlight leaking through the trees and pulls out his pocket film camera to snap an analog photo.

Perched on a hill and surrounded by forest, Yoyogi Hachimangu feels like a hidden sanctuary just above the busy boulevard. The grounds are home to several resident cats, who seem to live in harmony with friendly human visitors, as well as a number of birds and, by the sound of it, at least one rooster. Don’t forget to look up past the trees on a sunny day.

In addition to showcasing the city’s stylish new public toilets, Perfect Days contrasts its most flamboyantly dynamic district with an older side of Tokyo that, like Hirayama, never seems to change, despite the world and people changing all around him, and even as new possibilities for change open up to him. Going location-hopping is one way of exploring all these local neighborhoods in Hirayama’s footsteps, while juxtaposing the real sites in situ to Wim Wenders’s often more glamorous portrayal on the big screen. (The photos in this article have also been stylized in an effort to evoke the film’s distinctive cinematography.)

Just as Your Name inspired anime fans to come see for themselves the film’s precisely cited locations in Tokyo and beyond, while Lost in Translation brought a new wave of cinephile tourists to Park Hyatt Tokyo in Shinjuku, Perfect Days invites us to slow down and rediscover the traditional and trendy, classic and dynamic Tokyo that perhaps, we only think we know.