So Where in the World (or at least in Japan) is Makuhari?

This is a map of Eastern Tokyo Bay, depicting the eastern Tokyo 'suburbs' of Funabashi, Narashino and Chiba.  These cities aren't actually suburbs (Chiba has a population of close to a million), but the dense urban conglomeration of Tokyo has basically caused these cities to 'merge' within the metroplex.  Tokyo isn't represented on this map, but if you refer to a map of Japan or Tokyo Bay, you'll find it on the northwest part of Tokyo Bay.

Why locate TBT in Makuhari?  In the early issues of AMS, there is a storyarc called "The Ultimate Destruction Program", whereby a reincarnation of Fenrir the Wolf (taken from Norse myth) literally stomps out Makuhari Messe.  The AMS story is obviously located in Tokyo, but there isn't too many geographical pointers in the manga to indicate where.  Of course, there are the obvious ones, such as Studio Alta, Tokyo Tower and the like...but nothing really tangible.  Since this was one of the earliest landmarks featured in AMS, it seemed an obvious choice.  But there were further considerations as well.  If you look closely at some of the temple depictions in the earlier manga, you'll notice that there is a large hill behind it, with an overlook.  On the hill (such as in the "Lost Puppy" episode), one can see the ocean several kilometers away.  By measuring the perspective of those renditions, I estimated the temple to be 3-4 kilometers inland.

One should note that there a number of sites referenced in the AMS manga and TBT.  For example, the oceanside park often shown in AMS could easily be the Inage Seashore Park.  In fact, TBT has been physically located here from the beginning...there are numerous references that pinpoint the temple location; proximity to Chiba, train trunk lines, highways, etc.  All of this was carefully mapped out to create a sense of realism.  If you measure the distance and route between the temple and N.I.T. as written in TBT, it bears close resemblance to their respective locations on the map.

The Temple Neighborhood

Keiichi here, to give you a tour of Bell-chan's and my neighborhood.  Thanks to my trusty Shobunsha road atlas of Japan, I can give you an idea of what its like to live in Makuhari.  Your first impression probably is all these roads, which would lead you to think that its really crowded around where I live.  Actually, it isn't crowded right where I live, but go a few blocks in any direction and there are some moderately urbanized areas nearby, especially when you head towards the bay.  All along the shore are these industrial complexes, mostly heavy industry and steel.  The Higashi-Kanto Expressway cuts right between our house and school, so I usually have to cut around the western side of our 'hill' and then go east to get to school.  Fortunately, the main arterial road behind the temple has an overpass above the freeway, so I can trip it straight to NIT.  We live about 5 kilometers from NIT's Main Campus, and about 3 kilometers from the ocean.

I have to really maintain my bike, because my ride to school always starts with an uphill climb...unless I want to go to the ocean and then drive east halfway to Chiba.  I like to sleep in, so I'd rather do the hill instead of the roads near the ocean, which are always crammed with traffic.  Its a uphill climb of several hundred meters to reach the main road...I can't believe that Megumi rides her bike up this hill for training.  She's gotta have legs of steel to do that!  Bell-chan can make it up that hill too, but Skuld definitely can't.  I could, if I pushed myself...but I'd rather ride my motorcycle instead!  That road that you see behind our temple home has lots of special memories for Bell-chan and I.  We've often parked there to watch the sunsets, snowfall, autumn trees...well, you get the idea.

The Inage Seashore Park is a pretty cool place to go.  Just think "dolphin statues on a pedestal" and you'll see what I mean.  It's got a pretty cool aquarium and indoor swimming pools.  I'm glad the city reclaimed some of the bayside lands for a park.  Takeishi has some good restaurants, much better than the ones in Chiba, if you ask me.  Wangan-Makuhari has a Costco, and Bell likes to shop there a lot for bulk quality items, like rice, oil, laundry detergent.  Whirlwind is located east of the NIT campus, on the edge of Yotsukaido.  Right on the other side of Makuhari Messe is what's called the 'high tech' loop, between the Keiyo line and the freeway.  Lots of tech retails like Fujitsu and IBM have offices there, and there is a pretty cool museum called "The Wonder Museum", which is kinda a 'futurama' sort of place.  I saw my first flat screen TV in that museum, years before I met Bell.

Urd's favorite hangout is Inage and Anagawa.  If you know Urd, then you can probably expect to find liquor stores and movie theatres there.  She's made Cevn spend a bunch of money on movie tickets for the cineplex there...but I don't think he minds.  Believe it or not, there's an ice cream museum in Shiba-Higashi.  Skuld often begs us to take her there.  So if you go east, you have a good chance of keeping Urd and Skuld happy. Bell likes all the gardens tucked away in our neighborhood, including the Mihama-en located near the Makuhari Messe center.

If we want to go to Tokyo, I usually take the BayShore, but once in a while, we take the Keiyo or the Sobu line.  Sobu is a few blocks closer to our temple, but I like the Keiyo better on the weekends, because it's less crowded.  Cevn has been known to get on a train to sightsee...and wind up getting lost in Tokyo once in a while.

All in all, I like living where we live.  We're very fortunate to have a huge temple, with lots of room and big grounds.  Also, we live about halfway between Tokyo and Chiba, so it's not super-crowded around the immediate vicinity.  But that's what's cool about where we live...you can go a kilometer and wind up in the middle of highrises, then go another kilometer and be next to a temple complex like ours.

Come visit us sometime!