One Schlock's Requiem

Suso Ezoana Kofun 須曽蝦夷穴古墳

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0900

On the side of a hill on Noto Island, facing the Noto Bay, is the Suso Ezoana Kofun. Kofun are ancient burial mounds somwhat similar to a pyramid, but they greatly range in size from the largest being 400 meters across to the smallest being not that much larger than a home.

The Suso Ezoana Kofun is about the size of a home, but it is incredibly rare among other kofun.

Kofun are named after the Kofun period of Japanese history where they originated in Japan. The Kofun period started around 300 AD to 538 AD, which is when Buddhism was introduced to Japan. Kofun mounds were mainly constructed from mid-3rd century up through early 7th century, after the Kofun period had ended. The Suso Ezoana Kofun is unique because it was built in the mid-7th century well after the custom had ended.

It's also rare because it contains two burial chambers. Kofun only have a single burial chamber used for poweful rich rulers and emperors of the past, along with their families. The dead would be placed beside each other in a single chamber. Having two chambers is not just rare, but unusal.

And its construction is also a strange and rare point. According to Wikipedia, the construction of the burial chambers and the mound uses an arch-like construction method where the weight of the rock slabs push on each other to create stabilitiy. This method of construction was common in the Goguryeo kingdom in Korea, which lasted through 668 AD, around the time this kofun could've been built.

The Suso Ezoana Kofun is the only kofun found on Noto Island. There are a few more kofun on the mainland of Noto pennisula, but there are all of a completely different configuration.

Nobody knows who was buried in these tombs, but the plaques make a guess saying that two important government officials of the Nanao government were buried here. Maybe they were huge fans of Korea and history, and contracted a Goguryeo architect to make the tombs for them.

Another plaque nearby states that it is believed that these government officials were helpful to the Yamato government for sending soldiers to the northeast to expand their domain. At the time, the Noto Bay served as Kashimazu port, and acted as a gateway to the north. So, it's fitting that these two were buried overlooking the waters that gained them notoriety.

The tombs were discovered around 1953, and were fully restored in the 80s after it was designated as National Historic Site in 1981. Now, you can freely drive there, walk around the tomb, and even enter it if you're able to bend down low enough.

There's also a museum dedicated to the kofun at the parking lot, but its no longer open on a regular basis. According to the website, the museum will only open for group visits (of 20 or more people) and academic research. Reservations must be made 2 weeks in advance.

Apparently the museum displays many of the artifacts excavated from the tomb, and other items found on Noto Island from the same time period. While I didn't have access to the museum, the mail box out front had a flyer.

Here's a scan of it: gdocs/Ezoana Historical Center Flyer.pdf

I wouldn't recommend anyone go out of their way to visit this place, but its another example of the vast history around every corner in Japan.

Notojima Bridge 能登島橋

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0900

The northern area of Ishikawa prefecture is known as Noto pennisula. Not so many people live there, but the area is rich in caves and fishing. The area is pretty flat compared with the mountaneous areas of Toyama, Gifu, and Fukui, so it has a pretty popular aviation high school. The area is also known for its hot springs and vacation spots.

Within Noto Pennisula is Noto Island, and only two bridges connect it to the mainland. The Notojima Bridge was the first to be built. Construction was completed in 1982. The second bridge is the Noto Twin Bridge built in 1999. It's crazy to think that prior to the 80s, you could only reach the island by ferry even though it looked so close.

The Notojima bridge is over 1 kilometer long extending from the vacation town of Wakura. There are places to park on both sides of the bridge allowing you to take a walk across the bridge, if you'd like.

Unfortunately, a lot of the area has been destroyed from the Noto Earthquake on New Years 2024. In fact, the earthquake damaged the Twin Bridge, so the Notojima Bridge is now the only way to reach Noto Island.

On the north end of the bridge, there used to be many restaurants and souvenir stores. But many of those business closed because of Covid, and the buildings had collapsed and been demolished due to the earthquake.

Now it's just a huge empty lot with a single bus stop that hasn't been used in years.

On the south side of the bridge, some of the park is opened. You can walk up to the water and get a clear view of the bridge. However, much of the park is closed and under active construction to repair the damage from the earthquake.

Even parts of the open area still have scars.

All of the walking trails in the area have been closed, too. Many of the trails led hikers along the cliffs overlooking the bridge and the bay. However, all these cliffs have collapsed into the sea. Sharp cliffs that seemed to cut into the sky from the sea have now been reduced to a pile of rocks.

I have felt several earthquakes since moving to Japan, but I have never experienced anything above a 2.0 magnitude. The Noto Earthquake was a 5.0, and up in Takayama, we felt it as a 3.0. I was flying back to Japan at that time, so I didn't feel anything. But, when I returned to my apartment, there were several things knocked on the floor. A pale comparison to the collapsed buildings of Noto. It's terrifying how much damage can be caused by a 5.0, and then think about quakes even stronger.

It's a weird feeling being able to visit the Noto Bridge on such a beautiful day, but then look deeper and see the remaining damage and remnants of a carefree time.

Former Oyama Elementary School 大山小学校

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0900

Built on the side of a lonely cliff, sits the former building of Oyama Elementary School. The school overlooks the small neighborhood of Yui, the northern most neighbor of Shirakawa before officially entering the modern day Hida region.

It was originally opened in 1873 at Bunan Community Elementary School 文安義校, serving the communities of Nohara Village 野原村、Katsumake Village 葛牧村、Tajima Village 田島村、Yui Village 油井村、and Utsuo Village 宇津尾村.

(Note) I'm translating gikou 義校 as community elementary school. Gikous were elementary schools, but they were entirely funded by the community and private businesses, not the government. In the 1870s, during the Meiji Restoration, Japan passed its first law instituting mandatory elementary school education for all children. However, the government didn't have enough money to build schools in all its rural areas, so others filled in those gaps. By 1880, the government bought the building and took over as administrators. At that time, it was renamed to Bunan School 文安学校.

After more schools were builts in the 1880s, Bunan served different communities and changed names a few times. In 1889, new redistricting laws were passed that established many of the small villages as a single municipalty. As such, many schools were shuffled around again. By 1910, the school was renamed to Oyama Elementary School 大山小学校.

More redistricting happened over time, and by 1984, the school was closed and merged into Shirakawa Kita Elementary School, just 5 kilometers south along the valley.

Since its closure, the building has been used as a community center and the Nohi Construction Vocation School 濃飛建設職業能力開発学校, which is how it is marked on Google Maps.

The old wooden structure of the building is still in tact giving a very nostalgic old world feel. It reminds me of Kokuriko, the Ghibli Film.

I could take a few pictures through the windows, but the building was closed. There was a buzzing beeping sound coming from the front door, so I didn't want to set off any alarm by trying all the doors.

Overall, it's pretty amazing that this original building still stands. This probably isn't the original 1870s building, but this style of school was usually built around the 1920s and 30s. There are so many classic buildings like this along the walls of these old valleys.

Closed Shirakawa High School 白川高校

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0900

When you take the train from Gifu to Takayama, the urban areas of the south start to give way to more farmlands. Then the farmlands become replaced with closer and closer mountains until the train meets and travels alongside the Hida River. The mountains close in and choke out the farmlands as you enter the valleys of the central Japanese mountain range. Shirakawa Town (in Kamo District, Gifu) is the first significant town after entering the valley.

The main area of Shirakawa Town is a small congested area with stores, homes, and hotels built on the edges of cliffs trying to use all the available space. Hidden away from the rest of the village is the site of the old Shirakawa High School.

Because Shirakawa choked out all the space in its town, an area was cleared up in a mountain towering over the town to build the high school in the mid 1970s. It was 1.6km away from the center of town. I don't think there were any dormatories up there, so students had to make the mile trek up the mountain each day. When you travel along the road to the school, you can see the old sidewalk that students must've used.

The school began accepting its first students and had its grand opening in 1976 to the delight of the town. It's main purpose was the give a general education to the high school students in Shirakawa without the need of them having to move away to another school. Students could easily live at home, go to school, and continue to be active in the community.

3 years later, the first class of 117 students (I think?) graduated from Shirakawa High School. Maybe that was split into 3 separate classes?

Finding old schools while traveling around rural areas of Japan isn't too difficult, but finding a closed high school is rare. Education from elementary through junior high school was mandatory for Japanese children, so the government had an obligation to build plenty of elementary and junior high schools to reach all of the students. Over time as villages merged and transportation improved, many of those schools were consolidated and closed.

High School level education was not mandatory back then, and it's still not required today. Although these days, over 98% of all junior high school graduates go to high school, anyway. Traditionally, high school was only seen as a stepping stone to entering a university. If you didn't plan on becoming a doctor or work in some other highly educated and specifc profession, after graduating junior high school, you immediately got some local job and trained as an apprentice. Nearly all students in rural areas just went to work with their family after junior high. It wasn't until after the war that high school became a more regular part of a child's education.

Throughout the 50s and 60s, more high schools were built across Japan, but there were still a separation. All high schools are managed on the prefectural level, not the municipal level like elementary and junior high schools. So, they tend to be separate from local communities and governments. Also, students must apply to specific high schools and pass exams to be admitted to the school. This creates a separation between students who were able to attend competitive schools compared with more general ones. Often, a village's brightest pupils would move away to attend the best schools.

Most high schools instruct a general education program based on the standards set by the prefecture, but there are other speciality high schools that have alternative programs. Technical high schools focus on office skills, construction, or mechanics. Engineering high schools focus on technology and development. There are also medical high schools, and there's even an aviation high school in Ishikawa. These schools still focus on general requirements, but have additional classes geared towards a student's future career, and make them perfect candidates for competitive universities in their fields.

Looking around on the Internet, Shirakawa HS only focused on general education, and I'm guessing that it didn't have strict requirements for admissions. I think it was built specifically to give students of Shirakawa and the neighboring areas ease of access to high school education that had now become more and more of a necessity in Japanese society. The school was only 2km from Shirakawa Train Station, so even if students didn't live in Shirakawa, they could attend.

In the 1970s, the population of Shirakawa was around 14,000 people. Today, it's around 7,000. Much like all rural areas of Japan, Shirakawa also faced depopulation. It wasn't as extreme as other areas, but they still lost half their population in 50 years. In 2007, it was announced that Shirakawa HS would become a branch of Kamo HS and it would admit no new students. The last official graduating class of Shirakawa HS was 77 students. 2 years later in 2009, the school graduated its final class of 44 students as part of Kamo HS.

On the outer walls of the school grounds, there are plaques that list every student who graduated from the school. (some are mising)

The school building remains closed, but the gymnasium, additional sports building, and massive baseball grounds are still used today for extracurricular sports clubs in Shirakawa.

Much like all the other closed schools in the area, it seems like a shame to have such a large building go to waste. However, Shirakawa has recently done some work to revitalize their downtown area. It would be more of a nuisance to make people travel 1.6km up the hill to some isolated building.

Shirakawa HS will most likely remain empty and eventually be demolished, but it's a good reminder for the community of the town's devotion to education in the past.

Maze Junior High School 馬瀬中学校

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0900

Maze is a small village isolated between several mountains to the west of the main Hida valley. It's about 12km from Hagiwara in northern Gero.

It's a beautiful area, but there are no supermarkets, and no conveniene stores. There's an onsen in the southern area with a few cafes, but that's 10km away, about the same distance from Hagiwara. This northern area is just an auxiliary neighborhood along the Maze river, which runs parallel to the Hida River. The Hida River valley was (and mostly is) the main transportation route from Nagoya and Gifu in the south to Takayama in the north, so it got a lot of traffic, and people could easily make a living selling to travelers.

Early settlers probably found the Maze area a haven of agriculture compared to the overcrowded areas along the Hida River. But the difficulty was getting up and over the mountains. 12km was the very long distance back in the day without any cars, paved roads, or tunnels.

After the war, two junior high schools were established in Maze village. Nakagiri Junior High School 中切中学校 was established in the above area, and Soujima Junior High School 総島中学校 was established in the south near that onsen. By 1961, both schools had a combined graduating class of 97 students. 22 years later, the graduating class had shrunk to only 27 students, so Soujima merged into Nakagiri which was renamed to Maze Junior High School 馬瀬中学校.

Today, it is owned by the Hojitsu Construction Company. The building is called Erin, and I think this office focuses on electrical power? It looked like they were doing some kind of power experiments in the gymnasium.

As the student numbers dwindled and dwindled, the school was closed in 2017. Their last graduating class was only 7 students with only 3 students the year prior. For the remaining students in Maze village, they must take the bus each day to Hagiwara South Junior High School. Maze Elementary School is still open and fully staffed, though. They continue to have around 6 students for each grade.

Maze Junior High School is one of the few schools to have closed in the Hida region since I started working here as a teacher. I began work in Takayama in 2013, and I knew the English teacher at Maze pretty well. We hung out a few times. (Here's a page of all the recently closed schools in Gero City.)

Maze is still pretty renowned today because of their yearly fireworks exhibition near the end of summer. People from all over Hida cause a huge traffic jam driving on the super narrow road to reach the small village.

Maze is also pretty renowned because of their strong history with Kendo. They were a lot of very strong Kendo practitioners in the village, and their junior high school team often won regional tournaments and sometimes prefectural tournaments, even though their numbers were low. After the school closed, Hagiwara South's kendo team jumped up the rankings because they had the support from Maze students.

While Maze has seen its extreme depopulation, it seems like it might be stable now. Even though this company moved into the junior high school and even defaced their stone monument, it does employ some of the folks in the village and those folks are able to cultivate their families. Although, I'm not really sure how many folks would want to move here. I'm sure property value is super low so you could buy a house for cheap. Also, maybe work at the company is good?

Maybe I'll try to come back for the fireworks this year.

Shimohara Elementary School 下原小学校

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0900

In 2021, there was a string of elementary school closures in Gero City. Three schools were closed and merged into another. And more recently in 2023, another school was closed, too.

As I was driving home from Kanayama, I drove past one of these schools and it really caught my eye. It was a massive building that sandwiched the road to the hill on the other side. This was the former Shimohara Elementary School 下原小学校.

It felt incredibly out of place overtaking the entire neighbor of tiny homes on this sliver of land on the west bank of the Hida River. The school grounds made up nearly 30% of the area. The neighborhood roads are so narrow, too. You couldn't even turn around if you wanted to.

Shimohara Elementary is located on the north end of downtown Kanayama and it looks like it used to split the number of students in town. By 1961, Shimohara and Kanayama elementaries had 79 and 72 students in their graduating classes. By 1978, those numbers shrank to 48 and 42 students and this was the same year construction on their concrete building was complete. Looking from the oustide of the building, it could easily hold two or three classrooms for each grade.

By 2013 when I began working in elementary schools in Takayama in the north, the schools only had 14 and 10 students in their graduating classes. Although, that was the lowest point ever for Kanayama ES. From that point, their numbers increased to a steady 20ish students for each year. Numbers for Shimohara stayed around the 10s.

Two other elementary schools in Kanayama were also bleeding students. Sugata Elementary 菅田小学校 and Higashi Dai-Ichi 東第一小学校 were also part of the city in the northwest and southwest away from the main road. By 2019, they were down to 8 and 4 students in their graduating classes. Thus, Gero City made the decision to combine all four schools together into Kanayama Elementary School 金山小学校. Nowadays, each class in Kanayama ES is around 30-40 students.

Here's a page of all the recently closed schools in Gero City. It's weird that they consider Kanayama ES closed as part of this merger, when the other schools merged into it. I think Kanayama City considered this more of a unification rather than a merger, so they think of modern Kanayama Elementary as a new school, complete with a new school song to reflect that.

There's a nice plaque on the front of Shimohara Elementary that shows the history of the school.

In the 70s and 80s, it must've felt like Japan was skyrocketing and they needed to build these huge schools to prepare for the future. They also had a ton of money thanks to the world buying into Japanese industry. Although, while the population of Japan continue to grow and grow until the 2000s, the population of all the rural towns continued to decrease.

It seems like they overextended themselves, and now these small villages are left with all these empty school buildings. Although, I'm not really sure if anyone predicted how much the Japanese economy would crash in the late 90s. Maybe they weren't really thinking of the future? Or maybe they didn't care because they had a lot of money to spend, and building schools created plenty of jobs?

Sumata elementary reopened as a computer school, so I wonder if they'll repurpose Shimohara Elementary School into something else. Or maybe it'll be another bulldozed lot in a decade.

Silent Hill f : Myth, History, and Explanation

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0900

Mostly on a whim, I picked up Silent Hill f. Silent Hill is a franchise that I have very little interaction with, but I was very intrigued with the setting in this new game. It takes place in a rural Japanese mountain village in the 1960s, a location and time period I am very interested in. Recently, I have done a lot of research and traveling to similar old abandoned buildings and villages up here in the mountains. Its fictional town of Ebisugaoka even uses a nearby village as a reference.

Overall, Silent Hill f is an incredible work of art that continues to build its story on its fringes. I think it also builds a desire for knowledge about its themes and history, so people find themselves reading every note and scrap of paper they find. Everything forms together to create an overall picture I have tried to capture in this writing.

Also, the story is told through multiple playthroughs, and this post spoilers and tries to explain everything. I have spoiler warnings as the post goes on, but if you plan on playing Silent Hill f, I would suggest not reading too far. Experience the game for yourself, and come back later. :)

Silent Hill from the point of view of Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill is a horror game series, and it refers to the name of the town where the game takes place (Silent Hill, Maine, USA), inspired by Stephen King novels and Twin Peaks. The overall series of games is like an anthology. Each game focuses on different characters when they find themselves in the town.

Like most people, I think, I have only played Silent Hill 2 back in the day on Playstation 2. I played through the game and got a couple of the endings. I never played the first game. I skipped it because it looked like a cheap version of Resident Evil. The second game felt like a better realized version of what they wanted to do.

There is a dense fog in Silent Hill, and within the fog, people who come to the town become lost and trapped. The fog becomes a metaphor for the turmoil and sadness in their lives, and those fears become physical manifestations. For example, there is a character who has often been rejected in their life, so the town feels cold and dark to them. He is often heard talking with nameless figures who don't return his gazes or conversation.

This is one of the tamer examples. Silent Hill features a lot of grotesque imagery and gore. These are physical representations of equally grotesque mental and physical abuses. Another woman, as the fog creeps in and alters the world into its netherworld state, views the buildings and walls as flesh. It often pulsates and pistons are shown violating it, refering to violations of her in her past.

I don't remember a lot about the actual story in Silent Hill 2, but I vividly remember a plot twist when other characters mention they haven't seen any monsters or grotesque creatures out to get them in the way you have. These monsters were unique and emblematic of your own haunted past, and beating them down is another way of the game showing how your character deals with his fears. Supress fear and trauma, and move on.

Silent Hill f's Role in the Silent Hill series

Silent Hill f departs from many of the ideas of the main series. The largest being the timeframe and setting. The game does not take place in Silent Hill, Maine, but takes place in Ebisugaoka, Japan around the early 1960s. (There are various dates on calendars in the game showing 1960 and 1962.) (I'll get back to this later, but Ebisugaoka was inspired by Kanayama village in Gero, Gifu, near where I live.)

Our main character is also a large departure. We play as Hinako Shimizu, a female high school student. You aren't playing as a man with a flashlight, looking for his lost wife or daughter or whatever. As the writer explains, women in Silent Hill have traditionally been victims and suffered from the actions often determined by their male protagonists. He wanted to make a Silent Hill story where a woman had control of her own story and trauma.

As the game begins, you have a fight with your parents and run into town to find your friends to talk. When talking with your friends in the town's center, the fog creeps in and consumes the town. Then monsters begin to appear.

Another departure from the main series is the singular focus of the threat. Your friends can see the same monsters just as plainly as you can. You all run away from them chasing you, and avoid them as much as possible. And they can die to those same monsters. While characters in previous games had their own fears raelized within the fog, this circumstance seems entirely based on you.

Although... Are your friends real? The fog creates a dream-like state that makes it hard to tell whether or not this is actual reality.

The Netherwold

In previous games, a siren would blare through the fog and the real world seemed to alter and change into a darker version of itself. This is where monsters would appear and attack you. The Netherworld of Silent Hill f is a different plain of existance.

At the end of sequences in Ebisugaoka, Hinako will hear a pounding sound that knocks her out. When she wakes, she appears in an ethereal world of Japanese spirits with a man in a fox mask guiding her forward. She seemingly has no choice but to follow him and solve various puzzles to push her way forward, bringing her closer to the fox mask.

Progression in Silent Hill f bounces back and forth between these two worlds as you discover more about yourself, your friends, and the overall story that explains these events.

Atmosphere and Tension through Sound

Akira Yamaoka is back! Yamaoka has been doing sound and music for the Silent Hill series since the beginning. (One of his earliest projects as Konami was converting sound and music for Snatcher to Sega CD and other CD platforms! Big fan!) Silent Hill 2 was his first project as a full lead for sound design and music at Konami. And he continued that role with Silent Hill 3 and especially Silent Hill 4 having more control as Producer.

One aspect of Silent Hill f that feels greatly heightened compared with previous titles is Yamaoka's sound. Silent Hill 2 was always eerie and atmospheric. There was that hum in the background, and the scratchy static of your pocket radio as you got near certain areas of importance. It built tension and uneasiness. But, it's impact never really stayed with me. It kinda felt like a gimmick.

It wasn't until Dead Space where it felt like sound design could become the centerpoint for forcing immersion you couldn't ignore. Music and sound in games has always been important, but both Dead Space and Silent Hill f overpower you with sound. It's like an assault on your ears and it conveys an overall sense of dread and danger as monsters lurk and hunt you. Occassionally, monsters will hide in the sound.

Silent Hill f does have some ballads, but most of the music heard through normal gameplay doesn't have a lot of strong melodies to grasp. It often feels like chaos with pounding taiko drums, sharp twangs of Kote, and other unnerving sounds from traditional Japanese instruments mixed with modern electric guitars. It feels like chaos, but its organized chaos. In some ways it feels like a modern society being held back by its traditions.

Headphones are necessary for the full experience. You feel completely immersed in the situation, setting, and story, and sometimes it gets so loud, you want to cover your ears, but you can't. The sound sometimes makes you feel like you're struggling to break free, much like our main character, Hinako.

Themes (Spoilers)

Despite wanting to give women more agency, Hinako often takes a very passive approach to any slights or aggressive towards her (at least in the beginning). When it sounds like your friends are talking behind your back, you say nothing. When your "boyfriend not boyfriend" Shu asks you your feelings, you don't answer directly. Also, you seem somewhat controlled by the fox mask in the netherworld. These microaggressions do build, but they are compounded by the overall theme of Hinako's trauma.

As a child, Hinako hated playing with dolls and loved playing outdoor games with Shu. They often played this make-believe space wars game together and ran around the neighborhood "shooting aliens." But, everyone thinks this is odd and makes snide comments about how she'll never get married if she gets scars. They yell at Shu as well to stop playing with girls. But they still play together, and refer to each other as their partner.

Because of this forced separation, boys and girls don't talk to each other with familarity or as equals. (A bit of this is lost in translation with the English dub.) As teenagers, this separation is pushed further as they are now nearly adults. Society forces Hinako to act more like a woman. It's weird that Shu treats Hinako like a true friend and an equal.

Their behavior particularly annoys their friend, Rinko, who has a crush on Shu. Their behavior makes Rinko incredibly jealous, especially when Hinako doesn't seem to put any thought into being a girl or even acknowledge any possible romantic feelings Shu might have for her.

Hinako's hatred towards forced gender roles goes further when you learn more about her family. Her father is abusive. He is verbally and emotionally abusive to his wife and daughters, and we read later that he is also physically abusive to his wife, Hinako's mother. He takes the frustrations of his life out on them by always yelling, and blaming his faults on them.

His actions are reenforced by society's standards (1960s rural Japan), and it's rather common behavior for men. Women are subordinate. You read later that other households in Ebisugaoka tend to be the same. Hinako finds a letter from a woman terrified of her life from her husband beating her. But she can't run away and leave her children behind. "Life is too hard to keep living, but I'm forbidden to die."

Hinako hates him for all of his abuses, and she hates her mother, too, because she always takes his abuse, and she always covers for him, lies for him, and defends him. In a flashback, Hinako actually stands up against his abuses by yelling at her father, pointing out his mistakes, and yelling at her mother asking why she doesn't stand up to him. But, by society's standards, Hinako is the one out of line.

Both of them yell back at her. The mother defending the father, and the father acting out against her. To end this argument, her father throws his large cooking knife at her, and it sticks in the ground at her feet.

The overall forced gender roles is the center of Silent Hill f.

Throughout the game you face against grotesque monsters that follow this theme. You fight female mannequins who are puppets to someone else's wishes. Blind male monsters who want to grab you, beat you, and lick you. Faceless brutality. Male monsters with multiple heads and eyes looking all directions spewing bloody bile on the ground spreading their filth. And bloated pregnant monsters spawning more puppets. Gross, but it's inventive how Silent Hill f creates its own monsters rather than relying on Japanese yokai for designs.

The game continues to build as you meet the physical representation of the fog, yourself.

Forced Decision (Huge Spoilers)

The narration leaves you in the dark on a lot of details surrounding Hinako, her friends, and family. These details slowly reveal themselves through reading newpaper snippets and documents found throughout the game, and some dialogue between characters.

Hinted and foreshadowed at the beginning, Hinako must make a decision, although this decision is forced on her by her father. That decision is a marriage proposal, which terrifies Hinako.

What does marriage actually mean in Japan?

Edo Peroid Japanese Marriage

After World War II, so many of Japan's old ways were revised and "modernized" with a new constitution. Some of the largest changes were women's rights, many of which were only recently ratified in America.

In pre-modern Japan (up through the 1860s), the concept of households became the basic building block of society. A household, or your family unit, not only determined your social status and role in society, but defined you as a person. To build a family and serve your household was your purpose in life, and supporting you family above your own interests was paramount. Wikipedia mentions a quote, "the choice to remain single is the greatest crime a man could commit."

The father was head of the household and he was legally responsible for all family members. (This also means that his family members were legally bound to him.) Finding marriages for his children was one of his main responsibilities. Love and feelings had nothing to do with marriage, and it was seen as childish and improper to have any kind of preference in a spouse.

When a woman married, she married into the other family. Wikipedia mentions that the old word for marriage in Japanese was yomeiri or 嫁入り. When you separate the bits of kanji apart, it says, "the woman enters (or joins) the home." The other household takes the woman into theirs, and she abandons her old household and her old family.

As a member of her new household, she basically becomes a maid. Men were taught and encouraged to place the needs of their parents and children before the needs of their wife. Another fun Wikipedia quote, "If you love your wife, you spoil your mother's servant."

Meiji Period Japanese Marriage

During the Meiji Restoration (starting from around the 1860s), these ideas not only continued but somewhat strengthened. Rapid industrialization and urbanization brought more families together into densely packed cities. Public education became more and more universal, which pushed family roles and gender roles as a matter of fact. People were to first devote themselves to the nation, then to their family, then to themselves, and fill their roles within. Women were taught as daughters to obey their father, as wives to obey their husband, and as widows to obey their sons.

There was extreme segregation of genders during this period, too. Boys and Girls were separated at schools and social gatherings. Unwed men and women who became romantically involved could be fired from their jobs or even arrested (in WWII). Another quote, "It is deemed a sign of mental and moral weakness to fall in love."

As education for women became more common, women began to fight back. Wikipedia mentions that Japanese women's fight for divorce around 1900 was the beginning of Japanese feminism. Though, it wouldn't be until the 1920s when they had their first success changing a single law. The fight continued for decades about voting rights, divorce, and other antiquated laws until their whole government was rewritten.

Post-War

After Japan's surrender in 1945, the United States rewrote and rebuilt nearly all aspects of Japanese government which trickled into Japanese society. Women had their voting rights, divorce rights, and were now legally equal. "All people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of creed, sex, social status or family origin."

However, writing this down on a piece of paper and saying its true, doesn't make it immediately true in the eyes of people who have lived for centuries under the opposite idea. It takes time for change, and even more time in isolated rural villages where people tend to follow their own laws.

Wikipedia Sources: Japanese Marriage and Japanese Feminism.

Bride Price or Dowry

One other thing to point out is that through arranged marriages, it was a tradition for the groom's family to "pay" the bride's family. Often the "price" was meant to boost their bride's family status to become more equal to that of the groom's. I think families always tried to bargin their daughters off into equal or weathier families, never down.

Putting a smiley face on it, it's a showing of appreciation to the bride's parents for raising such a good (or obedient) daughter. You could also maybe think of this as compensation for losing a family member. Or, you could think of it how it actually sounds, human trafficking. Seems like fathers were barginning for their daughters and being sold as property, especially if their new household legally "owned" them.

I think in some areas and families in Japan, bride prices may still be practiced.

Forced Decision (back to Silent Hill f)

Through Silent Hill f's first playthrough and first ending, all the hints and signs come together that Hinako is being forced to marry.

Her path in the real world is her true self. Her friends are killed one by one, and her parents are killed in front of her. In marriage, she would be torn away from her life, so her friends and family of her past life would be as good as dead to her. You also read random snippets of newspaper saying Shimizu Hinako has disappeared or died. Through marriage, she would be erased from town.

Moving forward trying to find a way to fight the fog, the fog slowly consumes and corrupts town with entrails, pulsing flesh, and red blighted flowers.

Her path in the etheral world changes her. Fox Mask leads Hinako down the hallways of ceremony and rituals. Her arm is sawed off and replaced with another. A massive hanko burns and melts a new family crest into her back. And her face is sliced off and replaced with a mask that matches Fox Mask. Hinako is becoming his property.

At the very end of the ceremony, she quivers and collapses as red blighted flowers consume her body. Then she rises as a faceless woman in a Shiromuku 白無垢, the traditional Japanese wedding dress.

This is the figure driving the fog in town. As Hinako faces the Shiromuku in town, she kills you and takes over your life in the real world.

As true Hinako, you wake in the etheral world of rituals. Your true self has not been fully snuffed out. And you face against the Shiromuku. (Ending 1 Spoilers) After defeating the Shiromuku, the enemies come pouring in after you. As you beat them down, you flash back and forth between the celestial plain and the real world. The corruption goes away and is replaced with police sirens and flashing lights. It becomes known as the wedding massacre.

Ending 1 makes sense, but it's also a bit of a let down. Hinako became so consumed with fear of marriage that she killed her family and friends at her forced wedding. We're never really told who she married, and everything (all the monsters and etheral world) just being a hallucination throws away many of the themes and imagery built up over the course of the story. It feels empty.

But, the game isn't over.

Replay

Ending 1 hints at the red pills you've been taking the entire game to refill health as sinister. After making a completion save, the menu maps out requirements for multiple endings, a total of 5. Ending 1 is the "red pill" ending and you're forced into it for your first playthrough. Other endings can be achieved by avoiding them all game. Completing a second playthrough can result in one of two endings. And then a third playthrough is required to get the final fourth ending. (There's also a secret goofy fifth ending available in the second playthrough.)

When starting a second game, cutscenes are different and there are more pieces of information available to find. You are given a more direct information and explanations on what's going on and how everything is connected. Not including the goofy ending, the other endings make full use of the themes and imagery.

Inari 稲荷神 and Foxes 狐

The major spiritual theme of Silent Hill f focuses on foxes. Maybe that's what the f stands for?

In general, Japanese folklore treats foxes as mischievous spirits who always try to trick others into doing what they want or giving away what they treasure. The moral of the story is to not trust a fox. Although, often foxes end up getting comeuppance for their deads, so the other moral of the story is to not be a fox. Don't trick or deceive others.

But, foxes aren't all bad. The bad ones often take human form. The good ones are more of a component of nature.

The Inari Gods in Shintoism began as gods to worship to protect or increase yields in rice farms. Foxes became associated with them because they are a natural deterrent against rodents who destroy rice fields. Foxes eat those rodents, and through some evolutionary traits, fox urine has become a natural repellent for rodents. Folks in olden times would present a fox urine soaked rock as an offereing to an Inari shrine. Thanks for the piss?

In folklore, foxes tend to be loyal to their debts. Good deeds are often repaid. And bad deeds are often met with mallice.

In Ebisugaoka (Silent Hill f), the main shrine in town is the Sennensugi Shrine, which worships the Inari god. Its on the top of a hill in the north, but it has fallen on hard times through the urbanization of Japan and its aging population. For the older generation, its inconvenient for them to climb the hill when they want to pay their respects, so they just use one of the small roadside Inari shrines that are all over town.

Your friend Sakuko is the last in line of the family who administrate Sennensugi Shrine, and her grandfather is head priest. As mentioned, people don't visit the shrine anymore because its up on the hill, and her father doesn't really care for the religion. He refused to take over as head priest, and works an office job instead. As such, her grandfather remarks that the shrine will die with his generation.

Some notes in the game remark that a god's power is only as strong as people's belief and worship in that god. With more people devout to them, their power and protection grows. There is a reciprocal bond between humans and gods, and the stronger the bond, the more prosperous the relationship. As the number of worshippers wane, so does the god's power and protection. Its also worth noting that discretion of Inari shrines in town results in mysterious horrible grotesque deaths, so people always respect Inari, whether they want to or not.

Sakuko is a miko of the shrine, and she loves it. She often thinks about being head priest in the future and how she can restore the shrine. Mikos are shrine maidens who perform spiritual cleansings and provide individual rites to people for protection and healing. (spoilers) She's the first to die. This basically signals that all the good will towards foxes is now gone, and they no longer have any obligation to provide protection. As soon as she dies at the beginning of the game, the fog grows and consumes the town.

Fox Possession 狐憑き

Fox Possession is a key theme used for our groom.

In Japanese folklore, it's possible for anyone to become possessed by a fox spirit, but it is most common when a person caters to a fox spirit in exchange for some kind of magical services. Once a man is possessed, this possession extends to their family and is passed down to the next generation.

While good deeds are repaid with good deeds, a deal where "you do this for me and I'll do this for you" is employment, and foxes will always take advantage of the situation. If a fox spirit is constantly appeased, the possessed is often given good fortune. However, this often comes at the expense and tragedy of others. For example, some foxes would bring their masters money, but it was stolen from their neighbors. Foxes are also known to cause illness and death towards the possessed's enemies.

It is later revealed that our groom is Kotoyuki Tsuneki, and there's a long line of notes you find that describe his and his family's past.

The Tsuneki family is the most notable and rich family in the area. They live somewhere outside of Ebisugaoka, but their pressence is known throughout the region. There's a saying that the Tsuneki family always has good fortune when the world is in disorder, hinting at their connection to fox magic.

One day years ago, the hier to the Tsuneki family saw the most beautiful farm girl. Being of a far lower class, they could never marry, but he still courted her and they had a secret affair. Months later, his father found a suitable wife for his son, so the beautiful farm girl was cast aside even though she was pregnant with his son. She was banished into the mountains, and lived in Ebisugaoka. This was Kotoyuki's mother, and a few months later, Kotoyuki was born.

As a child, his mother always forced Kotoyuki to focus on his studies. "You are the true hier to the Tsuneki family. You can't waste your time playing games. You are an adult in a child's body, and you will rise as the head of the Tsuneki family." Kotoyuki hated this.

At age 9, Kotoyuki was playing in town with other boys. It was not uncommon for wild foxes to come into town. Older generations know how to treat the animals with care, but the younger generation don't understand this and try to chase and provoke them. One day, a wild fox attacked Kotoyuki in town, leaving deep cuts on his face. Young 5 or 6 year-old Hinako "saved" him by treating the fox with kindness. "It's just sacred. Please go away fox." In a note later, Kotoyuki remarks that he just met the most beautiful girl.

His cuts festered and boiled into a fever of 40 degrees. He lost consciousness and was rushed to the hospital. By the time he reached the hospital, the cuts were gone. At one point he woke up with a glassy look. Nurses asked his name, but he couldn't remember. Physically, it was like nothing had happened at all. But, mentally, his mother remarked that he felt like a completely different person. He no longer cared about games, and devoted himself completely to his studies. You later find a note that says, "I must become the perfect match for Hinako."

You also find this quote, "If a fox falls in love at first sight, they will try to steal her away as their bride."

A few years later, the head of the Tsuneki family (Kotoyuki's father) and his wife contracted an unknown illness. They had high fevers, and their skin had sores. Some days, they would vomit profusely. A few days later, their son and daughters began showing the same symptoms. A few days later still, the father and mother died and their corpses were bloated and disgusting, emitting a horrible smell. Their only son's illness also grew, and he met the same fate. They were immediately cremated, and none of this news was ever publicized. Though, with the death of all hiers, the daughters made a miraculous recovery.

Their symptoms and deaths are consistent with other medical notes you find about drunken members of town desecrating Inari statues and foxes in Ebisugaoka.

It's not mentioned in the game, but this was probably around the same time middle-school-aged Kotoyuki played a game of Fox Gathering with his friends at school. Fox Gathering is like a seance where kids each write their names on a board, turn out the lights, and sing the Fox Gathering song in a circle. When the lights are turned back on, each name is given their future. All these futures are bad except for one person. Kotoyuki's name was the only one not crossed out with the message, "All your dreams will come true."

Some say that a fox gathering isn't just a way of telling someone's future, but often foxes will that future to become reality.

With the head of the Tsuneki family dead and his son, too, the grandfather sends a message to Kotoyuki's mother to legitimize Kotoyuki as the new hier. They move away from Ebisugaoka, and Kotoyuki becomes Kotoyuki Tsuneki head of the Tsuneki family. He has now returned for Hinako's hand in marriage.

Fox Wedding 狐の嫁入り

So, it's clear that Kotoyuki has been possessed by a fox and that the Tsuneki also has strong ties with fox possession. The concept of a fox wedding has more meanings than just this literal case, and it connects with the ideas of gods marrying mortals, which is referred to as a "hierogamous marriage."

An hierogamous marriage becomes beneficial for both sides of the marriage. A mortal becomes divine, and the god stengthens its ties with mortals. As mentioned before, a religion prospers when more people devoted to it. As gods gain more strength, so does their protection for the mortals.

People in Ebisugaoka have coined the phrase "fox wedding" in a similar way. When a woman is married, they abandon their home and are wisked away. It's like they have disappeared. So when a young girl goes missing and is never found, they call it a "fox wedding." Some wealthy fox lord scooped them up in marriage, and now they're living in a life of luxury without care. Despite the heavy feeling of loss, families are somewhat comforted by this idea.

Additionally, weddings between gods and mortal are rare. So when a god searches for a bride, they want to find a rare and exceptional match. In nearly 100,000 births, a girl is born with an exceptionally rare blood type. People often say that these girls are "blessed by the stars" because of their blood type. You find a note in the game from a woman named Mayumi who had a rare ABO blood type and was married to a fox.

Despite Hinako saying she is unremarkable, it is heavily implied that she also has a rare blood type.

Another thing to note is what a fox wedding actually looks like. In Japanese folklore, a fox wedding happens around dusk when someone sees a trail of lights leading through the forest. These lights are lanterns held by foxes in a wedding procession. The above painting near the end of the game depicts a classic scene of a fox wedding.

Yamata no Orochi 八岐大蛇 and the origin of Ebisugaoka's faith

The Inari Faith and foxes are just one side of the coin. Ebisugaoka's Inari faith is an amalgamation of the town's original beliefs that span over a millennia. And it all began with the Japanese myth of Susanoo defeating the evil eight-headed dragon Orochi. In battle, Susanoo got the dragon drunk on strong tubs of sake, and sliced off its heads one-by-one. (Remember Okami??)

One of its heads flew away and crashed in the mountains of Higa becoming a poisonous water dragon plaguing the land where it fell. Because of the poisonous water, few people ever went to this area, and it only became inhabited when shamed defeated warriors of the Taira clan found refuge hiding here. Higa later became known as Ebisugaoka. People believe that this legend stemmed from the occassional toxic gas leaks in underground water streams.

The people of the area idolized the poison water dragon as a means to protect themselves from its poison. This was the area's original faith. After this, nearly 800 years ago, a freakishly tall monk wearing multiple masks came to the area. He brought the people to a great cedar tree and told them to devote themselves to it. "This great tree saps evil from the water dragon below. Devote yourselves to this tree, and it will qwell the beast to the end of time." This began the faith in the Divine Tree.

Because Ebisugaoka was remote, it was impossible to trade items with other towns, so people had to treat their tools with the utmost care. As tools became spent, people would bring their tools to the divine tree as an offering. This would grow faith and power in the divine tree. Over time, this custom began more and more common that people had forgot these offerings were meant as tribute to seal the water dragon.

This twisting of the Divine Tree faith had formed the Tsukumogami faith. More respect should be given to things the more they age. Thus, the older something becomes the more respect it should have and the more divine it becomes. The Tsukumogami faith also believes that when objects have existed for so long they gain a spirit of their own. Because the divine tree was the oldest object in town at nearly 1000 years old, it was the center of the Tsukumogami faith. A shrine was built around the tree on the west end of town.

It should be noted that when the disgraced warriors of Taira clan settled the area, they vowed revenge against the members that banished them. Their weapons and gear had been lost to time, maybe destroyed or traded away. But one sword still remained in Higa (Ebisugaoka), and it soaked in the feelings of revenge and malice from the former clansmen. Through the Tsukumogami faith, this sword now had a life of its own and remained hidden.

Through some puzzle solving in the second playthrough, the lost sword, the sacred sword, reveals itself to you.

In the Edo Period (1600s / 1700s), lightning struck the thousand-year-old divine tree, and the fire spread to burn the tree and the shrine. People believed that the tree had lost all of its divine power, so through the Tsukumogami faith, they searched for the next oldest object in town to praise. This was a moss-covered Inari statue north of the divine tree in the woods.

Inari priests told the townspeople that an ancient evil water dragon was set free from the divine tree now that is has lost its power. But, the foxes are here to protect you. A family of foxes rose up to save our town from this threat. They hold the dragon at bay, but our faith in them gives them power. We must devote ourselves to them to receive their protection.

Thus, Ebisugaoka's faith changed again, now to the Inari faith. People began praying to the Inari for protection, but it was warped and twisted with Ebisugaoka's history of faith. It became confused with the ideas of the Tsukumogami faith. Over time, the Inari faith in Ebisugaoka became its own branch of the religion, almost completely different than elsewhere.

But the moss-covered Inari statue was not the oldest object in town. This was the sacred sword, which was infused with its own spirit of revenge in the true faith of Tsukumogami. On the inside, it was considered blasphemy that the people would abandon their faith. On the outside, knowing the sword's existence could destabilize the Inari faith in town. The sword wanted its revenge against the foxes.

A final bit of history was a murder spree that happened in the 1880s. A man over two feet tall covered in tree bark came into town with a sword and killed everyone he found worshipping Inari statues. He called everyone hethens for not respecting faith to the Divine Tree. The water dragon will rise again because of your blasphemy. Legend says that the spree ended when a thick fog rolled in carrying a pack of foxes which devoured him completely.

In recent years, with faith in the Inari wanning, there are some people who believe the town is cursed because they no longer truly devote themselves to the religion. In 1945, there were a series of small earthquakes and an onsen geyser erupted in town nearly 30 meters high. The water spewed a noxious hydrogen sulfide gas, and tests later showed it contained high levels of arsenic. People claim this caused sores and disease.

An alert was issued by the Disaster Prevention Division stating these small earthquakes could be a sign that the "big one" is coming soon.

Player Choices and Further Endings

By starting a New Game+, Hinako is armed with the knowledge of the red pills. She also has a fox brooch pinned to her lapel giving her the protection of Kotoyuki. Knowing the sinister nature of the red pills, avoiding them puts you on a path with two outcomes.

You need to find the sacred sword, and then determine whether to purge its life or keep it. By keeping the sacred sword as is, you will have its protection in the final battle. By purifying the sword of its vengeful soul, its protection is gone, and you rely on the protection of the fox brooch in the end.

There's also a third option available in your third and final playthrough by giving up both the sword and the brooch, relinqushing Hinako of all outside protections.

The red pills were protection given by Shu. The sacred sword was protection given by your past. And the brooch was protection given by Kotoyuki. Each of the four main endings align with the actors behind the protection. Once you reach your house, the Shimizu residence, in the last third or quarter of the game, you are locked into an ending.

As you shift through different layers of your warped home, you confront images of your past and finally confront yourself, which are all different depending on which ending you're locked into. Later at the end, you face the real threat.

Keeping the Sword's Protection (Ending 3)

When Hinako faces herself at home, her other self is terrified, weak, and completely panicked at what to do. Your journey throughout the game was killing your friends and family as a way of leaving them behind as you leave home in marriage. Your decision is ultimately choosing to kill your other self, or be killed. The panicked Hinako begs for death. Her face peels away to become what you hate the most, the bride. You are the protagonist.

Later in the end, as true Hinako, fox Hinako turns into the Shiromuku and you fight. You win, but Kotoyuki interferes. His body controts and transforms into a massive ratty matted nine-tailed fox. His handsome kind persona is completely dropped, as he screams and threatens you. "I have shown you nothing but kindness, but you refuse it. So I will take what it rightfully mine."

By retaining the sacred sword with its full power, the sword is able to amplify the part of you that strongly holds on to the past. Throughout the game in the fox realm, this is represented by your old childhood doll, reminding you of who you are. Your true self is able to shine through any influence of your transformation by Kotoyuki.

Upon defeating the ratty fox, Shu appears and confesses his love for you and that he would do anything to protect you. He throws himself at the wounded fox, but you stop him. Leave him alone. You and Shu run away from the shrine, and appear in town. Hinako tells him that she can't marry Kotoyuki, and they run away together.

After the credits, a radio program reports that Ebisugaoka was consumed with Hydrogen Sulfide gas (the fog) and the entire town was evacuated. With Kotoyuki completely rejected and defeated, it seems like the divine protection of the Inari faith has collapsed. And ultimately, it seems like the sacred sword with the spirit of Tsukumogami had got its revenge. With the Inari faith gone, the poisonous water dragon was let loose.

Removing the Sword's Protection (Ending 2)

When Hinako faces herself at home, her other self screams at you for being childish. She screams at you to die die DIE! You find some letters in your drawers from Kotoyuki about the courtship showing him as loving and caring. Your face peels away to become what you hate the most, the bride. You are the antagonist.

Later in the end, as fox Hinako, true Hinako becomes warped and distorted, moving like a puppet seemingly controlled by a dark force.

That spirit is easily snuffed out by Kotoyuki. Then Shu appears and exasperatingly confesses his love for you. He screams how he should have told you all of his feelings from the beginning and that he wants to be with you always. He also confesses that he used the red pills to try and break you free of this marriage.

Old tools, weapons, and masks consume his body. As fox Hinako, you finally defeat the last remaining bit of your past self, and can continue forward as wife to Kotoyuki Tsuneki. Shu accepts that Kotoyuki would make a fine husband for Hinako and gives him a fist bump as the morning sun rises to vanquish the horrible night.

With the final spirits of the Tsukumogami faith purified, and the wedding succeeded, the Inari faith has been appeased. The water dragon, hydrogen sulfide gas, fog, and mist all dissipate to reveal a clear day. The new day shines bright on Ebisugaoka.

It ends in a pretty goofy way, and everything seems all happy and perfect on the outside with smiles. But after the credits, the severed sliced off face of true Hinako lies on the ground in terror, sobbing, and begging for recompense. "I'm so sacred. I don't want to become my mother. He will become my father." Then her face is crushed and wiped away, implying that she lives in true terror every day on the inside.

Two Sides

Both endings show the duality of the situation. Refuse the wedding and defeat the part of you driving you towards it. Or accept the wedding and defeat the part of you driving you away from it.

By refusing the wedding, Hinako breaks away from her father's control, and puts her with Shu. She didn't want to get married, so Ending 3 should be a good ending. But the outside world shuns them. The game portrays the two of them running away into an uncertain future as hopeless and pessimistic. What future would they have by abandoning everyone they know? The fog turning poisonous and devouring the lives of everyone in town furthers this idea.

On the other hand, by accepting the wedding, everyone on the outside is appeased and happy. Hinako's family is now rich and debt free. Ebisugaoka looks bright, and Hinako's friends seem like they could live their best lives without her. Shu gives his blessing, and society continues to run and operate as it always has. Sounds good! But on the inside, society continues to rot and women live in fear.

What's the alternative? Choice

In all three endings so far, Hinako's choice has never been respected. She turns violent from the pills Shu slips her. She is forced to marry without a say. And by rejecting the marriage, she gives in to Shu, and is forced to cut ties with everyone she knows in Ebisugaoka. Ultimately, she never has a choice and has to comprimise her future either way. Once again we return to the theme of forced decisions on women in Japan.

Choice (Ending 4)

Both Ending 2 and 3 make one of Hinako's sides the enemy. She's either the protagonist or the antagonist. By throwing away both the sword and the brooch, you aren't choosing to follow one side or the other. You are putting trust in yourself.

Now when you face yourself at home, you listen to each other. You speak with your sister, and she listens and begins to understand your position. You listen to your mother and understand there are more dimensions to marriage. And your father begs forgiveness.

Society places the burden of forced decisions and roles on everyone. Men are also forced to act in certain ways to appear "strong" in the eyes of others. A father must assert his dominance. While this idea is true even in modern Japanese society (I have stories about this), I think it undermines the fear and abuse her father has caused. Hinkao can't forgive her father, but she recognizes that at least he respects her now.

Leading into the end, Hinako realizes her situation fully. She says, "One of them wants to marry me off. The other wants to stop the wedding. Both of them are pitting me against myself. I will never be someone's puppet."

By refusing Shu's red pills, by purifying the sacred sword, and by rejecting the fox brooch, you are able to see both forces driving your two halves against each other.

On the etheral plain, the gods having been using you for their own purposes. The Tsukumogami wants revenge on the Inari. The Inari wants its wedding to retain their power.

The nine-tailed fox adds the final piece connecting the Inari faith to the Tsuneki family. "Once in a blue moon, humanity will produce an extraordinary girl with divine power. When that happens, a spell is places on our clan's successor that stirs in him a desire to make that girl his wife."

The fox wedding acts like a blood sacrifice. By joining the Tsuneki family to a girl of extraordinary rare blood, the fox gods are delighted and their power and influence grow. It's also noted that with this blood sacrifice, the woman is drained of all her blood, and her lifeless corpse is set adrift in the river as a means to bolster the imprisonment of the water dragon.

As both true Hinako and fox Hinako, you fight and defeat the Tsukumogami and Inari gods on mirrored plains of existence, ultimately proving that you are no one's puppet. Your life (lives) is your own.

After the battle, even though Kotoyuki was under the influence of the fox spell, he ponders whether his feelings for you were real. And he vows to live his life and explore those feelings completely. He later writes you a letter saying that he is happy reliving a childhood he abandoned and still thinking of you.

You return to the real world in an abandoned Ebisugaoka covered in fog. In the end, Kotoyuki inspires Hinako. She wants to love someone as intensely as the love he showed for her. And if that someone is Kotoyuki in the future, then so be it. On the other hand, she wants to find her own passion, likes Sakuko's passion for her faith and Rinko's passion for Shu.

But with the halves of yourself wandering the silent streets of Ebisugaoka, you want to focus on yourself. The town is now quiet and free of anyone telling you how to live, how to act, and how to be. You are free with yourself in your own Silent Hill.

It's a pretty beautiful ending.

On the surface, having defeated both gods protecting the town from the water dragon, it was released leaving the noxious fog to cover the town completely, forcing everyone to leave. Or also, with the town abandoned, all gods have lost their power, leaving fog to cover the town. Either way, only the water dragon remains and no one prays to it.

So many mountain villages and settlements in the Japanese mountains have met a similar fate during the post-war Showa era. People leave their homes to find a better life in the now growing cities, and the original spirits of the mountain reclaim their land.

Through all of this myth, legend, and history, I think Silent Hill f is an incredible work of art that highlights many fears and problems with old Japanese society. Some of those problems still linger in their culture today.

But, the game also gives hope for change. In the end, Hinako's father recognized he needed to respect his daughter. There are many families in my small town in the mountains where it seems like the father loves running around with their kids. Not many seem to follow the stoic Japanese father stereotype of the past.

I would say the biggest problem with the game is that these layers are hidden behind a second and third playthrough. People will probably never see these ideas for themselves, and rely on YouTube videos (or reading this post) which don't give a first hand experience.

I hope more people find this game for themselves. :)

(Below are many screenshots I took during my playthrough. I played using HDR so many screenshots were very dark. For those too dark, I increased their contrast and brightness to be more visible.)

Update: More Hope

I had the opportunity to talk with a bunch of older folk the other day, and since they constantly ask me about why I'm not married, and I asked them about their marriages. One of my aquintances just turned 70 years old, not necessarily so old. He would've been born in 1955 and around 7 or 8 years old in the time of Silent Hill f. That puts him about 10 years younger than Hinako.

So, for his situation he would've experienced 10 more years of social progress after Hinako. However, he still had an arranged marriage in the 70s. He said that he constantly worked and was constantly out of town on business, so he never saw his wife or family during the week. On weekends, he would end up spending time with the neighborhood groups and businesses in town before leaving Sunday Night or Monday.

For 45 years, he was always somewhere else in Japan working with other companies as a spritual guide and advisor. For 45 years, he hardly ever saw his wife and family. And it wasn't until these last few years, in his late 60s, that he was finally able to cut down on work and spend more time at home.

While he doesn't regret his life (as he serves a higher purpose in both life and sprituality), he is grateful to his wife for her own devotion to family. Now that he is spending more time at home, he says that they've been going on dates and enjoy watching TV together. After all these years of devotion, they are finally taking the time for love and building more than a transactional relationship.

I suppose this case is different from Hinako's as my aquintance is more of an absentee father than an overbearing abusive one, but I think it shows that even through devotion to tradition, the older generation can still change.

Kanjouji Park Observation Point 閑乗寺公園展望台

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0900

One of the first mountains that creates the northern entrance to the Gokayama valleys is Mt. Yaotome. It separates the urban towns from the rural valleys, and it's the final obstacle for Sho River to break away from the mountains and continue straight north into the Sea of Japan.

At the foot of the mountain on the urban side is Kanjouji Park, an elevated open area with lots of room for camping and outdoor activities. At the high point of the park is an observation point that overlooks Inami Town and gives a clear view of Nanto, Tonami, and even Takaoka, all of the western and southwestern open towns and cities of Toyama.

It was cloudly and rainy most of the morning. But, by the time I visited the observation point in the afternoon, the weather had completely cleared. Much of the moisture remaining the air, though, so it was difficult to see the more distant areas past Tonami and Takaoka. But, all of the areas of Nanto were in full view.

This was around 2pm. Later, I came back around 5pm to watch the sunset.

This was the highlight of the park. The observation point faces northwest so it has a clear view of the sunset. Or, at least it would in summer when the sun would set a bit further north. Being winter, the sun sets early and further south. You aren't able to see the full sunset unless you go over to the raised concrete platform.

It was a very radiant sunset on a chilly evening. Even though we're in winter, it wasn't really that cold. And even looking across the miles of homes and towns, there's no snow. It's a really eerie feeling looking at a view that seems like October or November when we're in the middle of January.

I stayed at the viewpoint for a while and watched as the orange hue faded into blue. As the blue color crept in, lights began to dot and brighten up bits of the towns and cities. More dots appeared as the blue deepend.

My camera was not so great and capturing those subtleties. It doesn't really like low light, and with the sun gone, the chilliness began to turn into cold, so holding the camera still was a little more difficult. I left before it got really dark.

It was a beautiful place that I would love to see again in Spring as the view begins to turn green.

Kitahara 北原 and Tochihara 栃原

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0900

The Kitahara and Tochihara areas of Toga valley and Otani valley are some of the first pockets of neighborhoods you encounter when traveling south and upstream along the Sho River 庄川 in southwestern Toyama. Kitahara is on the east bank of the river, while Tochihara is on the west bank and far higher up from the river side. Both areas had flat plateaus among the sharp cliffs, forests, and tough ground, which made them sustainable enough for people to live.

Tochihara 栃原

After climbing up the cliff from the river on the west side, the area of Tochihara was quite wide. Among all the pocket neighborhoods and settlements of Toga Valley, it was quite populous with 217 residents in 32 households nearing the 1900s. As such, it was one of the first areas in Toga to get a branch school. Tochihara Branch School 栃原分校 was established in 1902 and stayed in use through 1973.

Tochihara became abandoned in 1976, but the area came to life again as a ski resort and farms. In the 1970s, Japan looked for open land to convert into rice farms to increase production to match their population increase. All the original homes were removed.

Today, not much remains. The ski resort closed decades ago, and its final building was bulldozed last year. Digging and land moving equipment line the areas to quarry rock for construction projects.

It should also be noted that a small settlement known as Shimobara sits at the foot of Tochihara's cliffs, and is directly opposite from the river of Kitahara. Perhaps ironically, it seemed an annex of Tochihara in the beginning, but these days its the only place where people still live.

Kitahara 北原

Compared with the west bank, Kitahara on the east side has gotten more activity in recent years.

The Toga bridge was completed 8 years ago, and it literally bridges the Kitahara neighborhood on the east bank to the west bank. It's a huge towering structure in the middle of seeming isolation, which seems weird considering hardly anyone lives in Kitahara.

It's ultimate purpose is to lead traffic to a tunnel. The tunnel is currently under construction but when it's complete, it will bring people directly to the heart of Toga Village. Travel will be far more direct and safer in winter because of it. No idea when the tunnel will open but looking through Google Maps, construction on the bridge began nearly 13 years ago. Sometimes Japanese rural development is measured in decades.

For now, the bridge allows quick access to several hot spring hotels and guest houses.

Originally, getting to Kitahara was not easy. The main route along the Sho River is on the west bank and Kitahara was on the east. The Sho River is very wide and deep, and the river banks have never high cliffs, so people could not easily go across. To the north, the Toga River splits from the Sho River, but the cliffs were still pretty steep. The original route to Kitahara had people cross the Toga River further south, and then climb over to the mountain to reach the area.

Despite the difficulty in getting to Kitabara in olden times, many of the residents found the natural hot springs of the area incredibly soothing and relaxing. In winter especially, the hot waters helped keep everyone warm inside.

Today, there are still a few guest houses with onsens. The most impressive of these is an onsen hotel named Kitahara Sou 北原荘.

The hotel was established in 1985 in an effort to revitalize the area. This was a decade after most of the residents had moved away. It has over a dozen full guest rooms and some banquet halls. Seems perfect for an office weekend retreat. The hot springs are separated for men and women, and both have an indoor bath and outdoor bath. I went here on a Sunday, and the baths had several patrons, so I couldn't sneak any photos inside.

The baths were really nice, though. I sat outside in the heated bath, and could contrast between the 40 degrees of the pool and the 2 degress of the air. Unfortunately, I stayed in the pool a bit too long and started feeling dehydrated. I should've snuck in a large bottle of water.

The water felt nice, and much of the hotel felt cozy. But peeking down the halls and looking into a few rooms felt very narrow and confined. In some ways, I felt trapped. It was a weird feeling that I hadn't really felt from any of the other remote places I've visited. Are there any Yokai that make you feel this way?

I didn't explore too much on the inside (I didn't want to burst into someone's occuppied room), but I looked around the outside. Japanese architecture in the 1980s was so fun and dynamic compared to the straight lines we have in buildings today.

Further up the road, past Kitahara-so is a guest house named the Toga House 利賀之家.

It was currently closed, or maybe only open through reservations. Next to the Toga House was the original site of Kitahara's branch school. The Kitabara Branch School 北原分校 was opened in 1902 with Tochihara's school, and was used through 1971. By then, there was an automobile bridge crossing Sho River, connecting the two sides, so any students living in the area could take a bus to school.

Stays in the guest house are 7500円, but that includes dinner and breakfast, plus use of their onsen. Some day, I would like stay there. Although, Toga valley is full of interesting guest houses with unique histories. There's another place I would be more interested in staying.

Kitahara is a pretty remote place, but on this Sunday, there were more tourists around than I was expecting. Young folks and families stopped at the bridge to take photos. A few families stayed at Kitahara-so. And the river cruise on the Sho River was packed all day.

Even though Toga Valley and Village has been bleeding a slow death over decades, there is still a market for tourism in its beautiful nature. Maybe that Toga tunnel will bring more folks into the village center, and bring money and tourism to town.

Shogawa Yuran River Cruise 庄川峡遊覧船

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0900

There are two major rivers in Toyama that begin in the mountains and feed into the sea of Japan, both of which have their origins in Takayama, Gifu. Jinzu River in the east is formed from Miyagawa (Takayama's main river) and Takahara Rivers. Sho River is in the west. Its meager beginnings start in the far west village of Shokawa. By the time the river reaches the lower valleys of Gokayama in Toyama, it has become a deep mass cutting through the rocky earth.

The Sho River is deep enough that it became a major transportation route for logging boats and for some speed boats when people needed to get in and out of the valley quickly. There were also boats that people used as ferries to cross the river and reach small settlements on the other side.

Today, you can charter a ride on a Shogawa Yuran ship to tour areas along the Sho River leading into Gokayama. I finally took a tour on the boat after traveling around Gokayama and learning about the history of its schools and old settlements for the past year.

There are two possible tour courses. The cheaper one (1200 yen) only goes up the river a little bit to Nagasaki Bridge. The more expensive tour (3400 yen) is a round trip that travels all the way to Omaki Onsen. Even if you're staying a night at Omaki Onsen, I think you still gotta pay.

The cruise line was first established in the early 1930s after the completion of the Komaki Dam and it was the primary means of transportation for Omaki Onsen. Prior to the dam's construction, the people of Gokayama valley knew of the therapuetic hot springs along that point of the Sho River. It became a very popular, and people often traveled from far away to visit.

After World War I, Japan focused on its industry and owners of construction and power companies looked for ways to increase their reach. In the 1920s, an electric company sought to build a dam at the base of Sho River to harness its energy. When the dam was complete in 1930, the original Omaki Onsen became completely submerged. Because the onsen was so popular, a new hotel using the onsen water was built, and the Shogawa Yuran line was established.

Omaki Onsen was built on the east bank of the river away from any roads, so it became infamous as a "hidden" hotel that you could only access by boat. That's still true today (although I think there are some secret roads you can take to drive there). When you take the Shogawa Yuran cruise, it will do a final driveby of the inn before stopping at the dock.

This was as close as I could get. If you aren't spending the night, you should stay on the boat. I took the last tour of the day, so if I got off, I would have no ride back until the next day. If you took an earlier tour, maybe you could get off and attempt to sneak on a later cruise back to the dam.

I would love to take a closer look at Omaki Onsen, but a nights stay is close to 50,000 yen! (around $330). No way am I spending a month's rent on one night's stay. It seems like you must have a reservation in order to enter the premises. One-day trips seem not possible unless I'm missing something.

Even the 3400 yen price of admission is a bit steep, but if you're able to find a day with great weather, you certainly have some spectacular scenes. The valleys kill off any strong winds, so the river water is completely still. It creates a near perfect mirror of the mountains rising into the sky.

You're also able to view the bridges of Sho River's past and present. There's the original bridge, which is closest to the dam. I'm not sure when it was built, but it had already collapsed by the 1970s. It's located near where Toga River merges into Sho River.

The next bridge is the Nagasaki bridge, a more modern bridge that brought people from the main road to the homes and onsen hotels of the Nagasaki and Kitahara neighborhoods. I don't know when it was built (probably in the 1960s?), but it is still safe to drive across.

The newest bridge, the Toga Bridge, finished construction just a few years ago. It makes the other bridge obsolete and it's part of the government's plan of connecting the main route along Sho River to Toga village. It is a huge structure that drawfs all the other bridges along the river. I have a few more photos in the Kitahara post. It seems like a lot of money to spend on bringing people to a remote are that has been sharply depopulated, but it has created a lot of jobs and will really help everyone who lives out there.

The overall cruise isn't too long. It takes about 30 minutes to travel from the dam to Omaki Onsen, so a round trip is about an hour. It had snowed a lot earlier in the week, so I wanted to take a cruise while all the mountains and forests were coated in white. Unfortunately even though it was January, it was very warm. The top layer of snow had melted, so it didn't look like a winter wonderland.

The cruise doesn't go too fast, but you still get a lot of wind in your face. On the trip to Omaki, it only felt like a cool breeze. On the trip back to the dam, the sun had already set behind the mountains, so the breeze felt like getting blown in the face by an air conditioner. I had to bundle up in order to stay outside and take photos.

While I still think it was more expensive than necessary, I was able to take some great photos and enjoy the scenery. :) For a one-time experience, I think it was worth it.

Most Played Games in 2025

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0900

This year, my gaming habits compared to recent years and continued moving away from Twitch and away from Pokemon. I spent a lot of time playing a few singular immersive games and working on gaming related projects. I also spent a lot of time exploring Japan, taking photos, and writing about the adventures, getting away from gaming screens.

Modded Consoles

I think I'm most proud of the work I did on Gamecube and Dreamcast. After putting together a soft-modded Playstation in 2024, I wanted to have access to more games of that era. Many Gamecube and Dreamcast games were available on Playstation, but they weren't the same. Plus, they had tons of unique games of their own.

I ordered all the parts in January, but my consoles were back in the US. It wouldn't be until summer that I was able to retrieve them. In October, I finally put together my Dreamcast. And in November, I put together my Gamecube. Both of them came together like a dream.

I haven't had time to fully play any games on these consoles, but one of these days, I'd like to go back to Zelda on Gamecube, and some of the other goofy games on Dreamcast.

Playstation

Outside of projects, I spent the most time on Playstation.

My biggest games this year were those top three: Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, and Assassin's Creed Shadows. Each of these games had a full immersive and expansive world that was fun to explore, for the most part.

Ghost and Shadows were the most similar of the three. Both took place in fuedal Japan during pivotal moments in history that their stories built from. It's interesting how Ghost was basically a "good" Assassin's Creed game, so the franchise came back with a game that rivals it. Both games have strong points in different categories. Ghost has far more thoughtful gameplay and story. Shadows has a more expansive world and relateable characters. Ultimately, I far prefer Shadows for its exploration and beautiful scenery. Also, Ghost constantly throws sadness, rape, and death in your face which turned me off.

After being disappointed with Ghost, I bought a cheap copy of Horizon and I was very surprised and delighted. Horizon was an amazing experience that learned a lot from its first title. It's interesting how over the course of the long game, Aloy actually seems to grow and care about the new world compared to before. As such, I became interested in the other characters, too. Hopefully they'll be able to complete their trilogy without any compromises.

I also played through Once Upon a Katamari in a weekend. This was the first new Katamari game in over a decade, and it was good! The new stages had a lot of variety and the settings were inventive. Unfortunately, I don't think they pushed creativity far enough. They should've added some totally new game modes, or a completely new unique graphical level.

Twitch

Earlier in the year, I was still streaming some games on Twitch, but after March, I quit. It wasn't fun anymore. Steadily, my gaming habits have returned to playing immersive and story driven content alone. When other people joined the stream to chat about unrelated topics or they aren't really following the same story or they complain about things, it was a distraction and took away from the experience.

That's fine for games like Pokemon where the story doesn't matter and Twitch is just chatting with folks. It's not fine for the immersive games I wanted to play this year. When games got monotenous, putting on a podcast or a movie was much more beneficial.

Here are my meager Twitch stats until I quit in March.

Nintendo

Speaking on which, there was a new Pokemon game this year.

The hours are midleading, though. My Switch was playing Pokemon Z-A for nearly 300 hours, but it wasn't me playing it. After buying a controller with macros, the game could play itself and hunt for shiny Pokemon on its own. There were several days where I left everything on while I went to work, and came back 13 hours later to discover all the shiny Pokemon that had spawned.

Unfortunately, Pokemon Legends Z-A was my biggest disappointment of the year. The game is absolutely bland. Coming from Assassin's Creed Shadows with its beautifully detailed lifelike scenery to this boxy mono-colored environment was so hard. Obviously, the Switch can't do the same detail, but Pokemon Z-A has no style or life in its art design. It's so boring.

On top of that, the story is repetitive and boring, too. I never once cared about anything that happened to any of the characters. Pokemon characters never really stand out as distinctive, and when Z-A puts them front and center, it really shows how flat they are. The plot and story progression follows the same boring predictable pattern throughout.

The worst thing about this is its name, Pokemon Legends. Its predecessor, Pokemon Legends Arceus, felt totally fresh and fun. And building lore towards the overall Pokemon franchise was so creative. Pokemon Legends Z-A does nothing for the Pokemon franchise other than bringing in more Mega Pokemon. Coming from the first game, it's one of the most disappointing Pokemon games of all time. Awful.

Also, I played Tetris Effect Connected and Tetris Forever, and both games are amazing. I never really connected with Tetris Effect before on Playstation, but the "Connected" release on Switch felt much better. I think I just needed to get past a lot of the early music in the game. Tetris Forever is an amazing interactive documentary of the game's history which is an absolute must-play.

Switch All-Time

The Nintendo Year-in-Review also had a section of most played games throughout the system's life. This was also revealed recently through one of Nintendo's apps.

Not surprisingly, Animal Crossing is my all time most played game. There were so many days during Covid when I left the game running while I was trying to coordinate with folks online to buy items, or sell turnips, or buy turnips. Looking through that Nintendo app, I had a couple 18 hours days where the game was on, but I was doing something else.

Also, plenty of Pokemon and Zelda games on the list. Those are my most played and most owned Nintendo games of all time, so it makes sense that they would dominate the list.

Steam?

Also as a fun aside, after watching a YouTuber play through this fun highway creation puzzle game, I wanted to give it a try, too.

I really enjoyed my time with Freeways. It's easy to turn on the game, and try to get through a puzzle or two while watching a TV show at the end of the day. It was also only $5! So cheap!

Xbox?!

As another fun aside, with Xbox basically going out of business in the next year, I downloaded my life time achievements stats from True Achievements. You can take a look, if you'd like. Even though I bought a few Xbox One games and was close to buying an Xbox Series X two years ago, I haven't touched an Xbox since moving to Japan. My achievement story begins and ends with the 360.

Modded Console Future

Speaking of which, with the Playstation 2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast working perfectly, I don't have any immediately plans to do more modding. But, at some point, I would like to have a modded platform for Xbox 360 games. I have no idea what that would be. I have no idea how to mod an Xbox 360 in the same way I've done it for my 2000s era consoles. But, when I feel like I have more peace of mind, I might start looking into it. I feel like that's in the distant future, though, as I have so many other games I want to play first.

Also, modding a Wii or Wii U might come first. As much as I want to replay the Gamecube Zeldas, I really want to try Wind Waker HD on the Wii U.

Gaming in 2026

For this year, I hope to spend more time with my Gamecube and Dreamcast. I would love to replay Twilight Princess. Also with the VMU Pro, I want to try and play through a game that fully uses it. There are also more immersive games that I skipped in recent years. I want to play through the Alan Wake games. I also want to play Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding 2. I continually check Yahoo Auctions for cheap used copies.

Also, the Super Station One is currently shipping. Maybe this will finally get me to go through Ocarina of Time, and maybe play Majora's Mask for the first time. Another playthrough of Snatcher could be fun, too. I could actually take a ton of screenshots this time. Also, there's the recent Super Nintendo MSU version of Castlevania II with the Disk soundtrack.

Too many games. Too many hopes. I will probably just buy Death Stranding 2 and lose myself in it for a month or two.

Toga Valley 利賀谷 and Past Schools

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0900

Toga Valley is an area that cuts through the southwestern mountains of modern day Toyama prefecture.

The whole region of Toyama is known as Gokayama 五箇山, which was named from the region being divided into five valleys coming down from the mountains. The five valleys are Akao Valley 赤尾谷, Kaminashi Valley 上梨谷, Shimonashi Valley 下梨谷, Otani Valley 小谷, and Toga Valley 利賀谷. I talked about the history of Shimonashi Valley little bit in the post about Hosoo Pass.

Four of the five valleys follow the Sho River, which comes from the east side of Mt. Haku going directly north into the Sea of Japan. Toga Valley is different because it follows two different rivers. The Toga River comes from further east to join the Sho River at the base of the mountain. It also follows Momose River, which is further east and never joins either. As such, Toga Valley is almost completely cut out from the other four valleys and is far less populous.

When the river's edge meets the land, the forests begin. The whole area is over 95% deep forest. But, dotted along the cliffsides were several pocketed settlements back in the day with larger clusters up the mountain forming small villages of Toga, Sakagami, and Momosegawa. In 1896, the gun-district system was established which classified the entire Toga Valley as a single municipality, Higashi Tonami-gun Toga Village 東礪波郡利賀村. The entirety of Toga Village covered 176 square km.

As its peak in 1947, the overall population of Toga Village was 4663. (1) Today, it's around 400. It suffered the fastest rate of population decrease in Toyama prefecture in 2010 (-23% in 5 years), and it is one of the most depopulated areas in Japan. Because of that, there are a lot of abandoned buildings, including entire areas which no longer exist today. Last year (summer 2025), I visited the area 4 times because I was interested in the area's old schools.

History of Toga Schools

The first school built in Toga Village was Shimo-Toga Public School 下利賀尋常小学校 in 1892. This was 6 years after the Japanese government's executive order of primary education in Japan 小学校令, which ultimately stated that all children were required to attend and graduate 4 years of elementary school. With Toga Village established in 1896, the school was renamed to Toga Public School 利賀尋常小学校.

Toga's biggest problem was distance. Toga village began where the Toga River 利賀川 branched from Sho River 庄川. Toga River travels over 40km up the mountain to Mizunashi Dam, which forms a lake 水無ダム湖. But, Toga Village also included around 10km along Sho River and the 20km stretch of the Momose River 百瀬川 in the east to its source.

Every 2-5 kilometers along the rivers was a small settlement. 2km doesn't seem all that far today, but in 1900, there were no paved roads or cars. (Cars only debuted in Japan in 1898!) People in the mountains traveled by foot (or rarely by horse). It was impossible for young students in the distant settlements to make the daily trip to school. This trip was even more impossible in winter when snow falls and blizzards cut off settlements completely from each other. (Not to mention the dangers of wildlife and insect attacks.)

To solve the distance education problem, branch schools 分校 were established. These were schools that branched from the main schools to treat students who lived in areas too far or too inconvenient away. They still operated under the jurisdiction of the main school but had their own branch principal and another teacher or two depending on how many students they had. Teachers couldn't be expected to make the daily trip to school either, so they lived in the school in their own living quarters.

In 1902, the first branch schools were established in Tochihara 栃原分校, Kitabara 北原分校, Sennohara 仙野原分校, and Takanuma 高沼分校. These were all areas near the base of the mountain. It wasn't for another 30 to 35 years before more branch schools would open to treat students who lived on the top of the mountain with Mizunashi 水無分校 and Okutaikanba 大勘場分校 branch schools, and another 6 winter branch schools would open for students who lived in between. I don't have all the data, so I think other branch schools opened in this time, too.

Ultimately, these were some of the most reglected areas in Japan for education. They didn't get money to build enough schools to reach all children. Most teachers also considered being stationed in these branch schools as punishment, too, because they'd be completely cut off from their own families.

After World War II, education was restructured. All students were now required to attend 9 years of school. There was 6 years of elementary and 3 years of junior high schools. As the country rebuilt itself, it identified these remote schools as a problem and implemented the Remote Area Education Promotion Act (へき地教育振興法). More branch schools would be built in remote areas to obtain a near 100% attendance rate for schools. And, each remote branch school would now be given a grade (へき地等級). The Remote Grade ranged from 1 to 5 and is determined based on the distance from transportation, hospitals, post offices, and grocery stores. It's also determined by the distance from the main school, city center, and board of education. When a teacher is posted at a branch school, their salary would be increased based on the Remote Grade of the school.

From the educational restructuring in 1947, Toga Junior High School 利賀中学校 would open in the heart of Toga Village. The graduating class was only 17 students. In 1948, branch schools for the junior high opened in Sakagami 坂上分校 and Momosegawa 百瀬川分校. The graduating class grew to 51 students. In 1949, more branch schools opened in Okutaikanba 奥大勘場分校, Takanuma 高沼分校, and Shogawa 庄川分校. The graduating class was now 92 students. Each of these junior high branch schools just used the existing branch schools, which were still used for elementary school students.

Population in Japan soured in the 1950s from 83.4 million people in 1950 and 93.2 million in 1960 (2). However, Toyama Prefecture remained mostly stagnant going from 1 million people in 1950 to 1.03 million in 1960 (3). And Toga Village had began its sharp decline from 4,663 in 1947 to 3,562 in 1950 to 3,038 in 1960 (1).

Throughout the decade, more branch schools would open to cater to those who couldn't make the journey in winter. By 1959, the number of schools in Toga Village was at its peak. There were 21 total elementary schools (1 main school, 11 branch schools, 9 winter schools) (4), and the 6 junior highs (1 main, 5 branch). Note: Through Internet researching, I could only find 17 elementary schools.

In 1962, the dormatory at Toga Junior High School was completed. All distant students now lived at school, which closed all junior high services for branch schools. More and more branch schools continued to close throughout the 60s as infrastructure was built. Roads were paved connecting all the settlements and more people owned cars so they could travel easily. They could also plow snow in winter easier which closed a significant amount of winter branch schools.

Throughout history, the people in Toga have been pretty poor. The mountains were terrible for growing rice, so most people lived off of growing beans and buying food from selling silk and gunpowder. With the country booming, many families abandoned their old homes to move into cities where they could find decent work and make a much better living. This also closed many branch schools as their neighborhoods were vacated.

This continued into the 70s. Tunnels were built between the mountains connecting each of the valleys, and expanded motorways were built, too, to make daily travel very easy. In 1970, the population of Toga Village shrank to 1,961, and by 1980, it was 1,328 (1). In 1983, the graduating class of Toga Junior High School was only 9 students, the lowest to date. (There were 17 students in the class of 1984, though.)

By the 1990s, most of the branch schools had either closed or left dormant. In 1996, all remaining branch schools were officially closed and the government sold the buildings to whoever wanted them.

In 1998, the above school was built, the Toga All Persons School 利賀アーパス. This huge building combined both Toga Elementary and Junior High together in a single building. There was also space for community classes, and had room for foreign students to study abroad from their sister city in Greece. Population of Toga was around 1,000 at this point and all students took the bus to school. Some students had an hour commute.

In 2004, there were municiple mergers across Japan and Toga Village folded into Nanto City which now covered all of Gokayama and the towns and cities creeping into the urban area of Takaoka. Population was 855 at this point. By 2015, there were only 18 total junior high students, and 16 elementary school students.

In 2024, both elementary and junior high schools combined into a single school called Nanto City Toga School 南砺市立利賀学舎. At the time, there were only 10 junior high students (among 3 grades) and 13 elementary students (among 6 grades). The graduating class was only 2 students. There was only one 6th grader and zero 2nd graders. (5 6)

Only 400 people live in Toga today and they're mostly elderly people. Not many young people live out here and there's really no reason. There's lots of construction, but those companies set up temporary housing for their workers in summer. Very few of those workers actually live in Toga. Historically, the area has been poor so there's not much value in living here.

Here's a full timeline of these events: /toga-valley-timeline

Toga Valley Schools, Settlements, and Neighborhoods

Again, Toga Valley begins where the Sho River 庄川 and Toga River 利賀川 join at the base of the mountain. Toga Village contains the first 10km along the Sho River, but the majority of the village follows Toga River up the mountain to Mizunashi Dam Lake 水無ダム湖. There's also the initial 20km stretch of Momose River 百瀬川 in the east that runs mostly parallel with the Toga River.

In 2025, I went to the area 4 times and visited 14 of the old schools and settlements of Toga Valley. Let's look at each of the areas of Toga Valley in order from the base of the moutain.

Shogawa 庄川

Shogawa is the first area at the base of the mountain, and its the first cluster of homes visited after leaving the flat lands of Nanto and Tonami. There was a branch school in this neighborhood, but it no longer exists today, and I can't seem to find any traces of it. I'm not sure when it was initially built, but it was probably in the 30s. It was used for Toga Junior High School from 1949 to 1962, and there's photo of it in the Anniversary book. (Also in 1952, the 4 villages north of Toga Village were collected together to form Shogawa Town, which isn't the same and makes searching more annoying.)

There are still several homes and businesses in Shogawa today including the Komaki Dam. 1.5km up river from Komaki Dam is where Sho River and Toga River join. From Komaki Dam, if you're on the west bank, you'll continue up the Sho River. If you're on the east bank, you'll follow Toga River.

Shimobara 下原

Following Sho River, the first major neighborhood is Shimoboara. Shimobara's branch school first opened in 1935 as 利賀小学校栃原分校下原冬季分校, or Toga Elementary Tochihara Branch School Shimobara Winter Branch School. It was a branch school of another branch school. Later in 1976 when Tochihara Branch School was closed, it become a full branch school as 利賀小学校下原分校. It closed in 1986. It was a Grade 2 remote school.

People still live in Shimobara today, although there are only 4 or 5 houses. The branch school used to be in the center, but it was demolished in the last 2 years because of asbestos.

Article and Photos: /shimobara-winter-branch-school

Tochihara 栃原, Shigekura 重倉, Arayama 新山

Directly south of Shimobara is Tochihara, which was the central area because of the space. Tochihara had open areas along the valley which was perfect for farming. Tochihara Branch School 栃原分校 was one of the first branch schools, built in 1902. Most people moved away by 1973, and the area became uninhabited in 1976, although the farms still remained and there was now a Ski resort, too. The branch school was officially closed the same year. (7)

A few kilometers further down Sho River were the final settlements before Taira Village. Shigekura probably shouldn't even be mentioned as it was only one household and the people moved away in 1906 (8). Arayama had 5 households at its peak in 1889. In 1934, an avalance killed all 5 men living there. Two of the families moved away, and eventually in 1955, the remaining households were abandoned. (9)

Kitabara 北原

There's one more area on Sho River and that's on the opposite side of the river from Shimobara and Tochihara. These days, it is known as Kitahara, but it's original name was Kitabara. There was enough room along the cliffs of the east bank for farms, so naturally another settlement was formed. Kitabara Branch School 利賀小学校北原分校 was one of the first to open in 1902 and it continued to be used through 1971. It was completely closed in 1986 with Shimobara. It was also a Grade 2 remote school.

Today, there are some houses still there and several inns. The branch school has long been demolished. Apparently it was located near the inn called Toga Guest House 利賀之家 (10). I might try to spend a night there in the future, as its only 7500円. :)

Today, there is a huge bueatiful bridge connecting Kitahara to the west bank. It's part of a tunnel construction project which is still in progress. When complete, the tunnel will go straight through the mountain to Toga Village's center.

Article and Photos: /kitahara-and-tochihara

Sennohara 仙野原

Going from Shogawa on the east side of Komaki Dam, the path will follow the east bank of Sho River, and then follow Toga River. Up the cliff a little bit, you'll find a fork in the road. This small path will travel down to the river's edge and use a bridge to cross. On this slim area of land on the opposite side of the mountain of Kitabara is Sennohara. 9 households were here, so the Sennohara Branch School 仙野原分校 was built in 1902. It was also a Grade 2 remote school. However, by 1966, the area became abandoned. (11)

In 1935, the branch school was demoted to only a winter branch school of Kitabara's branch school 利賀小学校北原分校の仙野原冬季分校. Today, the only thing of note in the area is the Jizo Statue Hall on the side of the road marking the entrance path.

Kurito 栗当 and Wakidani 脇谷

Further up the main path about 1.5km toward Toga Village center were the tiny settlements of Kurito and Wakidani, which Murakami considers as the same village. (12 13) Today, there are a few houses next to the road which are empty, but I didn't not take a look.

Back in the day, there was Kurito Winter Branch School 利賀小学校高沼分校栗当冬季分校, which was part of Takanuma's Branch School. It opened in 1934 and closed in 1967 as Grade 2 remote school. Kurito became uninhabited in 1979.

Takanuma 高沼

Continuing along the main route another 2.5km, we reach the first significant neighborhood, Takanuma. It's branch school opened in 1902 along with the other 3 branch schools in Sennohara, Kitabara, and Tochihara. Takanuma Branch School 利賀小学校高沼分校 continued to operate through 1978 and was officially closed in 1996. (Grade 2 remote)

The original building is long gone, but the concrete branch school built in the 60s is still there. I was able to go inside and take many photos. It seemed like people who still lived in the area used it as a community building but that was decades ago. Around 2016, the last resident of Takanuma moved away (or died). In Google Street View history, you can see some of the homes that have now been demolished.

Article and Photos: /takanuma-branch-school

Sorei 草嶺

Continuing another 3km towards Toga Village is the now abandoned settlement of Sorei. Sorei became abandoned some time in the late 1990s. At its height, there were 17 households with 135 residents in 1947. (14) Today, it is completely overgrown, but there are some signs that people have tried to protect the area's shrine.

The Sorei Winter Branch School of Takanuma Branch School 利賀小学校高沼分校草嶺冬季分校 was built in 1935 and was closed in 1977. It's remaining students then went to Takanuma Branch School before that was closed a year later.

Article and Photos: /abandoned-sorei-settlement

Oshiba 押場

Moving up another 3km is the Oshiba settlement, which seemed to follow a similar history as Sorei. At its peak in 1947, there were 10 households with 93 residents, each of which steadily moved away eventually leaving the area abandoned in the late 1990s. (15)

Today, the area has been bulldozed by a construction company. The Shinmei Shrine is the only thing that remains of the original village. The Oshiba Winter Branch School 利賀小学校北豆谷分校押場冬季分校 opened in 1930 and closed in 1968. It was a Grade 2 remote school, and it was a winter branch of our next school, Kitamamedani.

Article and Photos: /abandoned-oshiba-settlement

Kitamamedani 北豆谷

Only a kilometer away is the neighborhood of Kitamamedani which is still populated today. It's also the first area we've reached that has an active Post Office branch. There are over a dozen homes, and when I visited, some people were outside working on a project.

I could not find any information about when the Kitamamedani Branch School 利賀小学校北豆谷分校 opened, but I could find that it closed in 1968 along with Oshiba Winter Branch School. I'm sure the area still had students at this time. I think the reason it closed was because the center of Toga Village was only another 2.5km away and the main road was probably safe enough to bus children to school each day. I think this was a Grade 1 remote school given its closeness to the main school.

It's the most striking of schools I had visited yet with its space age spherical windows in its main staircase, and attached gymnasium. After the school closed, it was still used for the neighborhood's yearly Sports festival. The gymnasium was remodeled as a community hall with a full tatami mat floor. Looking inside, it looked like it was being regularly used through 2003. That was one year before the municipal mergers, so maybe their community banquets moved to Toga Village center.

Article and Photos: /kitamamedani-branch-school

Toga Village Center 利賀村

We have now traveled 17km from Komaki Dam to the center of Toga Village. Most of the people who still live in Toga Valley live here and in Sakagami further up the road. There is one governmental building in the middle of town which is the Nanto City Toga Village Branch Office. Inside are the city offices, the post office, and the bank. The building also doubles as a Road Side Stop 道の駅, so there's also a store and restaurant.

Up the hill is the turn off for Toga School. As mentioned before, this was built in 1998 as Toga All Person's School 利賀アーパス which housed both Toga Elementary and Junior High School. In 2024, both schools combined into a single school simply called Toga School 利賀学舎. In 2024, there were only 10 junior high and 13 elementary students for this huge building. It's a difficult trek up the hill, so all students take the bus to school.

After World War II and the enactment of the new educational orders, Toga Junior High School 利賀中学校 became the pride of Toga Valley. It's original location was not here, but 500 meters south of the branch office. It was opened in 1947 and remodeled in 1962 with a full dormatory. From 1962, nearly all junior high students lived at school (especially in winter) in order to completely centralize secondary education. Over the years, as more and more roads were built only the most distant students had to live at school. By the 1980s, I don't think the dorms were used. There were only 9 graduates in 1983, anyways. (16)

Looking through Google Maps, it seems like the building was demolished between 2018 and 2021.

Toga Elementary 利賀小学校

When Toga Junior High was rebuilt in 1962, construction for a new Toga Elementary was already underway. Toga Elementary's concrete building was completely in 1963, and this building still stands today. According to Google, it's been used as Toga Dam's office building.

I'm not sure if this was the original site of Toga Public School back in 1892. I don't have any photos of the original wooden building. The concrete building, though, is located between the branch office and the site of the old junior high. It sits next to several homes.

Sakagami Elementary 坂上小学校

Toga Elementary was not Toga Valley's only full-fledged elementary school. The neighborhood of Sakagami which was 4 to 5 kilometers up Toga River had just as many homes. Sakagami neighborhood was also very flat, so it provided lots of space for farming.

I'm not sure when the first branch school opened in Sakagami, but it was probably back in the 20s or 30s. With the new elementary and junior high buildings built in the center of town in the early 60s, the Sakagami Branch School was upgraded to a full elementary school in 1968 with a new building. This was Sakagami Elementary School 坂上小学校.

Splitting Toga Elementary was probably a good idea because there were so many branch schools and winter branch schools. Now, all of the southern branch schools (the ones further up the mountain from here) in Toga could operate from Sakagami Elementary. The grduating class of Toga JHS in 1964 was 79 students, so each class in Sakagami ES probably had around 30 students each. (17) Sakagami Elementary was later closed in 1996 along with all branch schools that hadn't been closed already.

Today, the Sakagami Elementary School building is Star Forest スターフォレスト利賀. Star Forest is a "guest home" that families and schools can rent. Occupants can use the gym, baths, and kitchens as a service. I went there in June, and there were several families in the building. They were packing up a bunch of mountaineering equipment into a truck getting ready to leave. The website says they aren't taking reservations, so maybe its only open in summer?

Sakagami Branch School 坂上分校

Prior to Sakagami Elementary, students in the Sakagami neighborhood were taught in the Sakagami Branch School 坂上分校. The branch school is 1km further up Toga River from Sakagami Elementary.

Again, I'm not sure when it opened. It was probably in the 20s or 30s. It was used by both elementary and junior high school students until 1962 when the junior high dorm was built. It was closed in 1968 when Sakagami Elementary School opened down the road.

I went inside the building and looked around. Apparently it was used as a textile sweetshop for women's undergarments in the 70s and 80s. The most recent item I found inside was a calendar from 1996.

Article and Photos: /sakagami-branch-school

Tanoshima 田ノ島

We move past normal signs of civilization another 3km up Toga River to the old settlement of Tanoshima. Tanoshima Winter Branch School 利賀小学校大勘場分校田ノ島冬季分校 opened in 1935 as a branch school of Okutaikanba. By 1960, it was used by 16 students. (18) This was a Grade 3 remote school.

The branch school closed in 1965 when the roads were good enough for students to attend Okutaikanba all year round. By 1978, the final resident moved away leaving the area vacant, although one of the buildings was still as project space for a junior college.

Today, the only original building that remains is the Shinmei shrine. Sometime between 2019 and 2021, all buildings were removed and a French restaurant called Levo was built. Levo acts as both a restaurant and a lodge, but prices are 31000円 per person at the restaurant. I have no idea who this restaurant is for. Looking from the outside, it reminds me of the restaurant from The Menu.

Article and Photos: /tanoshima-shinmei-shrine

Nakaguchi 中口

Moving 1km up Toga River brings us to the small settlement of Nakaguchi. Nagaguchi Winter Branch School 中口冬季分校 was opened here in 1953, and closed in 1965 with the Tanoshima school. It was a Grade 3 remote school. Apparently the school operated out of one of the resident's homes. (19)

Heyaneko visited there in 2010 and there was still a house with someone working on the roof. Although, the area became officially uninhabited in 1992. Looking at Google Maps, that home is no longer there. It was demolished (or collapsed) sometime between 2019 and 2021.

Okutaikanba 奥大勘場 / Senzoku 千束

Moving another 1km up Toga River is the neighborhood of Okutaikanba, which has several homes and Senzoku Dam. After Sakagami, this was the most central area of the southern settlements, so they built a full branch schoool here, Okutaikanba Branch School 奥大勘場分校 in 1935. In 1949, classes were established for junior high school students, too, and by 1959, there were 54 students. This was a Grade 3 remote school.

In 1976, the name was changed to Senzoku Branch School 千束分校, which matched the name of the Dam. By 1984, the school was no longer used and it was officially closed in 1996.

Sometimes between 2021 and 2023, the building was demolished. Someone lived in the building in the 2000s, but then a construction company (or the dam offices) used it for housing. It was probably demolished because all these buildings were full of asbestos.

Article and Photos: /senzoku-branch-school

Katsurao 桂尾

Continuing up the Toga River past the Toga No. 2 Power Plant was another cluster of homes at 1.5km. This was Katsurao neighborhood.

Katsurao Winter Branch School 利賀小学校大勘場分校桂尾冬季分校 was established here in 1944. Much like Nakaguchi's branch school, I think it just operated out of someone's house. It was a Grade 3 remote school, so they got paid well. It was closed in 1965. By 1975, the neighborhood still had 3 homes with 7 residents. (4) But today, there is no one. Two buildings still stand, but probably not for long.

Taikanba 大勘場

Nearly at the source of the Toga River, another 2km upstream brings us to Taikanba. Finding the history of this school is difficult because its name 大勘場 is nearly the same as Okutaikanba 奥大勘場. I think some of the histories were mixed up.

Wikipedia says that Katsuaro Winter Branch School was a branch of Taikanba not Okutaikanba, so I think the Taikanba was out here in the 30s and 40s. Wikipedia also says the name Taikanba Branch School 大勘場分校 was officially established in 1976 when Okutaikanba changed its name to Senzoku. So, that's inconsistent. It was closed in 1996. The area became uninhabited around 2012.

This was a Grade 4 branch school, the highest grade yet. It's about 12.5km from Toga Elementary and nearly 30km from Komaki Dam.

The Taikanba Branch School building is still here today and it still has power. I arrived around Noon o'clock and the Noon Chime began to play from the loudspeakers attached to the building, which freaked me out at first. The road behind the school leads into the old village, but all of the homes have now collapsed. Looking through Google, the last two homes only recently collapsed in the last 5 years.

Article and Photos: /taikanba-branch-school

Mizunashi 水無

500 meters past Taikanba, the road is closed. This is essentially the end, however, further past the closed gate, the road continues for another 10km to Mizunashi Dam 水無ダム, which is the source of Toga River. The whole area of mountain and forest is known as Mizunashi, and it also had a small settlement, which was another 5km going east from the lake.

Mizunashi Branch School 水無分校 opened in 1929. It began in someone's house until its own building was constructed. It was used until 1966 and closed in 1967. By 1970, all residents of Mizunashi had moved away. (4)

Mizunashi was designated as a Grade 5 remote school, the highest grade, and its easy to see why. It was nearly 30km further up the mountain from Toga Village center, and Toga Village was already 17km into the mountain from normal civilization. Even today, it would take nearly an hour to drive from Mizunashi to Toga Village. Now, it can only be accessed from Hida on the other side of the mountain.

Toga River complete

From the base of the mountain at Komaki Dam and traveling over 40km all the way to Mizunashi Dam Lake, there were 14 settlements and villages, each with their own schools.

Sennohara → Kurito / Wakidani → Takanuma → Sorei → Oshiba → Kitamamedani → Toga → Sakagami → Nakaguchi → Okutaikanba / Senzoku → Tanoshima → Katsurao → Taikanba → Mizunashi

Strings of villages through mountain valleys make sense when there's an eventually destination, like a large city on the other side of the mountain, but Toga Valley doesn't go anywhere. It's final destination is an artificial lake. The whole valley had poor soil and growing conditions, so the people living up here were always poor and occasionally starved to death in winter.

Maybe this was just a good area to get away from everyone. There were never any daily travelers (other than their neighbors), so people were able to live by themselves.

Momose River 百瀬川

Toga Valley was more than just Toga River (and the little bit on Sho River). Running parallel to Toga River to the east about 1.5 away was Momose River 百瀬川. Momose River began on the west side of Mt. Kongodou 金剛堂山 and continues around 20km until Yamada Dam, which is near Takanuma. The areas of Momose River didn't have as many people as Toga River, but the area was much flatter providing much better farmland, especially for rice.

Momosegawa 百瀬川

Let's start with the neighborhood of Momosegawa. It's the central neighborhood of Momose River and it's directly east of Toga Village about 1km over the mountain. There was a path through the mountains for farmers to travel and sell their crops.

Momosegawa Branch School 百瀬川分校 opened sometime in the 20s and 30s. I don't know for sure. It was originally a large wooden building on the east bank of the river.

Today, this is all that's left of the original wooden building. Looking through Google Maps, every few recent years, it seemed like more and more of the building was removed, and now it's just this house with the side of it covered with a tarp.

In 1971, the school was upgraded to a concrete building, which was built closer to people's homes. It was used through 1989, then officially closed in 1996. Both old school buildings were used for Sake brewing after their decommission.

I visited Momosegawa Branch School on June 7th. The door was open, so I could go inside and take many photos. I returned two weeks later and it was now fenced in and scheduled for demolition. Construction crews santized and tore it down over the summer.

When I returned in September, the building was gone.

Momosegawa was one of the tentpole branch schools of Toga Valley alongside Takanuma, Okutaikanba, Sakagami, and Shogawa.

Article and Photos: /momosegawa-branch-school

Suganuma 菅沼

Moving north down the river about 3.5km is where Suganuma neighborhood used to be. In 1955, construction on the Suganuma Dam 菅沼ダム began and on its completion in 1958, all homes and lands became submerged and destroyed from the new lake. I could not find any information about there being a school here, but there were 4 households that were now under the lake. (18)

There is a monument to the village around the area somewhere according to Murakami. I'll try to find it next time I'm in the area.

Kamimomose 上百瀬

Going the opposite direction from Momosegawa is Kamimomose, and the final neighborhood of Toga Valley. It's about 4km away up river. I know very little about Kamimomose Branch School 上百瀬分校, other than that it was closed in 1991. After it closed, the nearby construction company used it as their office, and used the gymnasium for storage. Sometime between 2021 and 2023, the building was demolished, but the construction kept the gym as a storage shed.

After visiting Momosegawa Branch School, I went to Kamimomose and took a bunch of photos. I did notice that Kamimomose Branch School was a branch of Sakagami Elementary School and not a branch of the main school. Sakagami is about 2km west of Sakagami over the mountains, so I guess that was more convenient.

Article and Photos: /kamimomose-branch-school

Today, the area of Momosegawa has a lot of camping grounds and recreational areas for retreats. They also have a yearly Photo Rogaining event!

Toga Valley

Overall, I find the area of Toga Valley fascinating. Its an area that seems like people have always struggled with money, food, and population. Only the areas of Momosegawa seemed fertile enough for large rice production, but there were so many other small pockets along the valley that continued to survive. Again, I'm not really sure why people lived so far up the mountain when there wasn't anything there.

Most settlements, villages, towns, and cities were built and grew from being on the way to the next big village, town, or city. Or people settled in an area that was abundant in some resource. Maybe the settlers of Toga valley were looking for riches in the mountain, but never found any. Or maybe they just wanted to get away and stay away from the rest of Toyama. Either way, once Japan modernized after World War II, families recognized there was no value and left.

Looking back at the population chart (1), Toga Valley had a steady population of around 3000 until its spike and peak in World War II. That spike (4,663 people) is a little misleading as it wasn't natural population growth. During World War II, large Japanese cities were routinely fire bombed by the US, and Toyama City was the most devastated in Japan. The US even used it as practice for Hiroshima and Nagasaki launching 4 "pumpkin bombs" that destroyed 99% of the city on August 1st, 1945.

Many people moved their families into the mountains to avoid these bombings and this created a population spike in rural Japan. After the war and Japan was rebuilding, there were so many new jobs available in the cities, and neighborhoods were being rebuilt. There was no reason to live in the mountains anymore, and it was probably even sabotage if you stayed.

Even so, the old guard continues to hold their old homes in the mountain valley with seemingly no real hope for the future. Maybe once the tunnel opens it'll bring more people to Toga, and they could focus on more camping and leisure outdoor activities, like mountaineering and river fishing. I don't think Toga will ever fully go away when Toga Valley's nature looks so great.

All of the schools and abandoned villages I visited have been collected into singular posts. They were all linked throughout this post, but they have also been collected at this keyword: keyword/toga. After researching everything, there are a few more new places I want to visit, and double check on a few old ones, so I expect that keyword to grow a little in the future. :)

Mukodaira Observation Deck 向田平展望台

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0900

Takayama is a beautiful city in the middle of the Japanese Alps. It sits on a long expanse of flat plain lands, which was very lucrative for people back in the day to farm and grow rice. And it became an oasis for people who wanted to get away from war and battles in the low lands.

Even though Takayama is in the mountains, these flat open lands are wide enough to get much more sun than all the other villages and settlements in the valleys. On average, the temperature is about 5 degrees higher in Takayama in winter making it more comfortable.

I always imagined the shape of Takayama like a dish, flat with curved edges. And you can totally see this idea take shape from the observation deck at Mukodaira at the south end of town.

The homes and neighborhoods creep up to the very edge of the hills and mountains to take maximum advantage of the available space.

Here's a large panoramic photo I put together:

From up here, on the south end of town, you have a clear view of Miya River 宮川 as it snakes its way through town. You can also see Takayama Train Line and Route 41 coming from the same area through the valley to enter in Takayama's south side. You can see some of Takayama's schools, hotels, the southside grocery store, and Takayama's only porn store still in business somehow.

Despite living here for 13 years, I did not know of this vantage point until I was searching around on Google Maps and noticed it. Getting there is a little tricky, though. In this area of town, there's a small road between the two houses in the bottom photo. Just follow that road up into the mountain. It takes about 10 minutes to reach an area to park. From there, it's a quick 5 minute walk to the observation deck.

You can even see the observation deck in the photo on top of the short mountain. There's nothing else up here, though. There's no shrine or temple. Most mountains have a shrine or marker at the top for a local diety, but here there's nothing. The observation deck feels like an afterthought after plowing through the mountain to make towers for powerlines.

At the base of the mountain, though, is Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine. Some of the shrine members were clearing snow from the walkways and setting up for a bonfire in the evening.

On a clear day, Mukodaira is a fun quick trip to see the town from a different point of view. It's easy enough to get there that you could even make the trip at night. Maybe I'll do that the next time they plan on having fireworks.

Lego Mini Bonsai Collection

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0900

The Lego Bonsai tree is one of my favorite sets of all time, and Lego knows this. After its release in January 2021, it became one of Lego's highest selling boutique sets of all time. It was a watershed moment where so many people were reintroduced to Lego and experienced how brilliant and clever their model design had become in recent years.

I bought the bonsai tree around 2 1/2 years ago, and it has steadily gotten me into buying more Lego sets to complement it. With the bonsai tree's popularity, Lego has continued to release more and more botanical sets. In August 2025, they released a new set of Lego bonsai trees.

This is the Mini Bonsai Tree Collection. It was released in August 2025 for $65, a $15 increase from the original Bonsai set. This was around 10000円 for me. Ultimately, I try to avoid buying Lego these days because I can buy a lot of other things (toys) for 10000円 that won't just sit on my shelf. I could almost buy two full games for this price!

Leading into Christmas, Amazon had the set on sale for 6000円 and after building the Lego Gameboy, I wanted to add a little bit more flourish to the display on my shelf. So, I bought it. And then I also bought an LED light kit for it. (I always upsell myself on sets.)

The designers at Lego continue to impress with these trees.

They continue to be creative about reusing speciality pieces in new and unique ways. The original bonsai tree used pink frogs for cherry blossom leaves. The new ginko tree uses butterflies recolored light orange for leaves. The pine tree uses recolored green claws as needles. And the wisteria uses a gradient of combined flower pieces for its weeping flowers.

The building experience is also amazing. They reused the sloping technique from the original bonsai tree, so the trees stand at an angle. Each limb that branches from the trunk can be rotated and moved to create the exact density of foilage you want. Even though each pot is the same, they can be interchanged on the stands giving you the freedom to create whatever scene you'd like.

When looking at the trees from a certain angle, they look quite stunning.

However, as other reviewers have noted, when looking directly from the top, the models aren't so flattering. This is especially the case for the black pine tree. The leaves and needles only form a perimeter on the outside. Inside, there's nothing. It looks bad, but depending on how you display them, it probably doesn't matter.

Speaking of which, with these models complete, I could add them to my Gameboy display.

Great. :) I wanted to use the mini bonsai trees to add more color variety and density to the display, and they achieved both of those goals. It looks much better and more balanced now. (Although, the bonsai trees don't match the scale.)

But! There was still something missing. I bought a light kit for the Gameboy and when the whole scene is illuminated, these new trees don't do anything. All the focus is on the Gameboy. It's the centerpiece so, of course, it should stand out the most. But it shouldn't be the only thing that stands out.

So, I bought a light kit from Lightailing. I like their sets because they use custom LED Lego studs rather than adhesive strips of LEDs or singular LEDs you need to place inside of pieces. LED Lego studs are idiot proof and non-destructive.

The lights do an excellent job of creating a mood rather than putting a spotlight on themselves. The ginko tree lights look amazing because the yellow glow isn't over powering. The green and purple lights look okay, but they do not complement each other. Too much contrast.

Construction was a bit annoying. My hands were too dry so I could not get a solid grip on the wires to guide them in the right spots. Also, the lights for each of the trees are connected together, rather than having separate lines. This means that you can't completely separate the trees from each other, and there is very little slack. The ginko tree and the wisteria tree are currently at their max distance apart. They can barely move without pulling the other.

Overall, they create the scene I was hoping for. Even by themselves, the trees and lights look great. :)

I wouldn't recommend anyone spend $65 on these Legos, but I don't think many people did. Again, I bought them on sale for 6000円 leading into Christmas, which is about $40. I think they're worth it if you can find them for cheap.

Here are the instruction manuals for each of the trees if you want to take a look at piece usage.
gdocs/ Ginko Instructions.pdf
gdocs/ Black Pine Instructions.pdf
gdocs/ Wisteria Instructions.pdf

Ome Showa Goods Museum 昭和レトロ商品博物館

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0900

I love visiting retro museums in Japan. I think the Showa period of Japan is fun to research and peruse as it contains so many building blocks that have morphed into today's capitolistic society. How were products advertised to people 60 years ago? What sort of products were people buying back then? It's interesting how something so sophisticated and advanced back then is mostly trash and garbage today.

The Showa Goods Museum 昭和レトロ商品博物館 in Ome (west west Tokyo) focuses on the commercialism of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It's not a very big museum, like other retro museums I have visited. There's only one main room, and it was lined with displays cases that focused on different categories of products, such as stationery, toiletries, medicine, cigarettes, coca-cola, games, and sweets. The entrance had display cases with candy, soda, and cameras.

After looking through all of the cases, I think my favorite product was a pair of upscale fancy face masks. I love the design of the man and woman on the cover of the box. In the 50s, this style was probably considered peak fashion. But now the colors have faded, the box is rotted and tore, and the mask looks like its about to fall apart. It's a real metaphor of fashion through the passage of time.

Their replica movie poster paintings were their most prized possessions, though. Or maybe they were restored originals? They had a recent photo that showed a man painting them. (I did not read the fine print.) These posters were incredibly vivid and striking.

Upstairs, they had an exhibition room which focused on the Japanese folk tale, Yuki-Onna 雪おんな, literally translated as Snow Woman. There were diorama displays showing each of the key scenes from the tale, various copies of books that reprinted the tale, photos of an author, and some inspired art.

Almost all Japanese folktales, including Yuki-Onna, originated hundreds of years ago, so I don't think it really fit with the Showa theme. However, it is one of more popular tales and authors in the early 1900s (before Showa) wrote the modern version of it. Maybe it was super popular in Showa times.

Entry for the Showa Goods Museum was only 350円, but you could buy a 500円 combination tickets for another museum just down the block, the Showa Gentou-kan 昭和幻燈館. Gentou basically means a slide as part of slide projection. The front face of the store sold headshots of many actors and actresses of the 60s and 70s.

The main part of Gentou-kan was a showcase all of this cat artwork, and the best part about the displays were the parody Kanban signs. I got photos of all sixteen of them.

Perhaps surprisingly, the shop only had one small piece of merch connected to the signs. It was the Bread Kanban Sign, but they went a step further than the original by changing パン (bread) to ニャン (meow). I probably should've bought it, but I refrained.

Overall it was a cute museum, but it seemed far away from everything else. I don't think it'd be worth the trip on its own. But, if you were already in the area, I think the small 350円 entry fee is an easy sell.

Kudou Teruhi Art Museum 工藤耀日美術館

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0900

Japan is a country full of pockets within its dense urban centers and rural country. Everyone carves out their own small spaces within the narrow alleys and multi-story buildings of the cities, and the dense forests and sharp cliffs of the country. There are so many unique locations and perspectives that so many of them are overlooked and somewhat undiscovered. It can feel magical when you step into one.

I think the Kudou Teruhi Museum 工藤耀日美術館 is such a location.

Kudou Teruhi 工藤耀日 is an artist and painter born in 1939. Frustrated with the pressures and constructs of Japanese art and society, he sold all his possessions in 1986 and moved to China to discover his own identity. 18 years later, he returned to Japan and purchased the newly closed Masutomi Junior High School 増富中学校 in the north western mountains of Yamanashi Prefecture. He used the school building as his studio and opened the building to the public in 2008 as a museum to host his works.

Perhaps the most impressive showcase of his art is his massive mural lining the walls of the old junior high gymnasium.

The mural seems to cover a few periods of his life's work: his Women in Waves series inspired by the style of Pablo Picasso, his journey of Han Dynasty art represented by the dragon, and his paintings of Yamataka Jindai Zakura, the 2000-year old Cherry Blossom tree near the city down the mountain. He has been working on this for over 10 years.

Looking through old photos online, the mural was an evolving and continual effort over the last decade and it should continue to evolve in the future. There was a new piece on the floor in-progress.

The current location of the museum is in Sutama Town Obi District 須玉町小尾 part of Hokuto City 北杜市. When Masutomi Junior High School 増富中学校 was built in 1947, the area was Masutomi Village 増富村. The village would be abolished in 1959. One by one, each of the mountain villages in the area became incorporated into Sudama Town 須玉町 with Masutomi being the final piece. The area was named to Sudama Town Obi. Sudama was later renamed to Sutama in 1990.

Masutomi Junior High School closed in March 2004 due to further depopulation of the mountain villages. Any remaining students were transported by bus to Sutama Junior High School at the base of the mountain. Later that year in November 2004, governmental mergers combined all northwestern municipalities into a single city, Hokuto City.

Now, there doesn't really seem to be many people up here. Only the elderly folks who have lived here for over half a millenia remain.

When I arrived, I looked around to see if I was in the right place. I saw someone in the window and soon after an elderly man popped out of the main building. This was Kudou Teruhi 工藤耀日. He came out to greet me. I asked about the museum and he immediately pulled me into the gym to see the mural. He told me about working on the mural for over 10 years and about when he came here.

Next, he brought me into the main building to see the rest of his work. The entrance way displayed some of his contemporary works, a series of Chinese dragons. The first floor of the old junior high school had an open room (probably a multi-purpose room), the 1st-year homeroom, and 2nd-year homeroom. The open room displayed more murals of his women series. I think they were interchangeable screens used in his gymnasium mural.

The next room displayed his original work of his women series. He painted this series in 2005 and had photos of his exhibition of the series in Barcelona.

He took this time to explain his name. All of these paintings were signed as Kenji Kudou 工藤賢司, not his actual name, Teruhi Kudou 工藤耀日. For almost all his life, he used Kenji Kudou as a pen name for his work because it sounded much better. Much of his work and life was inspired by Pablo Picasso, and the name Pablo Picasso had a rhyme and rhythm that he absolutely loved. Kenji Kudou had a similar rhythm, so he used it.

It wasn't until he returned to Japan in his late 60s that he felt he had found his identity and wanted to mark his work as who he was, rather than someone else he was trying to be in his youth. His chapter as Kenji Kudou was complete and he could now be a painter as himself.

The next classroom displayed painted murals of Mt. Huangshan in China. While living in China, he hiked these mountains and was inspired as many artists have been in the past. Clouds cover most of the mountains, but when you climb the high peaks, you can see all the mountains in the range poke up from the white below into the sky.

It's apparently one of the most beautiful scenes in the world. He drew several sketches of the landscapes and painted those scenes at a large scale.

Upstairs, the personalized tour continued with the next room focused on paintings influenced by Han Dynasty history and culture. The painting above is titled "Animals From Han Dynasty."

In the next room, he had paintings from an assortment of series. He had a series that focused on Shingen Takeda and Yukitaka Sanada, two samurai legends of Yamanashi prefecture. He had a painting of Michael Jackson, and more recent Women paintings which bore his Teruhi signature, not Kenji.

The final room was devoted to a series of Sakura paintings. Much like most people, I love the aesthetics of Cherry Blossom trees. The pure white/pink petals blooming at the start of the year, representing youth and new beginnings set in front of the dark blackness of trees that have lived longer than any human and refuse to die.

This series focuses on Yamataka Jindia Zakura, an ugly gross tree that has lived over 2000 years. Kudou mentioned that the tree was not far away, so I went to visit the tree when I left. It's December, so obviously nothing is in bloom, but you can clearly view the skeleton of this monster tree.

Completing the tour of his museum, he showed me his workspace in the former staff meeting room. And he introduced me to his wife, who was studying Persian in the former staff room. At the front desk, I bought two of his books and paid for entry totalling 5000円. Entry was 1000円 and each book was 2000円. Expensive, but well worth the personalized tour and supporting this amazing artist.

I also signed his guestbook. Apparently I had been the only visitor since Wednesday.

This little space he had created in the world was incredible. However, the brilliance seems only matched by the difficulty of getting there. There are no trains. There are no busses (not really). It's located in an absorbed remote village that probably loses half its remaining population each year.

While they are many pockets of people in the dense mountain forests, I don't think there's anywhere else quite like it in Japan.

Revisiting Takane 高根村 in 2025

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0900

While traveling out of town, I went past the old Takane village, one of the eastern-most villages in Takayama and also one of the most remote. I visited here a few times after I first moved to Takayama, but it has been a while.

After the municipal mergers of 2005, Takayama City absorbed all of Takane's governemental bodies. Due to the lack of students and general proximity to nearby Asahi village, both Takane Elementary School and Junior High School were closed in 2007. I visited in 2013, and both buildings were still standing. I visited again in 2015, and the Junior High had been demolished.

It's been 10 years since I've driven in this direction on my way to Tokyo. I had a business-related trip this past weekend, so I went through Kiso Pass into Nagano, rather than Hirayu (the usual).

Takane Elementary was still standing. However, a distilling company bought the land and building. They torn down all the trees on the property and erected their building. According to the nearby construction sign, construction began on November 28th, and should be finished by the end of March. I wonder if they plan on tearing down the old building.

I really don't understand why they built Takane Elementary School in this location in the first place. There is nothing nearby. It's about 2 kilometers away from the center of the village. It also would have been WAY too dangerous for them to walk along the narrow road, so all students would've had to take a bus to get there.

Much closer to the center of the village and across the river is the site where the Junior High School was located. It would've made more sense to put the elementary school here. This is actual walking distance from homes.

Since the building's demolition in 2014 or 2015, it looks like the whole area has been paved. Nearby, some construction crews were moving dirt. In the summer, temporary housing is probably set up here for people working at the Takane Dam, or working on other construction projects out here in the deep mountains and forest.

In 2013, it seemed like the junior high school was being used for community classes. But, I guess the community no longer needed that building nor the elementary school. Over the last 12 years, I suppose the small population of Takane village has decreased even further.

There's really no reason for anyone to go to Takane anymore. Further up the mountain in Takayama's most remote village, Hiwada, Caio Sky Resort closed due to Covid. Many of the mountain onsen have closed, too. There's a roadside stop on the way to Takane, but I doubt they'll be open much longer.

I don't think any young people live out here anymore. There are only elderly people hanging on to their homes. And, I'm sure most of them probably live with their children closer to town most of the time. I wonder where the people working at Hida Distillery live.

Anyways, I'll come back in the Spring and see what else has changed.

Wind Castle Shuttered

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 01:00:00 +0900

The Wind Castle in southern Toyama is perched on a short mountain covering the valley entrance to the city. From this vantage point, you could notice anyone coming down the mountain into the city. Likewise from the other direction, you have a full view of Toyama and nearly all its neighborhoods shielded by the surrounding mountains.

I first visited the Wind Castle 2 years ago never even knowing it had been since the 80s or 90s. Although, in reality, it's not really all that easy to see unless you know what you're looking for. The castle tower isn't really that tall and its aluminum shimmer blends into the sky and the trees.

It's also not all that convenient to get to from Hwy 41 either. You either go further north than is necessary, or you take a narrow windy road straight to it. Once you arrive in Sakurayama Forest Park, it's another 450 steps up the castle trail to the peak.

It's a pretty landmark, but it seems like it has been closed for good. Even when visiting 2 years ago, a lot of the paint was chipping away, and molding holding the thick bottled glass tiles was peeling. Now, several of the glass tiles have cracked, broke open, or broke free of their mold. The metal deck also bends under the weight of my steps. It doesn't really feel safe.

I'm not really sure where this extra damage came from. There were some tiles missing before, but everything still seemed safe. Perhaps the New Years earthquake of 2024 knocked a lot more of this stuff loose. There's not a lot of money to go around these days, so the city probably thought it was easier to shutter the attraction, rather than pour money into the necessary renovations.

Throughout the year, Toyama would illuminate the castle in the evening, and the controls for the illumination were inside the room on the observation deck. The leading doors were locked, but the door on the farther side had been pulled open. The wooden edge of the door has disintergrated, pulling itself away from the hinges. Another door had already been boarded shut, probably having suffered the same fate.

Inside was a phone, speaker amplifier, and a bunch of dials and do-dads. There were also instructions for the illumination, but I didn't look through them much.

Still, the Wind Castle's best attraction is the view.

There's the valley to the south, the city to the north, and the Tateyama mountains to the east.

I had always seen these beautiful photos of the city with towering mountains in the background, but I've never been able to see them myself with such clarity. The weather always seems to change a bit in the mountains obscuring them from view. I had a rare opportunity to take some photos.

This was also true on my way to the Wind Castle coming from the city.

I am curious about the future plans for the Wind Castle. No one is putting money into any public attractions these days, especially in rural areas. I would imagine most of that money is going into infrastrcture, repairing roads and making new tunnels. I doubt it'll ever be repaired. Also, removing it might be costly, too.

We shall see.

Himi Showa Hall

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0900

The Himi Showa Hall is a collection of items, tools, and daily things from the Showa Period of Japan, roughly 1926 to 1989. This period saw Japan's worst as they allied with Germany in World War II, and saw some of Japan's best as the country revitalized itself after and became one of the world's leaders in electronics in the 80s going into the 90s. Japan's aging population has fond memories of the Showa period and it is a geat example of Japan's potential in the world.

There are several retro museums dotted across Japan that celebrate this period, generally titled Showa Hall. The Showa Hall in Takayama is one of my favorite touristy places where I live, and it's fun to see the building blocks connecting today's modern society to Japan's more pocketed past.

The Himi Showa Hall is a collection of stuff run by just one guy and his wife. It's nowhere near the scale of Takayama's Showa Hall, but it's still an impressive amount of clutter, preserved quite well. You can view my photos below.

Dreamcast VMU Pro

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0900

8bitmods has finally released their VMU Pro, a modern device that works in place of an original Dreamcast VMU and does so much more. It still uses Game ID to create unique memory cards for each game allowing for near infinite memory card space, like 8bitmods' other Memcard Pros. But, with its upgraded color screen, you can do full memory card management on the device itself, run 8-bit emulators for Gameboy, NES, and Game Gear, run an mp3 player, and run other apps people develop for it.

8bitmods began shipping orders around November 3rd, but they are a small operation. They are mainly shipping these by hand, and are only able to do about 100 each day. I ordered the Smoke Black VMU about 8 minutes after pre-orders went live on May 16th. It still ended up shipping around 3 weeks later on November 25th and it arrived at my house on December 2nd.

It's been a very soft launch, and this also extends to a lot of the above features not being completely ironed out. After getting mine in the mail, I began setting it up and going through everything.

Here are the CliffsNotes: (as of December 2025)

- The screen is bright and colorful. Sounds are great from 8-bit games and mp3s.
- 8-bit games look great, but it is combersome due to the size, and emulation isn't perfect.
- The D-pad is floaty and buttons feel squishy. It's hard to tell when a depress counts as an input.
- Using the VMU Pro for its intended purpose of Dreamcast save management is excellent. There is no web interface as of yet, but using the bottom buttons to flip through memory cards while plugged in the controller is great.
- If you're using openMenu with GDemu, it requires an update to the most recent version.
- VMU Game Emulation is bad. Sounds often don't play. Games don't run at their intended speed. And games don't save!
- The VMU Pro occasionally crashes and freezes. There's a pinhole emergency off button I've used a few times.
- Apparently the VMU Pro doesn't work with some RetroFighters Dreamcast controllers.

I am a huge fan of the Memcard Pro for Gamecube and the Memcard Pro2 on Playstation, so it's weird how unfinished this seems. But, both previous memcards I picked up over 2 years into their releases, so I think the VMU Pro has yet to mature.

VMU OS, Set up, and Wifi

The VMU's greatest strength back in the day was its small display and standard Gameboy style buttons. It felt like you had a full handheld in addition to your console. Ultimately, it was limited by technology at the time, so you couldn't really have a full game experience. The VMU Pro's screen is now full color, and increases the resolution from the original 48x32 to 240x240.

Because of the enhanced screen, you are able to go through the complete set up process on the device itself, rather than using your phone to complete the Wifi set up, as with previous Memcard Pro models. Upon initial start up, it gives you a list of nearby Wifi networks. You select yours and type in the password using the D-pad and unscreen keyboard. Unfortunately, once you connect to a network, you aren't able to change it without a factory reset of the device. (That feature is still forth coming.)

When Wifi is connected, you can start downloading any firmware updates. When that's complete, you'll arrive at the main VMU OS screen. Previous 8bitmods Memcards allowed you to connect to the memory card over your network. You were able to change settings and change the selected memory card using a Web interface. Unfortunately, this feature is not available yet.

From the VMU Screen, you have the following options: VMU Management, Emulation, Apps, MP3 Player, Settings, and Power Off.

In settings, you can set up screen dimming and sleep timers along with other standard options of the Memcard Series, like using Game ID to create unique cards and which card should be default when powered on.

The first feature I played with were the emulators.

8-Bit Emulators

One of the funnest most eye-catching features of the VMU Pro is being able to play your favorite 8-bit games on the tiny screen. I think this feature realizes a dream that many of us had when we first saw the VMU 25 years ago. But, this goes a step further with its full color display. Currently available are emulators for NES, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Sega Master System, and Game Gear.

While the menu options are available by default, you need to download the emulators yourself and also supply the roms. The VMU Pro Wiki has the details on where to find them, but here are the links for each:

VMU Pro Nintendo: https://github.com/AppCakeLtd/vmupro-nofrendo/releases
VMU Pro Gameboy: https://github.com/AppCakeLtd/vmupro-gnuboy/releases
VMU Pro SMS Plus: https://github.com/AppCakeLtd/vmupro-smsplus/releases

After downloaded, you place each of these in the games folder. For roms, these are placed in specific folders, but case doesn't matter. Gameboy games use roms/gameboy. NES games use roms/nes. And Sega games use roms/smsgg.

I grabbed a few games from my Analogue Pocket to test out.

These games look and sound great on the tiny screen. :) However, it's not a perfect solution. For Gameboy, using the full screen isn't a perfect 1-to-1 ratio of the original, so there are extra pixel lines.

The D-pad on the VMU is very swimmy and floaty compared with the original VMU. In Tetris, I had a bunch of missed drops. Buttons feel weird too. It's hard to tell when the presses are actually registered. Simon's Quest had some screen flickering.

Additionally, it's not really fair to complain about this, but the experience is too small. It's a little hard to see because I'm old. And it's too small to hold like a Gameboy. It's a bit awkward to play action games. RPGs and other simulation games would be a great fit, though.

Ultimately, there are better ways to play these games. And if you have the extra money to buy a VMU Pro, you probably already have plenty of these means available to you.

Transferring Original VMU Saves

Much like 8bitmods' other offerings, my main use for the VMU Pro is to use it as an actual VMU. I want all my Dreamcast saves in one place, organized, and able to be easily backed up online. I also want to play some VMU games.

I only have two VMU from 25 years ago and a third-party knock-off. Far fewer than my five Gamecube cards and a huge stack of Playstation ones.

Compared with the Playstations and Gamecube, copying Dreamcast saves is super easy. You don't need to copy saves one-by-one nor worry about copy protection. Using the Memory Card manager in the Dreamcast menu, you can make a full copy of a memory card.

Back on the computer, when you have your copied VMU files, you can use K3zter's save splitter to break out the individual games saves into their own memory card. This is a new save splitter program written specifically for the VMU Pro. It's also still a work in progress, mainly due to some features not fully implemented on the VMU Pro.

Just run the script and go from there.

python3 vmu_splitter.py

The Save Splitter uses a CSV file to determine which saves go to which games. However, Dreamcast game saves aren't indexed by Game ID on the VMU, so it doesn't seem possible to automatically determine which region is used for each game save. So, while running the script, it will ask you for the region of each save file you intend to split.

It's a little time consuming, but you probably don't have a huge pile of Dreamcast saves. In the end, I only had saves for 18 games across my three VMUs. Quite few compared to my 88 game saves on Playstation 2. If you'd like to download and take a look at my saves, you can find them on my Game Inventory page.

VMU Space Limitations Solved

Ultimately, the reason that you probably don't have many game saves for the Dreamcast is because of the biggest limitation of the VMU: space. A VMU only holds 128kb of data, and Dreamcast saves take up around 5kb to 20kb each! You could only have saves for about 10 games on each card. And this locks you out of the VMU's biggest feature, VMU games. Each VMU game takes up around 60-100kb, nearly the entire card! Plus, VMUs only allowed one game per VMU.

Back in the day, I remember constantly recycling space on the card for different VMU games, and then ultimately given up because the games weren't really all that great. I'm disappointed that I didn't have more fighting game saves from college, but given that both my cards were full, it makes sense.

Overall, solving this limitation is the VMU Pro's biggest feature. The VMU pro allows easy switching between cards and games, so you can play all of the VMU games you wish. :)

GDemu and Open Menu

By default, Game ID should work with retail games, but it does not if you have a GDemu installed with openMenu. If you're using an old version of openMenu, you need to upgrade. Sbstnc has a separate branch of openMenu specifically modified to work with the VMU Pro.

Here's the link: https://github.com/sbstnc/openmenu/releases/tag/v1.3.0. Follow the instructions at the bottom in the Usage section to upgrade your copy of openMenu. (Note: It is now February 2026, and I think Game ID for VMU Pro has been rolled into the main version of openMenu.)

With openMenu upgraded, it works!

Other Problems

As mentioned at the top, VMU Game emulation is terrible as of this writing. Sounds often don't play. Games don't save. And there is so much button lag. I haven't done any testing on a regular VMU to compare, but this seems completely broken.

The VMU Pro has been a very slow rollout, so I think these problems should be fixed in the coming months, but it's a very disappointing start.

Software problems can be fixed, but the other big disappointment of the VMU is the build quality with the buttons. As mentioned above, they feel terrible and mushy compared with the sharper more distinct presses of an original VMU. I have no idea if this was intended, or some problem with cheap manufacturing.

I might try to do a button replacement in the future when I have time.

Final Thoughts

If you're playing Dreamcast games in 2025 and you don't have a memory card solution, I think this is an excellent choice. You have near infinite room for all your saves and games. VMU games are broken at the moment, but that should be fixed in the future.

However, if you plan on buying this as a retro novelty then I would recommend skipping it. The buttons feel terrible and the experience of playing retro games on such a small screen is too limited. There are so many other better ways to play those games.

Not to further put down this product, but this disappointment really killed the momentum I had with the Dreamcast after summer. I want to get back to playing some Dreamcast games, but that'll be on hold for a little while longer.

As of December 2025, buyer beware. :(