Ghibli Real Locations · From Up on Poppy Hill
From Up on Poppy Hill:
Walking Umi’s Yokohama
Yokohama Yamate — Western Mansions, Harbor Views & 1960s Showa Atmosphere
🌊 Harbor-view hill — where Umi raised her flags
🏛️ Yamate Western mansions (Meiji–Taisho era)
🏯 Hotel New Grand — 1927 landmark hotel
🍜 Yokohama Chinatown — Japan’s largest
Yokohama, 1963 — Still Partially There
Released in 2011 and directed by Goro Miyazaki, From Up on Poppy Hill (Kokuriko-zaka kara) is set in 1963 Yokohama — the year before the Tokyo Olympics transformed Japan’s self-image. The film follows Umi, who raises signal flags from the cliff above her house each morning in memory of her father lost at sea, and Shun, who fights to save a crumbling student clubhouse from demolition.
Yokohama’s Yamate district — the old foreign residential area on the hills above the harbor — gives the film its physical world. The combination of European architecture, harbor views, and a specific quality of post-war Showa urban life that the city retains in corners makes it the appropriate setting. Several locations correspond closely to scenes in the film.
Access: Motomachi-Chukagai Station (Minatomirai Line) — 10 min walk to Yamate area
🌊 Harbor-no-Mieru-Oka Park (Harbor View Park)
The hilltop park that most directly corresponds to the cliff where Umi raises her signal flags. The view from the park — Yokohama Bay, the container terminals, the Yokohama Bay Bridge — is the film’s establishing geography. The park’s rose garden (peak season: May and October) and the English and French garden elements recall the neighborhood’s foreign residential history.
🏛️ Yamate Western Mansions
Eight Meiji–Taisho era Western-style residences are preserved and open to visitors in the Yamate area. Bluff No. 18-ban-kan, Ehris-man House, and the Foreigners’ Cemetery create the neighborhood texture of the film. The mansions vary in style — colonial, Swiss, Spanish — and each is freely enterable. Collectively they produce the sensation of Umi’s neighborhood as a place where different histories coexist without resolution.
🏨 Hotel New Grand (Est. 1927)
Yokohama’s historic flagship hotel — a classical Western structure facing the harbor since 1927. MacArthur used it as his headquarters in the immediate post-war period. The lobby and dining room retain an atmosphere that belongs to the era of the film; the hotel’s age and bearing embody the Yokohama that From Up on Poppy Hill depicts.
What to Eat & Hotels
Food: Yokohama Chinatown (Japan’s largest, adjacent to Yamate — ramen, dim sum, Peking duck) · Yokohama-style ramen (lighter pork/chicken shoyu broth, thinner than Tokyo style) ·崎陽軒 Kiyoken shumai (Yokohama’s iconic steamed dumplings)
Hotels: Hotel New Grand (Luxury / from approx. ¥30,000 ~$200 USD) — the definitive Yokohama hotel; staying here is itself a scene from the film’s world. Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu (Upper Mid-Range / from approx. ¥25,000 ~$167 USD) — Minato Mirai harbor views, modern facilities.
All prices approximate. Verify on booking sites.
Who Should Visit
✔ From Up on Poppy Hill fans
✔ Yokohama first-time visitors
✔ Meiji–Taisho architecture enthusiasts
✔ Harbor-view & Chinatown travelers
✔ Those combining Tokyo with a Yokohama day trip
