The next time you’re in the village of Ayukawa in Yamagata Prefecture in northern Japan, you might want to go see the Totoro Tree. It’s a large tree which has captured the hearts of Japanese fans because of its close resemblance to My Neighbor Totoro, and hundreds of fans drive by daily to snap pictures and pray at the nearby Shinto shrine that’s become an unofficial shrine to the Ghibli character. The tree — which is actually two trees, a large one with another behind it — is a cedar and not a camphor tree, like in the animated film, so it loses some points there. But it’s fun to see people from all walks of life come to see this really cool tree that makes them happy.
There’s a tree in northern Japan that looks like Totoro.
