Former Toyosato Elementary School — Attraction in Toyosato

Very beautiful school in a quiet town. Unfortunately I was unable to get a tour so I could not see all areas of the school, however, if you are going because of the anime you can still see most of the locations (including club room and anime related collection). It is absolutely worth the peaceful journey out into the country and locals are very helpful as they must get many tourists coming for the school, but make sure to keep an eye on returning trains as to not be stranded! Admittedly there was something slightly creepy about walking down almost empty halls of a once lively school, and the building does feel very old. There is a gift shop to with a selection related to the anime and school as well as donations if you want to support the maintenance of the school. Also doesn't have conditioning, I went in June and it was pretty hot... this review is...

It's a really beautifully preserved landmark of the Toyosato area. I am not sure if Kyoto Animation deciding to make an anime set in it was what turned it into a preserved landmark, or it was already preserved, so Kyoto Animation could make an anime set in it.

I'm either case, it is really fun how the town has embraced their anime tourism of K-ON. 10 year since the show ended and people still make pilgrimages to the site. It shows how strong the influence the show had on people. And given the number of donated instruments, I am certain it inspired tons of kids to start their own bands across Japan. I can only assume the pressures of Japanese society forced them to give up on their musical dreams and therefore donated their instruments to the school.

May we see K-ON staying strong 10 years...

If you are in a group, you can visit the science room, the rooftop, and so on. So it is better not to go alone. The science room is especially scary. There is an "educational X-ray machine" (Made by Shimadzu Corporation), where elementary school students used to study things like, "Look, you can see through my hand." This is not high school. This is an elementary school. There is a fume hood (draft chamber in Japan) in the science preparation room (an isolation device to prevent death in case of poisonous gas or something during experiments). If the researchers at Wuhan had studied here from elementary school, they might not have made such a careless mistake as leaking the COVID-19 to...