Yuri On Ice Pilgrimage

This post is for my reflections and snaps from the Yuri On Ice Pilgrimage.

When designing this trip, as soon as I landed on going to Nagasaki due to the Chinese New Year, I knew that I had to visit the seaside town of Karatsu. Karatsu is the location that my favourite anime, Yuri On Ice, is based off. The main character, Yuri Katsuki, returns to his hometown of Hasetsu (aka Karatsu IRL) after a crushing defeat in the Grand Prix final. Dwelling on his loss, he ends up at the skating rink and runs through the current world champion, Victor Nikiforov's, freestyle routine, which his childhood friend films and uploads online and it goes viral. Victor, who is feeling uncertain about what to do next after just being the best and winning everything for so long, sees this video, is inspired, flies to Hasetsu, and demands to be Yuri's coach. The story then follows Yuri's journey with Victor through the next Grand Prix season and their blossoming relationship. It's my absolute favourite!

So of course I had to come and see the places from the anime in person. In 2018, when I was in Taiwan, I was able to get some merch, including a keychain. I have held onto that keychain since then, and now, in 2026, have bought Yuri and Victor here with me.

Michael was amazing today. We found scenes and images from the anime, and he meticulously recreated them with me. I'm super happy with how they turned out, given the animators took some creative liberties with perspective and removing certain things out of frame.

The castle had some great cutouts and nods to the anime, despite the anime being over 10 years old. We even went out to the onsen that was included in the anime and bought sweets so that we could look at a bunch of donated Yuri on ice merch, posters, and signed stuff by the creators. And to top it off, I found a tiny bit of Yuri on Ice merch at the Karatsu BookOff to take home with me!

It was a wonderful experience for me to get to do this. It's an experience I never in a million years thought I would be able to do. Thanks to Michael's immense desire to travel to Japan and my clever planning, I made it happen, and now I get to carry Yuri On Ice in my memories and mementos forever.Read more