The Bus to Amihama | Shenmue Realism

In the first Shenmue game, Ryo makes good use of the bus service that runs past the end of Dobuita Street, to take him over to the harbor area at Amihama. Although it was created for the game, as with most things in Shenmue it is grounded in realism.

In this post we'll run through the information the game gives us about it, and see how closely it matches up to the present day.

Location of the Dobuita Bus Stop

To start off, below is a photograph I took recently in the vicinity of the real Dobuita Street, at a corner intersecting with the main road - called the Yokosuka Highway - running nearby.

Although this corner is not situated at the actual end of Dobuita Street, the location's similarity with a certain tobacco shop at the end of Dobuita Street in the game can be readily appreciated.

I expect to see Hirata-san tottering out through the door at any minute.

In addition, the bus stop itself also actually exists, right down to its name of "Honcho-1-chome", the name of the area where Dobuita Street is located.

One difference is that, rather than being directly at the corner like in the game, it is slightly further down the road to the right:

While the bus stop is at the corner in the game (left), it is a short walk down the road in real life (right).

Bus Stop Signs

The bus stop sign depicted in the game is a commonly-found style in Japan: a circular sign attached to a pole which is mounted on a concrete block base. On maps, bus stops are often marked with a symbol that resembles one of these sign posts.

This style of sign can be seen at some of the bus stops near the real Dobuita Street.

This is the most commonly-found style of bus stop sign in Japan: a circular sign on a pole (left: in-game screenshot, right: real-life location near Dobuita Street)

However the real Honcho-1-chome bus stop, which is the one represented in the game, has been upgraded in recent years to something more substantial:

The Honcho-1-chome bus-stop and timetable board as they exist today.

The Bus to Amihama

Unlike the harbor in the game, Amihama at New Yokosuka Harbor, the real-life US base at Yokosuka Harbor is located only a few minutes' walk from Dobuita Street and does not require a 20-minute bus ride to reach. However, introducing the need for a bus to reach the harbor was a clever technique for separating out the two areas of the game.

Information from the Bus Stop Signs

Let's look at the information contained on the two bus stop signs (at Dobuita and Amihama) in the game:

The bus stop sign at Dobuita (left) and Amihama (right).

Each sign gives the name of the bus stop, as well as the route name ("Yoko-604", a fictional bus route number) and the name of the next stop on the route.

At Dobuita, the bus stop's name is "Honcho 1-chome" (as seen previously) with the next stop being "Shioiri Station"; at Amihama the bus stop is called "Amihama minato machi" and the next stop is "Amihama ~chome" (the area number is written indistinctly, perhaps deliberately).

In a previous blog post about how to get to Dobuita, we mentioned Shioiri Station, a train station on the Keikyu line that is situated directly next to the Dobuita area. It is a handy place to start a tour of Dobuita Street or going to view the harbor.

• Related post: How to Get to Dobuita Street

The map below shows the relationship between some of the above locations in real life.

The relative locations of Dobuita Street, the Honcho 1-chome bus stop on the main road, and Shioiri station.

Lastly, at the bottom of the bus stop sign are the words "Coastal loop" - being a loop route makes sense of what is seen in the game, where Ryo always catches and gets off the bus on the same side of the road.

Information on the Bus Route

The route number and name that have been created for the game are also displayed at the front and back of the bus itself.

The route name displayed is "Harbor loop", and it's interesting to note that this is slightly different from the wording "Coastal loop" on the bus stop sign.

Route information is shown at the back (and front) of the bus.

The bus also has a signboard in the window by the door on the left side indicating the sequence of main areas the bus passes through. (Of course, nowadays such signboards are usually electronic).

Unfortunately the resolution of the texture in the game is quite low, making the text hard to decipher.

At the side of the bus is a board showing which areas the route passes through.

Below is an image of the board at higher zoom. I wasn't able to make out all the names, but the area where Ryo's bus stop near Dobuita is situated, Honcho-1-chome, can be identified. The area prior to this on the route is labelled as Uwamachi, which is also a real area to the south of Dobuita Street.

Elderly passengers might have trouble trying to read such a blurry notice.

If anyone can help with figuring out the names on this board, any comments would be most welcome.

For Die-Hard Fans...

Although the bus route in the game exists only in the game, it certainly should be possible to experience retracing part of the route that Ryo would have taken on his way back by bus from the harbor, by catching a bus from further along the Yokosuka Highway (such as from Yokosuka-chuo station) and alighting at the Honcho-1-chome bus stop from where it is a short walk around the corner to Dobuita Street.

If a future post with more details would be of interest to anyone (perhaps to give it a try when they are in Yokosuka), let me know!

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