Geely Coolray: in depth review

Let’s start this off by addressing the elephant in the room. Yes, this is a Chinese car, and yes it’s good. Take away whatever bias and preconceptions you might have about this being a cheap Chinese product. The Geely Coolray puts forth a very competitive package in terms of both price and performance that if you are in the market for a B-Segment crossover SUV it might be worth considering. Now, since this is the first auto review article that I am self-publishing, and therefore not limited by any word count the editors usually restrict me to, we’re going to spend the next few thousand words here going in depth into breaking down why I say this car is as good as it is.

In a market that has years been flooded by inferior products over the years, it would have been easy to dismiss Geely and the Coolray as just another one of those products with style but no substance, but I have to give credit to their local marketing team for putting in such a good effort to promote their product, that we had to take notice. What caught my attention and piqued my curiosity was when they drag raced the Coolray against the legendary Honda Civic SiR. Suddenly what would have been just another cheap crossover SUV, was something that can stand toe to toe with the hero car of my generation (of car guys). We just had to go see what was up. I sent a message to my friend Aaron Leang who works at Geely and arrangements were made to borrow the media test unit for a weekend in exchange for an article and what little social media promotion we can give them. I was told I can be critical and honest in my review and that shows how confident they are about their product.

Before we dive into the Coolray, let’s talk about Geely first. Chinese Automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. It was established by Chinese super businessman Li Shufu in 1986 and entered the automotive industry in 1997 under the brand Geely Auto. In 2010 they acquired Volvo Cars from Ford, purchased the London EV Company in 2013, they also established a relationship with Proton in Malaysia and bought a major stake in Lotus (Yes, as in Colin Chapmans Sports Cars Lotus) in 2017. So definitely Geely is not a small time player in the scene. Geely Auto is ranked No. 18 in the list of the world’s largest automakers, and that’s not even counting Volvo which ranked No. 19. In comparison Subaru is No. 23, Mazda No. 22 and our beloved Mitsubishi isn’t even on the map anymore.

The Coolray is known as the Geely Binyue in its home market in China. It was launched late 2018. It is called the Coolray in most of the international markets that it is sold in. The Coolray was launched in the Philippines late 2019 and marked Geelys entrance into our country. It is also and as the Proton X50 in Malaysia. The Coolray is a B-Segment (aka subcompact) crossover SUV. It's said to share a platform with the Volvo XC40 but that's not quite accurate. The Coolray is built on the BMA Platform (B-segment Modular Architecture) which, while it was designed entirely by Geely, was derived from the CMA Platform (Compact Modular Architecture) that the XC40 is based on. The CMA Platform was originally developed by Volvo and Geely together. So not quite the same, but the family ties are there. The Coolray feels like a Volvo product. From the integrity of its build and the very “European” feel of the whole car. I’d even dare to say that if they just sold it as it is and badged the Coolray as a “Volvo XC35” you would not think twice about it being a Volvo product.

The styling of the Coolray is also very reminiscent of modern Volvos. That’s probably not surprising given that they are family and likely sharing resources, although the very first time I saw one on the road, without knowing what it was, I thought it was a new Cadillac small SUV, mostly because of the shape of the badge. It is very modern and has all the current styling trends like fiber-optic looking day time running lights that double as signal lights, and the latest LED headlamp and tail light designs. It looks very premium and It will take a while before it starts to look dated. The Color choices are pretty fresh too, with the media test unit in an Orange hue very reminiscent of the Passion Orange that the Honda Civic SiR was available in. Vermillion, white, blue and silver are the other options. There are a few small details that I think are a little off, an example is on the plastic rear hatch trim piece that holds the Geely name. It is finished in a sort of semi-gloss brushed metal looking finish. It’s a texture that could be interesting, it looks very nice, but the problem is it only appears on that one part of the car. Elsewhere you have shiny chromed plastic like the trim around the window. It should have been the same, pick one texture and keep it consistent throughout the whole car. The rear wing on the hatch might be a little bit too boy racer for some, and does it really need to have quad exhaust tips? Maybe not, although props to them for it all being functional. But that’s just me nitpicking, because I can’t let an unbiased and objective review be all praises. Overall The Coolray is a good looking car and to really do justice to it I invited my friend Patrick of Ikigai Photography to shoot the Coolray.

On the inside the Coolray will live up to all your Volvo interior expectations. As soon as you open the door, the headrests and floating center console are very Volvo from the early ‘00s. There’s seating for 5, although like most cars in this class the rear seat is tight for 3 if your passengers are on the large side. The rear cargo area comes with a cargo cover that flips up with the hatch and the rear seats fold down 70/30 although they do not fold down perfectly flat which would have been nicer. There’s a combination of textures inside. Leather seats on the sport model and the trim is made up of combinations of soft touch materials, and simulated wood and metal accents. When the lights are switched on at night the trim on the doors and dash also light up as mood lighting. The dashboard has a customizable 7-inch LCD instrument panel that changes along with the different drive modes of the car. There’s a 10.25-inch floating infotainment panel in the middle of the dash, which to me looks like a tablet someone just propped on there. A number of cars do this, and it will probably be interesting to look back on it later, as it will date the interior styling to this time period of automotive history. The infotainment system works decently well and you can pair your phone to it to take hands free calls. I have no complaints, but people who care about these things more than I do say it would be better to have the Android or Apple systems instead.

Overall the Coolray is a nice place to be in but there are a few things to point out. The biggest issue is that the Panoramic Sunroof does not have a proper solid cover. While the glass part is tinted and there is a sort of mesh like cover, it still lets light and radiant heat through. The Coolrays air-conditioning system can keep up with our hot climate without any problems, but driving around at noon time on a hot summer day you can feel the heat radiating in from the sunroof area creating a temperature difference on your body in contrast to the part that’s being blown on by the airconditioner. It’s a somewhat bothersome design flaw, although it can probably be fixed by applying some good nano-ceramic super heat rejecting tint on the glass. I’m also not a big fan of leather seats in any car, especially in a tropical country like ours. They tend to get hot when the car is parked under the sun and I also think the seats are a bit lacking in bolstering given the performance potential the Coolray has. The D-pillar design where the rear window gets really small, hinders visibility to the rear quarters a bit although this is more than compensated for by the Blind Spot Detection and 360 degree Panoramic Video Systems. It’s just a matter of getting used to. On the plus side, it’s a car-based crossover SUV. Which I will argue is one of the best configurations for a practical daily drivet car for Metro Manila. It gives you the small footprint and all the handling dynamics of a car with the extra ground clearance and cargo capacity from the SUV body.

Now we’re getting to the interesting stuff.

The engine.

The Coolray is powered by the JLH-3G15TD, a 1.5L 3-Cylinder turbo engine rated at 178HP and 195 lb-ft of torque. It’s called the GPower engine. This engine comes from the VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture) family but, like the BMA Platform, this specific engine also isn't shared with any Volvo models. The engine is Euro 5 emissions clean. The fuel consumption is OK, not as good as you'd think a 1.5L 3-cylinder would be, but it's not that bad either. I’ve noticed that putting a relatively small displacement engine boosted by a Turbo has been a trend lately in order get better fuel consumption figures. You can look at it this way; it’s like variable displacement. In essence it IS a 1.5L engine when it’s idling and crawling along city traffic off boost, and it becomes a bigger engine when you need the power and the boost comes on. I tried to look up technical data on the engine to find out how much boost and/or compression they were running on the little 1.5L engine in order to make extract that much power from it, but I couldn’t find any. It is significant though and it comes in early, a little off idle you can already feel the surge of power as the boost pressure builds. The reason it only gets an OK rating (not excellent) in fuel consumption is that the Coolray isn’t exactly a light car (1440KG), and to keep up with the regular flow of traffic you will tap into that boost quite often. You’ll tap into it more when you start to enjoy the surge of power it has. Ultimately during the stint we had it for, we averaged 7.4 KM/L doing a mix of city and highway driving which is incidentally around the same consumption our 2.0L AWD Subaru XV gets in the same driving conditions. The GPower engine is a great engine (imagine swapping this engine and transmission into a small Hatchback like an EG Civic... that could be fun), and its not just because of the performance they managed to sqeeze from it but also for how they got something as naturally un-balanced as a 3-cylinder run so smooth. It’s almost a shame there’s nothing to see there but plastic covers when you pop the hood.

Helping keep the engine in the power band (or in the zone where it’s efficient) is a wet clutch 7-speed Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) with a "Jet throttle inspired" electronic shifter. I'm used to old mechanical shifters that you can feel so this electronic one took a while for me to get used to but the younger generation probably won't be bothered. This transmission really shows how far technology has come along. 6 years ago I reviewed the Ford Fiesta EcoBoost which has a very similar setup to the Coolray. A small turbo 3-cylinder engine paired to a DCT. While the Fiesta was definitely a pocket rocket and the transmission worked brilliantly when driven at speed it somewhat struggled with low speed driving, sometimes hunting gears and had noticeable shift shock. The 7-Speed in the Coolray is so well sorted you don’t feel the shifts in normal driving and the shift programming is always spot on. There's a manual shift option but don't bother, those are always slow to respond in any car, just leave it in automatic mode to sort itself out, its faster that way. For a DCT it’s as smooth as any conventional automatic or CVT transmission out there. In Sports Mode it bangs through the gears quite aggressively, like a boy racer who discovered the joys of powershifting for the first time.

So, how does it drive?

The engine power dominates the driving experience. Not that this is an incredibly fast car, but you can feel it. I feel that for a B segment crossover it has just a little bit more than it needs. For the daily use of most of the people who would buy this, the Coolray would be totally competent with 130 to 150hp. To give it that extra bit of power makes it feel a little special. Selecting Sport in the drive settings really changes its character too. I imagine it’s like what Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde would be… if he was Chinese (and happened to be a Crossover SUV). The steering will firm up, the engine response will increase and the transmission will shift faster and harder, it’s almost too aggressive at that point and you will likely just leave it in normal mode for the most part.

The Coolray feels and drives very much like a small European car. That is to say that it rides a bit towards the firm side. It feels almost like it was designed with a country that has much better road conditions than we do in mind. Going quickly through some of the rougher paved roads does upset the suspension a bit, but that is not to say it is uncomfortable. The firm ride also equates to sharp handling and good control over body roll and movement for a fairly tall car. This gives the car a confident feeling and it’s easy to place on road. The brakes, discs all around with ABS, are strong and progressive making it easy to balance the car.

At night the Coolrays Full LED projector headlights are great. The beam is wide and clear and a bit of it moves with the steering to illuminate the insides of corners as you turn. The performance is right up there with the best OEM and aftermarket Projector HID headlamps.

The gadgets like the 360 camera system are great. Any concern about blind spots is pretty much eliminated and I’d say it’s an indispensable weapon for city driving. The self-parking feature is novel and nice for showing off to your friends (check our Facebook page for the video), but I think it is impractical in real world conditions (read this as, if you can't parallel park a car yourself you really have no business driving a car). It’s too slow, it takes a while to scan the parking space and requires you to drive past it before it will detect the space and initiate the parking sequence. Try doing that in Metro Manila traffic and someone would have already stolen the slot from behind you. However for a car at this price point it’s an awesome feature and a good demonstration of what the technology can do.

Before I wrap this up, let’s tackle some of the concerns we might have viewing the Coolray as a possible purchase. Cheap Chinese product? Forget about that. We’re way past that at this point, but as good as it is, being relatively new in the market I imagine there might be a bit of a "wait and see" attitude towards it. That’s fair, I too would be reluctant to buy one at this point. However the fact that Geely isn’t some small time company and the fact that they are building these cars on a platform system means that even though it is relatively new in our market the car and similar ones on the same platform will be sold globally and should ensure that there will be a parts supply for them in the years to come. The build quality is good too, easily better than the Toyota IMV platform vehicles in terms of fit and finish. The press unit had a little over 13,000KM on it at the time of our test drive and being a Media car I’m sure they were mostly hard driven kilometers so maybe count that as double. The Coolray still felt as solid as a new car should be. I have a bit of a concern that they might be pushing the little engine a bit too hard in this application so I might have concerns for its long term reliability, but that’s just speculation at this point. I’m impressed enough with the product that I think the engineers knew what they were doing and I’d bet it would be OK. Is it a car for long term ownership? Only time will tell but the odds look to be in the Coolrays favor.

Conclusion?

Well, I concluded this at the start of the article. This is a good car. Yes, there are a few flaws as I pointed out throughout this article but the positive points outweigh those. It’s competitively priced with the entry level model a little under 1 Million pesos and the Sport model we tested a little under 1.2 Million. For that money you get a very competent and practical compact crossover SUV packed with features and gadgets. Pretty much everything else comparable at that price range would be pretty spartan. The extra performance the Coolray packs is a bit unexpected, at least I don’t think anyone used to look at this type of car, and think of High Performance and drag racing against Civics. But now we do and that’s something noteworthy. I feel like there’s someone in Geely who’s a real car guy who despite all the restrictions and standards modern cars must comply with still managed to squeeze in a little extra bit of fun in this car he was working on. In a market where there are very few cars worth getting excited about, I think that’s something to be thankful for and maybe a reason to give the Coolray some consideration.

Links;
Coolray vs Civic SiR Drag Race - https://www.autoindustriya.com/auto-industry-news/quarter-mile-showdown-geely-coolray-vs-honda-sir-wait-what.html
Our video of the Automatic parking function - https://fb.watch/6b72McA2X1/
Ikigai Photography - https://www.facebook.com/ikigai.official7
Geely Philippines on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GeelyPhilippines
Wanna buy a Coolray? Contact our Friend Aaron Leang - https://www.facebook.com/aaronchrisleang
My (old) review of the Ford Fiesta EcoBoost - https://timeattackmanila.com/features/drive/taming-pocket-rocket-called-ford-fiesta-ecoboost/

Used parts from Japan; a quick intro to UpGarage and Croooober

Nearly a year and half of inactivity here so if you are one of the few people who have been following this blog sorry for the lack of content. One of my resolutions for 2019 was to really get back into writing so here we are. Used car parts from Japan. Literally one mans junk is another mans treasure. There are many different styles when it comes to building cars but one thing in common is that if you are into Japanese cars you know that the home market has all the best stuff. The coveted JDM… Japanese Domestic Market. So how do we “baka gaijin” get our hands on the good stuff? If you’re not familiar with them yet, this is a quick introduction to UpGarage and Croooober (yeah there’s four O’s in there!).

Let’s start with UpGarage. It’s a chain of stores in Japan that deals primarily in used car parts. Pretty much every major city has at least one. They have everything from accessories to engine parts. Given that they deal in used parts each store will of course have different content depending on what is being sold off in their locale. UpGarage also carries some new stuff, but it’s mostly smaller bits like air fresheners and small accessories. In general used stuff from Japan is in excellent condition.

The Japanese really take good care of their stuff so even parts that are in the “Junk” bin are still very much usable. The staff is always very friendly (as is the case pretty much everywhere in Japan) and willing to help. They find it particularly interesting when they meet a foreigner who has interest in their old Junk. One thing to note is that UpGarage locations are usually outside the big city and tourist areas so you’ll really have to plan your trip out there. Budget at least half a day to make it worthwhile.

Croooober is a website. If you can’t physically go to Japan you go through Croooober to shop the online catalogs of UpGarage.

It might seem intimidating at first since you’re greeted by a Japanese home page but there’s a button on the upper right hand corner to change it to the English version for us baka gaijin who can’t read.

Once you’ve figured out something that simple you navigate it like pretty much any online store. In some ways it’s better that physically going to an UpGarage location because it pools the contents of all the UpGarage stores nationwide into a searchable data base. If you’re looking for something very specific you may not find just popping into one of many stores.

For shipping to the Philippines there are usually 3 or 4 options (you can’t get surface transport for small stuff). FedEx is the quickest, and the parts really do arrive in about 2 to 3 days at your door step. The annoying thing though is aside from the fact that it’s the most expensive option they will charge you all sorts of fees when your package arrives. I used it once and got assed a 580 Peso warehousing fee. How?? The item arrived the night before and went straight to my house. It didn’t have time to sit in a warehouse at all to accrue a fee. EMS is express air mail. This is a unique issue to the Philippines but we avoid this because you have to go get your package at the EMS office in Pasay City, which is annoying and out of the way if you live in any other city. EMS allegedly might give you more issues regarding “tax” to pay for your items, but that’s just hearsay and I have no firsthand experience dealing with them as I have never used their service. SAL is cheapest option but of course takes the longest. It’s called Economy Air Mail and it boggles my mind who that abbreviates to SAL but I guess that’s not important. SAL items will arrive at your local city post office. It takes a while though, the quoted two to four weeks is very optimistic. My recent Crooober transaction was ordered on November 6, 2018. Shipped out November 10 and arrived in the Philippine on November 13, 2018. You have to love how efficient the Japanese postal service is. The parcel arrived at the Muntinlupa City Post Office on January 18, 2019. No hate for the local post office though, those guys are really doing their best with very limited resources. Last of course is Surface which is only available if you buy bigger heavy stuff like wheels. It takes the longest but is of course the cheapest way to move heavy stuff.

Because in the Philippines your package doesn’t come to you. You Go to the package. After patiently waiting for your parts to arrive you get the parcel notification in the Mail. I must have worn out our mail box door checking for this thing every day for 2 months.

Pro tip. The post office opens at 8AM. If you come after opening and happen to be unlucky that there’s a queue expect to spend a couple of hours waiting. When I have to go claim a package I go as early possible. At 7:45 AM today (Jan 21. 2019) only one other person in Muntinlupa was more committed than me to getting a package.

And finally here it is! Our JDM part arrived in the Philippines.

If you find this interesting we’re also doing a three part YouTube video series regarding this particular package. Part 1: https://youtu.be/u453q21qbHo Part 2: https://youtu.be/0numPsG9jaA Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ2rovpvEpM That pretty much wraps this up. Happy JDM parts hunting. Don’t blame me if browsing through Croooober before going to bed becomes a habit. You’re already sick, I’m just enabling the obsession a bit more.

Travel Blog No.1: Toyosato. The K-On! pilgrimage and a little bit more.

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here and also my first time doing a sort of travel blog. I’ve been thinking about writing about our travels, however I’ve always had a hard time figuring out how to cut up a one or two week trip so it won’t end up too long. In this case it was easy to segment this part of the trip and focus on just one interesting little town.

Consider this the first installment of a travelling through Japan series (or maybe the only one I write, depending on my motivation). We’ll be taking a look at town of Toyosato, located in the Inukami District, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

Before we get to Toyosato though, we need to talk about K-On!, because we would not have any interest in going to Toyosato in the first place if not for that. K-On! (けいおん!) is a Japanese Yonkoma (4-panel) Manga written and illustrated by Kakifly (a penname), first published in 2007 and later followed by an Anime adaptation by Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) that premiered in 2009, with a second season in 2010 and a Movie in late 2011. Thanks to my friend Mr. 2dkomplex [https://2dkomplex.wordpress.com] I first discovered K-On! a little more than a year ago, through the KyoAni adaptation and I’ve been a fan ever since. The story revolves around 5 high school girls and the Light Music Club (Keionbu in Japanese hence the title Keion or K-On!) It’s a fun lighthearted ‘slice of life’ series, but if you pay close attention to the little details, the story and the character development are deeper than what it seems, as is the case with a lot of KyoAni’s work. I’d highly recommend watching the series if you haven’t, even if you’re not one who usually watches Anime.

While the original Manga (and Anime for that matter) is not set in any specific place, the animated adaptation makes use of real life locations as references for the background locations, typical of a lot of the work KyoAni has done. Most of these locations for K-On! can be found around Kyoto Prefecture. The Sakuragaoka High School however, where most of the story takes place was modeled after the real life Toyosato Elementary School located in Toyosato-chō. I’m lucky that my wife is a fan too, so when we were planning a trip to Japan to revisit Kyoto, we figured we’d go see Toyosato as well. Toyosato is a fairly out of the way town. Despite whatever fame it might have because of its connection with K-On!, I would say that it’s pretty far removed from the typical tourist places in Japan. I guess you could call it rural and I don’t mean that as an insult, I’d happily live in a quiet place like this. In the K-On! series it looks like the school is set in some busy part of Kyoto, not too far from the shopping districts and restaurants. But in real life, most of that is in and around Kyoto, specifically Uji where KyoAni is based. The school pretty much stands by itself in Toyosato. If it’s you’re first time traveling through Japan, keep in mind that this is far away enough from the beaten path that you won’t find too many English signs (or people who can converse with you in English). Don’t let that scare you though, as long as you have internet, Google Maps and Google Translate with pretty much have you covered. Perhaps the best way to put Toyosato in context with other places you might visit in Japan is the fact this place is remote enough that the Toyosato train station has no staff in it. Literally it’s just an open building with a restroom next to the train tracks.

With the Kyoto Train Station as a starting point, there are a number of options to get to Toyosato, only differing in price due to Shinkansen (Bullet train) vs Express (or Local) trains vs a Train + bus ride combo, and how much walking you’ll do after that. They all take around one hour and forty minutes. Since it’s pretty out of the way, you also won’t find any direct route, you’ll have to make some transfers. The route we chose was the 2nd cheapest option costing a total of 1,420 Yen one way, per person but ending up with a shorter walk from the train station vs. the cheapest option that requires an additional bus ride and a longer walk from the bus station. From the Kyoto Station get on the JR Tokaido-Sanyo line bound for Maibara. Ride the train for 8 stops and get off at the Omi-Hachiman Station. You’ll exit the JR Omi-Hachiman Station and walk over to the Omi Railway Station. They are right next to each other, it takes about a minute to cross over. At the Omi-Hachiman Station get on the Omi Tetsudo-Yokaichi Line bound for Yokaichi. Ride 6 stops all the way to the end and get off at the Yokaichi Station. From Yokaichi Station transfer to the Omi Tetsudo line train bound for Maibara. Ride 4 stops and get off at the Toyosato Station.

Going back is pretty much just the opposite of getting there. The only things to keep in mind are the fact that only one train per hour stops at Toyosato for most of the day, two per hour during rush hours, so make sure to check the schedule at the station. If you screw up don’t worry, waiting in Japanese train stations is fun. As mentioned earlier there is no staff at the Toyosato station. No ticket machines or IC card readers either. When you get on the train going back to Yokaichi make sure you get on at the middle or back door, there will be a little dispenser on there that will give you a stub that proves you got on at Toyosato then you’ll just pay the fare to the station staff when you get to Yokaichi. From the Toyosato train station it’s 700 meters to the school. Keep in mind that if you’re navigating using Google Maps and you set your destination to ‘Toyosato Elementary School’ it will lead you to the current Elementary School. The school building we want to go to is on the same block opposite the current school. I know this because we ended up at the current school, you’ll just have to go around the block to the other entrance. Getting a little lost is not too bad though, you’ll get to see a bit of the town as you wander around. It’s around a 6 min. walk to the school from the station (if you don’t get lost) then you’re greeted by that familiar gate that you’re seeing for the first time. You get to channel your inner Hirasawa Yui on the first day of school.

The actual Toyosato Elementary School was built in 1937 through the donations of Tetsujirō Furukawa, his bust is the one in front of the school building and the one that was always decorated with a seasonal hat in the Anime. The school building was designed by American turned Naturalized Japanese Architect William Merrell Vories. In 2004 the Elementary school moved to a new building. Rather than have the old building torn down, residents of Toyosato moved to have the historic building preserved and in 2013 it was registered as a tangible cultural asset of the country (I assume this protects it under some law).

Even without the K-On! connection the building itself is interesting. From the yellow circles painted on the hall way to warn people about the doors that open outward, because in 1937 most people in Japan were used to sliding doors, to the brass rabbit and turtle sculptures on the stairs that seem to depict the hare and the tortoise fable. It’s a very well designed building that allows a lot natural light and ventilation to come in. William Vories was also a Christian Missionary which is why from some angles the school building kind of looks like a church. A couple of rooms in the ground floor house exhibits dedicated to the history of the school building itself. Also of some significance and warranting its own glass display case, an English made water pump called “the Conqueror pump” is on display at one end of the building, likely to do with the agricultural history of the area. It’s notable that the building underwent a full restoration in 2008, a full year before K-On! made it a point of interest.

Ever since K-On! put it on the map in 2009 the school has been visited by countless fans who over the years have contributed items to make the upstairs music room appear how it did in the show. Pretty much every detail has been recreated, from the snacks for tea time to the unfilled club registration form stuffed inside one of the desks. The adjacent building that appears as the auditorium in the show has been converted to a souvenir shop and museum for even more K-On! related items, from a complete set of instruments and a whole lot of figures and art work. As it stands as of 2017, the school is open to the public. You can walk into the building, wander through the hall ways and go all the way up into the music room. A number of rooms in the building seem to still be in use for school administrative functions and a few of the downstairs class rooms are used as pre-school classes.

We were there on a Wednesday, May 17, 2017 and had the place pretty much to ourselves to explore and take pictures before a few other fans showed up. I’ve read it’s busier on Weekends and there’s usually an event of some sort for each of the characters birthdays.

It’s a surreal experience to just wander around the school. After 41 episodes of anime and a Movie featuring the place, it definitely didn’t feel like it was the first time being there. The stairs, hallways and music room all seemed like familiar places. The accuracy in which the school was rendered in the series and the accuracy that the fans went through to duplicate the K-On! club room in real life is amazing. If we treat KyoAni’s works as art then it’s a perfect example of art imitating life and life imitating art.

More than just seeing the school and calling it an obligatory pilgrimage to a K-On! Shrine visiting Toyosato also leads to other interesting insights about Japan. At first glance there’s pretty much nothing else in Toyosato, specifically this part of Toyosato that we walked around in. Pretty much the only major things in the immediate area are the Elementary school and a fairly big hospital. There are a few factories and buildings around but it’s mostly residential and agricultural land. There’s a shrine next to the school and a several nice traditional Japanese houses. There didn’t even seem to be any major restaurant in the area aside from the bakery next to the train station. In short, not much “tourist stuff” to do, but for me that part of what makes it even more interesting.

If you only go to popular tourist places while travelling you won’t really get a feel of what that country is really like. The tourism industry tends to mask the not so nice parts and present guests with a more polished sort of ‘for show’ side things. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just the way things are. What I find amazing about this trip to Toyosato is that however out of the way it might be is that not much really changed from our perception of what Japan is like. The people are still super friendly, language barrier or not. The staff at Souvenir shop in the school went out of their way to print out a map to show us where the post office was (we wanted to mail a postcard we got at the school to Manila) when they could not explain it in words. The place is impeccably clean, from the streets, canals, down to the restrooms in the staff-less train station probably even more so because of the lack of tourists. The train that only comes once per hour still arrived perfectly on time.

This trip may have started as a ‘visit to the school in K-On!’, and while that may be a sort of bucket list item for me, I also ended up with a bit more an appreciation of what Japan is really like.