The Miracles of the Namiya General Store — Filming Locations & Real Places

A place you'd want to slip a letter into, late at night. Maybe because I like Keigo Higashino, but The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is one of those stories where the setting stuck with me longer than usual.

It's not flashy at all — just one old general store with its lights on late at night. And the idea that if you write down a worry and slip it through the mail slot of a closed shop, an answer comes back from the past? I loved that.

So I'd sometimes wonder — isn't there a store like that somewhere in Japan, for real?

In the novel, the Namiya store is fictional, but the film recreated it in a small city called Bungotakada in Oita Prefecture. The store you see in the movie wasn't an actual old shop — it was a set built specifically along the Miyamachi shopping street. It was torn down after filming wrapped.

That part's a little disappointing. I'd have loved to open that door if I ever visited Japan. Still, the actual Namiya store sign used in the film is apparently still around, kept nearby at the Showa Romance Warehouse.

유후인역, 오이타현 — 나미야 잡화점의 기적 배경 지역 관문 · Wikimedia Commons

And even though the store itself is gone, a lot of the surrounding scenery from the film is still there. The shopping street where Atsuya and his friends used to run around, Katsura Bridge, Ozaki Beach. Even Matama Beach, where Seri dances to 'Reborn' at the very end, is a real place.

I kind of want to see that one. When the tide goes out, it leaves these wave-like ripples in the sand, and with the sun setting over them, even the photos alone feel like the movie.

Looking back at the story, it's no accident that the three thieves happen to hide out in the Namiya store of all places. The whole novel is built around the idea that people who seem to have nothing to do with each other turn out to be quietly connected through one place.

At the center of that web is Marumitsuen, the children's home in the story. The fencer, the struggling musician, the woman who became a single mother, the ruined businessman's son — all living in different eras, all end up tied back to this home, and to the letters passing through the Namiya store.

Once you know that the home's founder, Akiko Minazuki, left the words 'don't worry, I'll pray for everyone from up in heaven' as her final wish, the whole book reads differently. Every character's story turns out to be quietly flowing toward that one line.

다케가와라 온천, 벳푸(오이타현) — 극 중 벳푸 온천 배경의 대표 명소 · Wikimedia Commons

And there's something oddly fitting about this town's own story. Bungotakada's old shopping street used to be a place almost nobody visited. Instead of tearing down the worn-out shops and signs, they kept them as they were and turned it into a 'Showa Village' — and now people go out of their way to visit.

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is, in the end, a story about how one small word from someone can change another person's life. Maybe that's why it fits so well that a town that nearly disappeared came back to life too.

When I heard in July 2026 that Keigo Higashino, the author of this novel, had passed away, this store was the first thing that came to mind. A man born in Osaka's Ikuno Ward who worked as an engineer before becoming a novelist in his thirties — and whose signature work turns out to be about how a single written reply can save someone. That stuck with me.

I haven't been to Bungotakada yet, but if I ever go, I don't think I'll mind that the movie set isn't there anymore. I'd rather walk the old alleys, stand where the Namiya store used to be, and end the day watching the sunset at Matama Beach.

And if I happen to spot an old mailbox somewhere in an alley, I'll probably think, just for a second — "if I put a letter in here, would I get a reply?"