Hyouka Eps 6, 7 and 8: Hirayu Hot Springs and Irisu's family hospital

This part of Hyouka has been fairly sparse of noteworthy material.  The entirety of ep6 took place in the school grounds while ep7 featured an excursion to the hot springs, most of which took place in a fictional indoor location.  Ep8 marks the start of the Irisu arc which I personally found to be a massive time sink and borefest.

The arc led me to drop Hyouka for a year and I also thought the Literacy Club were a bunch of not very nice people who simply took advantage of Oreki to satisfy their curious desires. I then read an excellently written review by an internet celebrity (Veronin) on MyAnimeList.net which informed me that the second half of Hyouka is beautiful, and man, it really was. 

We start off with ep7 where the group boards a public bus operated by Nohi Bus company to Hirayu Hot Springs.  The paint scheme of the bus resembles the real thing.  The below building is the bus interchange.  Note how KyoAni got rid of the ground floor roof canopy to make the building more aesthetically pleasing.

All Anime Images used are from Kyoto Animation, fair use for educational purposes.

All Roadside Images used are from Google StreetView, fair use for educational purposes.

I was on the way to Kami-Kochi and had 20 minutes to go around the area before catching my connecting bus, collecting as much material as possible.  Sadly, my photographs proved next to useless so it's streetview time!

The location of the Ryokan the group stayed in exists but the physical building is completely fictional, except for the sign outside the premises.  Note how the view out of Oreki's room shows exactly the same buildings from the location IRL.

 








































































The hot springs they entered exists in real life.  Having been to a similar one in real-life, I can testify that the male and female section are indeed separated by a single wall which makes all the peeping tom scenarios so often seen in anime plausible (e.g. FMP Fumoffu, School Rumble).  However, Oreki hearing Chitanda coming out and hearing/imagining the sounds she made as she entered is a little far-fetched, but it definitely was lovely imagination fanservice!  The noise of the water that is flowing into the onsen would be far too loud to pick up such sounds.

 













































Moving onto ep8, the only image outside the school grounds was the hospital that Irisu's family runs.  Again streetview, this time because it no longer exists IRL!  I noticed that KyoAni has flipped the front/rear of the building in different ways across the compound.

 







































































Getting through the movie arc will require the strength of a masochist, wish me luck!