As in the game, it’s a steep scramble with ropes to the summit, though thank the gods you don’t have to actually swing from any of them. Its avatar in Ghost of Tsushima seems to be the Golden Summit Shrine. One real shrine that is actually a challenge to reach can be found at the summit of Tsushima’s Mount Shiratake. But video game gods have a different sort of devotee, one who wants to overcome dangers and puzzles to gain the charms you can normally purchase for a few hundred yen from a part-time shrine maiden. Obviously, the shrines on the real Tsushima are much more accessible most have parking lots. In Ghost of Tsushima, reaching shrines like Cloud Ridge-and the valuable charms they give you-requires death-defying jumps, rope swings, and rock climbing. Sucker Punch Productions/Sony Entertainment Even though the virtual Toyotama doesn’t physically resemble the real one, it deftly captures the town’s salty mythology. Turtle Rock Shrine’s charm comes from the deity Hoori no Mikoto, Princess Toyotama’s husband, and Hazy Cliff’s is from her father, Ryujin, dragon-god of the sea. The nearby Urashima Village alludes to the Japanese folktale of the fisherman Urashima Taro, who visits Otohime in her undersea palace. She isn’t around to offer any charms or messengers in the game, but she still makes her presence felt. The town of Toyotama takes its name from the sea goddess Princess Toyotama, also known as Otohime. While Cloud Ridge doesn’t look much like Watazumi (save for the tide-lapped torii gates), it’s obvious that Sucker Punch did its homework. My favorite place on the island, Toyotama’s ancient Watazumi Shrine, appears in the game as Cloud Ridge Shrine. The game’s Golden Temple, with its long stone staircase flanked by Buddhist statues, is a grandiose vision of Banshoin Temple in Izuhara. Playing Ghost of Tsushima after living on the island is like stepping into a dream: Everything looks familiar, but it’s scrambled in odd ways. The digital geology that shaped the virtual Tsushima followed different laws than those that created the real island. Take it from me, a journey across the real Tsushima on foot or horseback would be far longer and more tedious than what the game protagonist Jin Sakai undertakes. The actual island is too large and mountainous. Tsushima doesn’t map directly onto Tsushima. Of course, it’s not quite the real thing. You’re not going anywhere else, after all.Īso Bay on Tsushima.

You can satisfy your wanderlust (and bloodlust) from the comfort of your couch. Open-world games like The Legend of Zelda have always transported players to new realms like Hyrule, but with today’s realistic graphics and complex plots, games such as Assassin’s Creed and Ghost of Tsushima let you explore virtual representations of real places and real moments in history, from Renaissance Florence, Italy, to feudal Japan. With global travel restrictions keeping most of us at home, video games provide a vital outlet for exploration. And when far more people visit the virtual versions of places than the real ones, those decisions matter. Ghost of Tsushima captures a lot of what makes the island special, but it also makes decisions about what to leave out, geographically and historically. The game’s gorgeous visuals will likely draw many curious visitors to the island-or they would, if COVID-19 hadn’t put a huge chunk of the world in quarantine. Fishing villages cling to the jagged coastline, and small farms are tucked in narrow valleys. Ninety percent of the island is forested mountains. Even most Japanese people, when I tell them I lived there, reply, “Really! I’ve never been.” Tsushima is remote and rural. That Americans hadn’t heard of the island isn’t surprising.

Now, thanks to Sucker Punch Productions’ PlayStation 4 game Ghost of Tsushima, about a samurai battling the Mongol invasion of the island in 1274, I see lots of people talking about the bloody assassinations they pulled off in places like the fishing village of Kechi, where I used to go to the gym and then get food at the popular chain Mos Burger once a week. Up until last month, when I told fellow Americans that I used to live on the Japanese island of Tsushima, they inevitably responded, “Where’s that?” They’d never heard of the island, let alone the small town of Toyotama where I lived.

Ghost of tsushima toyotama full map