In April 2025, I visited the brick staircase in the Roppongi neighborhood of Tokyo where the 2 versions of the farewell scene were filmed. (If you didn’t know there are 2 versions, stay tuned because I’m working on an article about that!)
I had planned my trip very carefully, alighting the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line train correctly at Nogizaka Station, but still made the mistake of taking exit 6, which leads directly into the National Art Center with no access to the street shy of paying admission and working your way through the museum to the main entrance. I had to backtrack into the station and find exit 5 instead. Walking out of Roppongi Tunnel and around a slight jog in the road, the stairs are instantly recognizable as they come into view, even at a distance.
It was a bit surreal approaching from below, imagining where the actors were standing and how the cameras and crew would have been positioned.
The modern skyscraper blocking out almost all of the sky is the 54-story Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, built in 2003. The film’s scenes here take place at night, so a few lighted windows are all we can see behind Jiro as we look up from The Girl’s perspective.
At the top of the steps is Prefectural Route 319, a busy and fairly high-speed artery that runs roughly from Tokyo Tower to Waseda University. I bet part of the reason they filmed at night was the difficulty of shutting down traffic for noise during the day. The steps go down to an older local neighborhood, immediately flanked by parking lots underneath the highway and the backs of kitchens, with the matching brick sidewalk extending to and through the aforementioned tunnel.
In case there is any doubt in your mind, I was armed with some screen grabs from the movie and here is the best side-by-side:
Luckily, the streets and stairs were deserted on this warm weekday afternoon, so I needed not feel weird or creepy hanging around the site, taking photos of seemingly nothing from above and below, silently nerding out and reciting the dialogue in my head. My only regret is not having anyone along to take a picture of me standing at the top of the stairs — I would have closed my eyes, of course.