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Okinawa’s captivating city halls will make you wonder what floor the final boss is lurking at

Katy Kelly Jun 3, 2018
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This Twitter thread makes a great showcase of government halls you could grind EXP inside, instead of just grinding your teeth.

Most of us in Japan will have to visit a city hall, although there’s a good reason why we don’t like to think about it too much. Governmental bureaucracy too often goes hand-in-hand with long waits, frustrating paperwork and unexpected fines, and the buildings themselves don’t help, either! My local city hall is a boxy little building that’s hard to find on Google, and the one before that was an imposing cement block with too many floors.

There seems to be a different aura around those buildings in certain parts of Okinawa, the fifth largest island in the Japanese domain. Famed for its tropical climate and exciting holiday potential, we’ve featured their gorgeous architecture a number of times: from bridges where you can take unforgettable ocean snaps to the geometric splendor of the Chillma villas. But can they revolutionize one of the most famously boring kinds of buildings?

Twitter user @Dahnow brought us the answer, straight from the capital city of Okinawa: Naha City. The tweet contains an awe-inspiring set of shots of the hall. Staircases of windows cascade down the walls, and the verandas and grating are festooned with lush greenery: it really looks like an ancient temple where you might do battle with a Turbulent Titan of Taxes.

▼ “Here’s Naha’s city hall. The strongest city hall out there? At any rate, it’s definitely making my list of top five fave city halls.”

那覇市役所
最強の役所だった。好きな役所ベスト5位に入ることは間違いない。 pic.twitter.com/sk9jSSPWgb

— だの (@Dhanow) May 26, 2018

▼ Another user shared a lit-up photo: “I’m a Naha citizen! I haven’t seen the city halls from other prefectures yet so I can’t judge well, but I think the construction on this one is really special.”

https://twitter.com/GVCYnOPYMiDjcDK/status/1000625506666987521

Commenters were quick to pick up on how it resembled a fantasy temple where you might find a legendary sword locked deep in its bowels. It does have a strikingly similar structure to a very famous castle from one of Japan’s most dearly beloved RPGs…

▼ “Must have been built from the same plans as Zenithia Castle from Dragon Quest 5.”

https://twitter.com/tomoooootaka/status/1000906795655708672

This motivated a wave of Twitter patrons to share their own personal best city halls, and it’s no surprise that most of them were from the same part of Southern Japan. This one from Nago City looks like it would require several different maps to navigate its labyrinthine depths!

▼ “You should check out Nago’s city hall, also in Okinawa. It’s already got the look of a historical ruin.”

同じ沖縄の名護市役所も見てほしい。これはもはや遺跡 pic.twitter.com/50SBsTcQRt

— トレイン君 (@NEWSoundJBC) May 27, 2018

As one commenter said, “imagine how annoying it’d be to walk through that place while it’s raining!”
Nago City was popular enough with city hall fans to get more than one PR tweet in its favor, and these extra detailed shots are a testament as to why.

https://twitter.com/sound1258/status/1000743624689119232

The hall from Itoman City has a different take on the dungeon aesthetic. This one just looks like a real dungeon, in my opinion. All of those little square windows tessellated together… Perhaps that’s where you stow the bad guy after you finish the main quest?

▼ “Hi there! I think the Itoman city hall looks cool too, so here’s a photo I took of it!”

はじめまして。
沖縄は、糸満市役所も格好良くて写真撮ったことがあります！ pic.twitter.com/LqCfpIPLYj

— ねいこ (@neiki_n) May 27, 2018

Haebaru City’s offering has more of a modern fantasy aesthetic, but I can easily imagine ascending flight after flight of stairs here while being pursued by mooks: imagine the Shinra building from Final Fantasy VII, but with less blood and more windows.

(ﾉｼ 'ω')ﾉｼﾊﾞﾝﾊﾞﾝ pic.twitter.com/4NNSw1ypj0

— 腐女サーの王子♔ (@ano_ossan) May 27, 2018

A user brought up the tangentially-related ancient erotic cinema, also in Okinawa, which we’ve reported on before.

▼ “Sorry, random commenter here. If you’re in Okinawa you should check out Shuri Cinema, I really recommend it!”

FF外から失礼します。今度沖縄に来た際には首里劇場という映画館にも寄ってみてください、おすすめですhttps://t.co/5zD4Oza5RQ

— じぜႫᖲ (@_Z1zem1_) May 27, 2018

But as soon as the thread strayed from the topic of city halls, people started to just use it to post any old architecture they wanted from all over the country, as well as assorted comments akin to “haha it’s just like Minecraft”, “you can make something like this in LEGO” or “they have this in Sim City”.

Anime and game designers famously take their inspiration from things they see in real life (such as Hayao Miyazaki using Yakushima as an inspiration for the lush forests in Princess Mononoke) so maybe we’ll see one of these brutalistic bastions of bureaucracy in an upcoming dungeon crawler. If Shibuya Station can score its own RPG, these examples should get a chance to be in… or maybe just be the City Hall of Fame!

Source: Twitter/@Dhanow
Featured image: Twitter/@Dhanow