When Liu Chenyu and Ji Xiaotian arrived in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, for their honeymoon early this summer, the Great Buddha and Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine, two well-known tourist spots in the area, weren't what they wanted to see.

Their destination was a railway crossing near Kamakura High School — the setting for a classic scene in the mega-hit animation series "Slam Dunk."

On that particular day, dozens of tourists, mostly fellow Chinese like themselves, had formed a crowd there to take selfies while posing like the lead character, Hanamichi Sakuragi, who stands behind the school's track with a bag on his shoulder, facing the ocean.