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| Chichibu Harp Bridge in Real Life |
Hi, katsu’s here, for the first real post, I will share the story when I visited real life location of legendary tear-jerking anime from 2011, Anohana (Don’t bother making me saying the full title of the anime). The main setting of this anime revolves around city of Chichibu, Saitama.
Travel from Ikebukuro St. to Seibu-Chichibu St. took around 1Hrs17Min using Seibu Limited Express.
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Ticket from Ikebukuro St. to Seibu-Chichibu St.
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Seibu Ltd. Express Train series 001 “Laview”
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After arriving at Seibu-Chichibu St., we need to walk for like 10 minutes to the eastern side of this station to another station called Ohanabatake St. (as you have known the name implies if there is a local flower garden nearby) and hop on a local train by Chichibu Railway.
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Seibu-Chichibu St.
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| Ohanabatake St. |
1. Chichibu Park Bridge / Harp Bridge
Our first destination is the famous view of Old Chichibu bridge. If you ever watched this anime you should be familiar with this bridge known as the main icon of the anime. Take the train from Ohanabatake St. to Chichibu St. Location of the bridge as follows. (Technically you can also walk straight from Seibu-Chichibu but I chose to try the local train even if that’s only one short station).
By seeing the comparison below, you can see the resemblance is very similar. (I just hope there was no Menma hanging at the bridge while I was there as that would be kinda creepy lol). The old suspension bridge was completed in 1932 over Arakawa bridge. After the construction of the new Chichibu bridge, the bridge is left as a local monument.
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Bridge from anime's OP
©ANOHANA PROJECT |
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| Chichibu Harp Bridge in Real Life |
2. Jorinji Temple
After seeing the iconic bridge, I moved to Jorinji Temple. Temple can be seen in many scenes throughout the anime including the opening. What makes it interesting is that there was many of ema (wooden plaque used by prayers to write wishes and hung in shrines/temples, JP: 絵馬) is drawn with Anohana characters. This temple is no. 17 from collection of 34 Chichibu Buddhist temples.
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Jorinji Temple from the anime opening
©ANOHANA PROJECT |
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| View of Jorinji temple in real life |
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| Sign that says 17th temple Jorin-ji |
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| Ema with Anohana characters such as Menma, Jintan, & Tsuruko |
3. Chichibu Station
Then, I went back to explore around Chichibu St. Along side the railway there is a particular scene where Menma walked on a fence beside Jintan.
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Menma walks on a railway fence
©ANOHANA PROJECT |
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| View of the railway fence in real life |
Alongside the town near Chichibu shrine we can find many decorations and vending machines with Anohana sign, especially with the 10th anniversary of Anohana. Apart from Anohana, there were also two other titles set in this town produced by the same studio A-1 pictures , “The Anthem of Heart” & “Her Blue Sky“.
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| Windmill/illumination with ornament of Super Piece Buster |
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| Vending Machines |
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| Anohana's 10th Anniversary Banner |
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Poster of Her Blue Sky™
©SORAAO PROJECT |
That’s concludes my trip to Chichibu. On my way home I learned there is a well known night festival (JP: 秩父夜祭り、Chichibu Yomatsuri). The Chichibu Night Festival itself is considered one of Japan’s top festival that features floats with other being Kyoto Gion festival and Takayama festival. It is hold every Dec 2-3 which is only one month apart from my visit so better luck next time I guess?
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| Museum for Chichibu Night Festival, it was closed due to new year |
Thanks to the following authors that inspire my journey:
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the intellectual property of this page and used only as research purposes. “Ano Hana” is fully owned by ©2011 A-1 Pictures & ANOHANA PROJECT.
このページにおいては、「あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない。 」の背景を比較研究目的により引用しております。作品の著作権（画像も含む）は©2011 A-1 Pictures & ANOHANA PROJECTにすべて帰属します。
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