忍者はガッツ🎶

I really wanted to go to the next destination, but I also felt like a huge weirdo being there so I didn't linger. Nearby, in an unassuming residential area, among many unassuming houses, is a much bigger, imposing house that stands out because of its castle-like roof and walls ; it's Amako Soubei's current office!

Honestly, if I were in her shoes, yeah, I'd also get myself a castle. Truly a queen. She has all my respect and admiration.

Three familiar faces are carved in stone at the entrance. So lovely. Well... again, I didn't want to linger there and be weird lol, so I quickly left.

The next stop was Teramachi, the "temple town" of Amagasaki. When the first Amagasaki Castle was built, during Edo, they needed space so temples had to be relocated. For convenience, all the city's temples and shrines (11 Buddhist temples, 2 Shinto shrines) were gathered in the same walled area, and it's how Teramachi came to be.

When I visited, it was in the middle of holidays so a lot of places were closed, and I couldn't do the stamp rally in Teramachi that features art of the Seven Lucky Gods drawn by Amako Soubei. These Seven Lucky Gods are really famous, so I'm sure you've seen them before. One of them is Daikokuten, god of wealth and prosperity, so I'm sure Kiri-chan favors this one in particular. He also appears in the third Nintama movie above Tenki's desk. (gratuitous Nintama Trivia moment) I guess their most famous representation is all of them gathered on a treasure boat, a picture you see a lot during the New Year! Anyways, they're a happy, merry group, so Amako's round and cute artstyle fits them really well I think.

The weather was bad that day so I kinda gave up on taking pictures, but I regret it. The temple that stood out the most to me was Kanroji Temple, because it featured many representations of phoenixes, notably a golden one on the roof which I took a terrible picture off lol. Because of the name Kanroji, a few people drew the character Kanroji Mitsuri from Kimetsu no Yaiba on ema. It was cute to see her here.

Another big onigawara, and a cute komainu guarding the roof.

After that, I walked to the nearby Kanda-nakadori shopping street, because it features that same art of the Seven Lucky Gods on a glass dome on the ceiling. The area has a lot of shopping street arcades with a retro feel, maaaany Showa-vibes shops to visit, so even without buying anything it's a treat for the eyes. But on my way there, the front of a cafe caught my attention?!

Rikichi-san! Doi-sensei! Kumigashira! How cute! It's a coffee shop called coffee roaster Hyakumanryo. On top of many beautiful cakes and biscuits, they sell adorable Maybe-Nintama themed cookies lol (NHK ninja, please look the other way!). I chatted a bit with the clerk and got some biscuits and canelés to go.

The designs are so cute, aren't they? I'm especially a big fan of the Black Eagle Squad cookies: Oshitsu's mask and a coelacanth... so cute. And delicious. But so cute it feels like a shame to eat them!

In Amagasaki, you truly can't ever escape ninja. And I found the dome finally!!　

At this point it was early evening but I had walked a lot today since morning, and my head was full with information it kinda felt like my head was about to burst. I also....... Neglected to eat anything all day....... (I had many cookies in my bag I was still refusing to eat lol) so I was already out of juice. I figured since I was on an empty stomach the time was perfect to have a certain famous bowl of noodles, and no, I don't mean Amagasaki chanpon, but one that was kind of a long walk away from my current location so I finally caved in and took a bus instead of walking there lol ; getting me to the Ohama-cho area of the city, home of a certain udon restaurant.

Fuusha...kazeguruma... no sato? I dont know how to read the store name. I am so so sorry. But it's Windmill Village in English!, or more simply known as, "Ohama udon."

It's a famous place for Nintama fans, of course because the combination of an udon restaurant located in Ohama brings Ohama Kanemon to mind. When I visited, it was just a bit before Golden Week officially started (My work circumstances made it so that my holidays started earlier than most people), and it was still a weekday, so I was the only person there. The shop is so small, just a counter with a few seats in front of the owner managing the shop and cooking by herself, so it made me soooooooooo nervous. I didn't mention it before, but during my trip whenever I talked to someone I often got the same reaction of "What are you doing here?", because they don't get a lot of foreign tourists, especially tourists who aren't asian (I mean, technically I live in Japan, but...), and everyone's surprise doubles when they learn I'm here because of Nintama. I kinda sticks out like a sore thumb and feel self conscious about it lol ; so I felt nervous spending a meal face-to-face with one single person. Unlike many others brightly colored shops covered in Nintama-related decorations, this one was much more humbly decorated - the feeling was very cosy though, it's the kind of small noodle shop I expect to be frequented by locals rather than an otaku-pilgrimage site. I felt this way about other places in Amagasaki too, because I managed to visit outside of peak tourist season, I had this thought of "I have a hard time imagining this place full of excited girls otaku" lol. It's a curse and a blessing: I could enjoy places without crowds, but it made me stick out more and I had nowhere to hide! Just me and my ninja plushies against the world... So yeah, all that to say at first I was too shy to bring out the oshikatsu gear and I figured I'd be fine enjoying my udon quietly because I was starving lol. I didn't want to bother the lady with loud otaku stuff after all. But I guess she could smell the nerdery oozing from me because she asked first if I was a nintama fan. And then we chatted and chatted and I felt more at ease...

So Kan-chan got to get out of my bag.

I was so hungry I devoured that thing lol. It was really good! The broth is light in a good way, in that it clings to ingredients but is easy to eat. In early May the weather was still just pleasantly warm so I could enjoy it hot. It was really good! It'd feel weird sharing personal conversations, but I'm glad the shop owner kept me company and I greatly enjoyed listening to her. Also, it was the time at which Nintama aired on TV, so we got to watch a new episode in real time together lol.

After the meal I ordered a drink, and I just thought of getting some tea, but she suggested some Nose cider instead. I was so confused because I didn't know what it was, so I was just... "Nose...?" "Yeah, like Nose Kyusaku's Nose." Thank you ma'am, but that still doesn't help : later on I googled it, and it's cider produced by Nose Shuzou, a local brand from Osaka. Well sorry! i'm so sorry I'm an idiot foreigner and I didn't know!!!!!! And she made it the indigo color of the 5th years' uniform~ Sooooo cute! Last thing: her picture isn't allowed online, but the cat in the store is so cute and friendly...

....This post is a disaster. I barely wrote about temples but I wrote lines and lines about noodles. Oh well.

After that I went back to the hotel and got a well deserved early sleep~ I got to think a lot about the relationship between local businesses and institutions VS otaku tourism. How most people seemed to embrace it more or less (I mean, given the omnipresence of ninja figures and nintama in the city, I assume they count on kunoichi money a lot. I saw more shops putting Nintama merch on their storefront that I didn't take pictures of). I wondered if all the locals felt that enthusiastic about it? How was it during peak tourism season? How do they feel about being crowded by nerds when their place technically isn't officially related to the franchise? In the end so far I only had positive experiences talking to everyone, so I guess I was kind of worrying over nothing. I guess I'm also old and from an era where otaku stuff, even more so for women, was embarrassing and to be hidden ; so I always feel terribly self-conscious about these things until I'm hit with that "huh, things have changed" realization. Wow, oshikatsu is trendy and encouraged by businesses nowadays huh. They're putting the handsome ninja men in castles and museums to attract crowds nowadays, huh.... Times have changed. There's a whole consumerist aspect to oshikatsu I don't like much, but in this context, if it attracts crowds to smaller local places and make them thrive, I guess it's a good thing.

I want to start a new post for a new day, but I haven't hit image limit yet, so here's a real life "Where Fuwa Raizou Goes, Hachiya Saburou Follows" moment. Feast for the eyes, truly.

And more "pointing excitedly at familiar names" moments.

Imafuku Park! Yay! There is absolutely nothing of note here, but I still went, yay!!! Actually, there is a microscopic Imafuku Hachiman shrine there. I prayed to become a reliable person.

Close to the castle is this fun postbox topped with a small Shachinoko! It's actually a miniature model of those you can find on the roof of Amagasaki Castle. Shachinoko are half carp, half tiger monsters that supposedly live in the sea ; because they're associated with water, they often decorate the roof of castles in pairs (one male, one female) as a way to protect them from fire.

And there it is! Amagasaki Castle! Or well, its keep. .....I only had bad weather the entire trip, what bad luck. Anyways ; especially when you compare it to the huge Osaka Castle I posted about earlier, it looks really small, doesn't it? This castle has really interesting history. There already was a small Amagasaki Castle in Sengoku ; but the Amagasaki Castle in the shape we know dates from early Edo. Sadly, new legislation of the Meiji era caused most of the castle's buildings, stones etc to be destroyed or repurposed. The land where the castle used to be progressively got used for various city buildings, housing, and such: nowadays, there's a public school where the honmaru (the innermost bailey on castle grounds) used to be. In 2015, Anbo Akira, founder of the regional electronics store Midori Denka, donated funds to the city to rebuild the castle keep. Many others joined in donating, and the new castle keep opened in 2018. Of course, its location is slightly different than the original, since modern buildings were built on the old castle site. But it gives Amagasaki Castle an interesting scenery, lodged in between all sorts of modern buildings. It's made of concrete, and has very interesting architecture ; the original keep had 4 levels, and the exterior of the new building accurately shows that. But inside, there are actually 5 floors.

Heisuke shows you a Shachinoko, and the scenery from the fifth floor of the castle. Screens in front of the windows let you compare the scenery from the early Edo period and today's! (Edo's sky was bluer, sniff)

This is what struck me the most with Amagasaki ; there's a strong wish to uncover local history and make it accessible to all. The building is modern, and doesn't pretend otherwise. It's not just a simple look-alike reconstruction of the original castle, and it uses modern technology to enable visitors to live history. It doesn't shy away from pop culture (ninja, so many ninja...), and uses a lot of props so we can touch, feel historical items, and eventually feel closer to history. I really loved that. It's something you find a lot in Japan I think ; because of various circumstances like earthquakes, fires, air raids etc a lot of majestic ~historical sites~ are actually very modern reconstructions (how many times I saw signs in temples pointing out the whole thing was rebuilt a dozen times throughout its history...). Where I come from, we're lucky to have a lot of old buildings, and it's not rare to walk into a church or something from the Middle Ages for example ; so I think a lot of people would feel "cheated" walking into a castle that was actually built between 2015 and 2018... But as long as people are made to remember the past, then history is preserved, isn't it? I guess that's the whole Ship of Theseus problem lol. Anyways ! It's something that occurred to me after visiting Osaka Castle ; it's much bigger and majestic that Amagasaki's, much more historically relevant too. But its austere exhibits under glass left much less of an impression on me than Amagasaki Castle's exhibits, and in the end I feel like I learned and memorized a lot more there. Does it make sense...? (I'm so sorry for all the Osaka Castle slender in these posts. It's great, okay. I don't deny it. I need to visit again when I'm not physically and mentally exhausted...)

When I talked about not shying away from pop culture, this is what I mean. They... lean a lot on ninja tourism. As they should! It's fun. I'm not gonna pretend Nintama didn't take me here, so give me a ninja drink in the ninja vending machine, sure.

More signs from myu's cast and Ookano Kousuke (Rikichi's voice actor in the anime) and ?!?!?!... I was sooo surprised lol. There's a part of the castle with large mirrors and props like samurai armor and noble kimonos you can put on to take pictures. But they also had... replicas of Ninmyu costumes! I'll be honest, I really, really, really wanted to try them. But I'm traveling alone, and I would have been too shy to ask a staff member to take my picture lol. Ugh... A kind lady at a certain udon shop told me I should go back to the castle and try them on, but in the end I didn't have time to go back, sorry I failed you, and thank you for encouraging me ;_; But well. That means I have to go back at some point, right?

Bigger replicas of the shachinoko. It's cute that they always go in pairs. It reminds me of how Raizou is associated with onigawara, a kind of decorative and protective roof decoration, in the second movie. Are shachinoko Raizou and Saburou in essence?....... <- There is sounin everywhere for those with the eyes to see.

Hinawajuuu!! Matchlocks, matchlocks! I got so excited seeing it and holding it. It's so heavy!!! I thought it made a lot of sense how obsessed with muscle training Torawaka is after holding one lol. The sign explains how matchlocks work, and how they took time to reload so matchlock users were organized in squads taking turns shooting in a line, then giving space for the next line to shoot, etc etc. But you always listen to Shousei-san, so you already knew that, right? The katana was also surprisingly heavy! They also had bows, arrows and spears on display. I'm not sure where to write this lol, but during Sengoku, Amagasaki Castle was occupied by the Hosokawa clan, whose emblem consists of a circle surrounded by eight more circles. When I saw it I was reminded of the crest on Tasogaredoki Jinbei's helmet in the second movie, but his only has 7 circles instead of 9. Looks like the Shichiyou emblem rather than the Kuyou emblem and its 9 circles. Boo....

The interesting story of Yamamoto Bunnosuke Kanemitsu, a captured soldier who came to be called Zannen-san ("Mr Unfortunate" or "Mr Regrettable") after his death : before committing suicide, he said "How unfortunate that I was caught. If you ever feel unfortunate, come visit me and I'll grant your wish", a statement that brought huge crowds to his grave. I Just Thought It Was Interesting.

There are a lot of exhibits I didn't show, so I really recommend going there if you can! It was genuinely a lot of fun. On my way to the exit, as I was looking at old samurai armors, I somehow heard Sorihashi's distinct voice in his role as Isaku coming from further away?! Turns out there's a theater room inside the castle, and it plays two movies alternatively. One tells the history of Amagasaki narrated by the rakugo performer Katsura Yoneda, through a fictional story where Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Edo period playwright (celebrated in Amagasaki in his dedicated Memorial Museum and statue located in Chikamatsu Park) visits the city. The second movie is actually an introduction to various points of interests in Amagasaki presented by the Ninmyu cast! They introduce places, most of them I ended up visiting so I'll talk at length about them later.

There might have been a warning to not take pictures inside the theater. Maybe. Or not. My memory fails me. I am very sorry. Hopefully the audience of this blog remains three people and Amagasaki City doesn't send their ninja to get me.

It was such a nice surprise seeing them lol. I was like "Doi is standing where I was standing an hour ago!!!!". It also felt very exciting to me personally because as you may know, I translated a lot of Nintama for fun, and I often think about how this and that should be translated in English. Nintama is not licensed in English, so there's very little officially translated stuff out there. ...Well, there is the third movie on Amazon Prime, but I'm getting a stomachache just thinking about it, so let's not. Surprisingly, the whole movie inside the castle was subbed in English! It was fun noticing all the translation choices. No one wants to tackle translating moso moso, huh. For the sake of archiving, I'll summarize the movie here. If you don't care or don't want to be spoiled, skip the indented text.

The movie begins in front of Amagasaki's castle keep. Doi tells Rankirishin that since they slept in class, they are now on a special field trip to catch up on what they missed. He begins with a short lecture on Amagasaki's local history, then tells the boys it's time to explore. They run off in different directions without waiting for Doi, who spends the rest of the movie looking for them. Cut to Kirimaru walking by himself, when he stumbles upon Amagasaki's Piggy Bank Museum. The name naturally gets him very excited, so he goes inside and meets Chouji there. He introduces the museum, owned by Amagasaki Shinkin Bank, and showcases some of the many coin banks from the collection, notably one with an intricate karakuri design. Kirimaru asks what Chouji is doing here, and he replies that he's on a secret mission. Cut to Rantarou, meeting Monjirou doing some gingin training in Teramachi, the "temple town" of Amagasaki, where all the temples were relocated during the Edo period when the castle was built. Monjirou introduces the temples inside, and the stamp rally featuring Amako Soubei's art of the Seven Lucky Gods that everyone can take part in. ...Then he makes Rantarou run and squat across Teramachi. Next, Shinbei finds Koheita in a restaurant. IIRC, the restaurant is Not named in the video, but my own google-no-jutsu made me find out it's called Tenyuu, near Amagasaki Hanshin station. Together, they enjoy Amagasaki's local specialty dish, ankake champon: a big bowl of piping hot noodles, vegetables, meat and seafood in a thick starchy sauce. Kiri-chan, still looking for treasure, meets Senzou in Amagasaki's Museum of History. Senzou introduces some of the exhibits, notably octopus traps from the Kofun period preserved in "perfect shape, just like me". To which Kirimaru says "You're comparing yourself to octopus pots...?" haha. Rantarou meets Isaku at Amagasaki Fishing Park, where Isaku is struggling to catch a fish before his line breaks. He shows Rantarou how there's a fishing booth where you can catch seasonal fish and staff will cook it in front of you to eat. They end up fishing together, and Rantarou successfully catches a big fish! But as Isaku tries to put it in a basket, it ends up escaping... what bad luck. Shinbei finds Tomesaburou picking a fight with Heisuke! After getting closer, Shinbei realizes it's not the real Heisuke, but the manhole cover decorated with Heisuke's face that was installed in Chikamatsu park, in the Kukuchi area of the city. Rankirishin finally reunite, and they enjoy dango together. Doi finds them, and as he's about to scold them, the three run into the Kaimei government building, where the Amako Soubei Manga Gallery is located. They all go "Oh my gosh it's pictures of us!" lol so cute. They reunite with the sixth years here, whose secret mission was to find a snack for the headmaster... They settled for the nintama dorayaki (sandwich pancake in the subtitles haha) sold at the gallery's souvenir shop, and as Isaku wants to show it to Rankirishin, he notices he's not holding unto them anymore. …Shinbei took them and is eating them. The end!

What a cute video that was! After watching it, I had more places I wanted to visit so I had to alter my plans a little lol. I knew about some of these places like Teramachi, but if Koheita tells me to go eat some ankake champon then of course I have to go. If Chouji says go to the Piggy Bank Museum I will say Of Course Chouji...

But after some shopping in the castle's souvenir shop, the next stop was the Museum of History, introduced by Senzou in the movie. Interestingly, it opened in 2020 in a building that used to be the municipal high school for girls, so the layout is interesting. ...Amagasaki likes to repurpose schools into museums, it seems.

Some of the classes are left intact so it's fun to walk around.

As I said before, only the castle keep was rebuilt, but Amagasaki Castle used to be larger. You can find a model of what the honmaru used to look like in the museum. It's difficult to see because of the glass, but the keep is located in the top right corner. In short, even though the castle keep, or tenshu, represents the castle, it's not the entirety of the castle. Usually, Japanese castles have the honmaru, the main bailey, or the most well guarded area at the center of castle ground, with the first layer of fortifications and moats. The area within the second layer of fortifications was the ninomaru, then the third the sannomaru, etc. Those area were also called honkuruwa, ninokuruwa, sannokuruwa. Because many names used to be topographical in nature, it's likely Ninokuruwa Isuke got his family name because he had family living in that part of a castle?!

A cool samurai armor, and a Sugoroku game in the back! I like these! I wrote about them on this blog before! (getting excited about the wrong thing) And an onigawara decorative roof tile, sporting the 9 stars emblem used by the Matsudaira and Hosokawa.

The perfectly preserved octopus traps from the Kofun period that Senzou mentioned. A sign says that one of them is decorated with a picture of a deer and invites visitors to find it. Challenge accepted.

Kakukaku shikajika, found it!

The museum is made very accessible to children, I assume it's a popular destination for school field trips lol. As a result, the explanation signs are in fairly easy Japanese and has some fun pop quizzes here and there. Question 1: What was this used for? A. As a tool for making medicine B. As a big spinning top. If you're a member of the Health Committee, you should be able to answer this. Question 2: What was this used for? A. As a box to put in mosquito repelling incense B. As a kotatsu Question 3: What was this used for? A. As a piggy bank B. As a tool for shaving bonito flakes

...All sorts of funny signs like that.

That was part of the fun visiting the city ; characters and places in Nintama are named after local toponyms, so wherever I went, I'd see familiar names on signs lol. The additional pro to this is that it makes reading bus stops and such very easy, because I'm usually not good at reading kanji... Also, seeing multiple women stopping in front of the sign to take pictures excitedly while passerbys were just a bit confused was fun as well haha.

Since I was at the JR Station, before making the trip to the other side of the city where Hanshin Amagasaki station is I took a little detour to the Village Vanguard store in Q's Mall. Village Vanguard is a chain of stores you find all across the country selling pop culture goods, and they're known to decorate with cute handwritten, fannish signs. The Amagasaki one goes all out on Nintama, look at those big hand drawn signs!! Good job staff!! ...I didn't buy anything.

Anyways, now I was on my way to the inn ; there's a shuttle bus connecting the two stations, but I was in a good mood so I took the long walk there. If I remember correctly it took about 40 minutes? It would probably take less without luggage lol. The area between the two station is named Kinrakuji-cho! It felt exciting seeing Kinrakuji written on signs.

And here's the inn I stayed at, Takeyaso. I already talked about it in a previous post, but it's an extremely small inn with a retro feel. Peaceful jazz music plays in the background throughout the day, and there's a bar on the first floor. The second floor has a shared kitchen space. The staff can speak English and is very friendly and accommodating, and they're also... used to Nintama fans making the pilgrimage here lol.

Oho! Fans left behind so many cute souvenirs. It was heart-warming to see. There are Hachizaemons on both floors of the inn!

The next day, I headed to the Amako Soubei Manga Gallery. It's located very close to the Hanshin station, inside the Kaimei government building which used to be a school, so the layout of the building is pretty interesting lol.

The hallway welcomes guests with colorful kakemono featuring the nintamas' names. Online, I always saw pictures of the upperclassmen, so I was pleasantly surprised to see underclassmen got flags too. Heisuke and Hachizaemon plushies are posing in front of their respective flag. Dairi next to one another!

Signs from Ninmyu 14's actors for Kirimaru (Fukuda Ryuusei), Rantarou (Makino Minato) and Shinbei (Mita Issa), along with Doi (Ikko) are displayed in the entrance as well! So cute! The boys' drawings are so cute but I'm a fan of Ryuusei spelling out Kiri-chan's signature laugh, "ahe ahe ahe ahe~". Ikko drew angry vein marks and wrote: "Oshieta hazu da~!!"

Kousaka Jinnaizaemon! Kyaaaa!!

The gallery features, of course, original pages and illustrations from Rakuran. Amako uses a lot of thick, flat tints of paint, so it's great seeing her illustrations up close and notice the texture of the paint applied. I love how simple yet expressive her art is, and how it manages to convey both the influence of children gag manga and classical Japanese art ; it's in the way the characters pose, emote, the way their hands are drawn... I guess in general, I deeply respect artists who can convey such a rich heritage in an art style that looks, at first glance, "simple."

The desk on which she drew during Rakuran's publication.

In addition to her comics and illustrations, the gallery features some ninja tools! Go-shiki mai, the five colored rice used to convey secret messages. Shuriken in various shapes (Shihou, roppou, happou shuuuuriken! 🎶), yatate, a case carrying ink and a brush, makibishi, caltrops, and the iconic houroku hiya, earthenware hand grenades!

The building itself is really fun ; it has a hidden (somewhat lol) revolving door, and a hidden character hiding on the ceiling. I got to see a kitty cat, but it seems visitors got to see a certain kusemono on other days...!

Back to the entrance, where the souvenir shop is. Actually, I visited the gallery twice during my trip ; once at the end of April, and again at the beginning of May. The second time, I took a picture of the calendar because I was happy to see this Class Presidents/Accounting Committee illustration lol. Samon and Sakichi's loach dance is an unforgettable sight. The entrance ticket for the gallery is in the shape of a bookmark, and you tie a ribbon on it in the color of your choice between all the nintama's uniform colors ; the first time I went with the sixth years' deep green, and the second time with the fifth years' indigo. I guess that if I come back eventually (I want to... I will!), I'll pick the fourth years' purple haha. There IS an incentive to come back, and a super cute one at that. The clerk showed me a faithful recreation of Doi's attendance book, in which I could register my name. I was also asked to pick a stamp card, and there are a LOT of designs to choose from because there's one for every nintama student lol. I went with one of my favorite first year, Hikoshirou from the i-class, so my stamp card says Imafuku! It seems you can get freebies the more you visit, so I'm all the more motivated to come back... how can I say no to freebies......(Kiri-chan's money face)

Yes, there's a souvenir shop. Yes, I am weak. But it's mostly stuff you can only find at the gallery! So I had to, okay. In particular, I'm a fan of the big P.E Committee towel, and the "Zatto Konnamon's Instant Miso Soup" (because "instant" is sasatto dekiru, sasatto dekirumon, zatto konnamon... get it...) with komatsuna leaves, so it features Komatsuda Yuusaku on the packaging lol. It ended up being really good for instant soup...! (It's like those freeze-dried cubes that dissolves in water, the kind you find at Muji). On my second visit (they were sold out the first time I visited!) I got matcha and azuki beans financiers in a lovely box themed with the sixth years. There's a print mistake on Isaku's hair tie! Fuun da... Well, it's in character so I'm not upset about it lol. The freebies I was given this time was a card and a map of Amagasaki decorated with Rakuran characters and the IRL places they were named after. It ended up being convenient to have!

You can visit Kukuchi, Shioe, Inadera, Kema, Zenpouji, Shimosakabe, Tsugiya and many more. Wawow... I also did visit Sonoda. It was peaceful and the Oomagatoki and Tasogaredoki armies were nowhere to be seen.

Oh right, before I forget. The tourism office near the station is also worth a visit. You can start the city-wide ARG Amanazo from here (this time I didn't because I arrived in the middle of holidays, a lot of places were closed, and I wanted to freely visit places rather than focusing on the game... but I want to try a future edition for my next trip!) and see a few fun Nintama things here too ; notably cute doodles left behind by fans, and signs from Ninmyu actors. Shout out to the person who left the cute picture of Kingo and Ibuki. You have absolutely perfect tastes.

I'll detail my next destination in the next post because I'm getting closer to the image limit. I'll use the pics I have left to show off a very cute sweets shop near Hanshin station that I happened to walk by on my way back from the gallery. Unlike many stores in the city, this one doesn't technically feature any Nintama decoration so I don't think it's a popular spot for fans, but I think it's important to pay attention to all the city has to offer, and there's Nintama everywhere for those with the eyes to see lol. I especially recommend it if you're a true man of the sea...

Chidoriya Souke! It's a chain found in the Kansai region, so it was my first time encountering it. It's named after chidori, the plover bird, who can fly through strong winds and high waves and thus became a symbol of perseverance. It's the emblem of the Hyougo Navy in Nintama, and since this shop offers a lot of sweets in the shape of that chidori I had to stop by haha. I enjoyed deliciously sweet manjuu with a cold hojicha the staff offered, which was very appreciated after my walk... I brought back some chidori-shaped sablés with me! .....It made me feel like I was cheating on the iconic Kamakura pigeon sablés. Forgive me. I am a lover of all birds. Ok, actually, the chidori pattern isn't that rare to encounter. Even the waves-and-chidori pattern. But still, every time I see it somewhere, I get excited and point, "Hyougo suigun!". And that's how I ended up with waves-and-chidori towels and coasters and this and that at home...

Translating lyrics is soooooo scary. Not everything is translated literally because I try to convey ideas more than words. I could justify each choice I made line by line but I doubt that'd be very interesting to read... So here are just some context notes:

I march toward dreams of supremacy 天下の夢邁進す tenka no yume maishinsu Literally "Pushing towards a dream of the world". Tenka literally means "under the heavens", but signifies the whole world and its order, so it includes the idea of society. In the Sengoku period, where Nintama takes place in, tenka is associated with the idea of unifying the country, and thus also came to mean political sovereignty. A real world example of the use would be Oda Nobunaga's personal seal, reading 天下布武 tenka fubu, "spread military force under the heavens​".) In Nintama's anime, the idea of tenka is evoked many times, notably when Dokutake is up to their usual schemes. Happousai mentions it in the first movie for example.

Dye it all in the color of twilight 黄昏色に埋め尽くせ tasogareiro ni umetsukuse Literally "fill it in with the color of twilight". I already talked about the word tasogaredoki before but let me repeat myself since it's.. the topic of the day. Nowadays, twilight is refered to simply as tasogare, spelled 黄昏, with the characters for “yellow” and “dark”. The golden hues of twilight are a good match for Tasogare Jinbei's taste for opulence. Now, go back in time and you’ll find tasogaredoki with the spelling 黄昏時, “yellow”, “dark”, and “time”. An even older spelling informs us on the etymology of the word. 誰そ彼時 tasokaredoki, and the first three characters, tasokare, means “who is he?”, and the last one, toki, is “time” again. As the day grows darker when twilight comes, people becomes indistinguishable at a distance, making one go “who is he?”. It's a time of the day associated with many superstitions, uncertainty and danger, so it's a perfectly fitting name for the castle who employs the strongest ninja army around, right?

We're all originally samurai living on Tasogaredoki domain. I'm not sure if it's worth noting but I will just in case. In popular culture, role playing games etc, samurai and ninja are often portrayed as opposites, samurai being portrayed as warriors on the frontline while ninja stay hidden. It's not necessarily wrong, but a samurai isn't a merely hired or conscripted soldier, they are part of the elite warrior class. Here, the word is to be understood as a social marker ; Sonnamon says that Tasogaredoki ninja are not hired from outside, they're born and raised into families with a military lineage, serving a specific lord, while Ninjutsu Academy trains independent ninja. He literally says "freelance ninja", フリーの忍者 free no ninja, a much more modern, anachronistic expression which evokes the in-universe activities of characters like Rikichi or Teruyo.

Nintama, and ninmyu in particular loves to mix archaisms with modern words, and while the historical words make me want to rip my hair out sometimes I find that mix so unique and charming.

I was just kidding. Usopyon! It's "Just kidding!" in a childish, playful way. A very cute word for Zatto to use lol. uso is "to lie", and pyon is the onomatopeic sound of a hop/jump. Now usagi means rabbit, so usagi pyon is bunny hop, usapyon... usopyon. ...Cute.... ... Zatto's story has awfully specific, gruesome details to disclose to little children of all people. If it's true, Zatto and his father would have in common that they greatly care for their subordinates, and of course it brings to mind episodes 21-05 or 32-63 of the TV anime. But is that story really a lie? Maybe not, since the saved subordinate in question mentions the story himself in volume 50 of the manga: