J-List is based in Gunma Prefecture, right in the center of the main Japanese island of Honshu, so we’ve been enjoying the short anime You Don’t Know Gunma Yet, which is filled with trivia and jokes about life in Gunma. Since some of them might be hard to understand to outsiders, I thought I’d do a post about the core jokes from the series.
But first, some background on where this meme came from. A decade ago or so, Gunma Prefecture ranked last in a survey of the most interesting of Japan’s 47 prefectures. This became a big joke online, and people started making jokes about how our prefecture is a barren and backward place like rural Africa, that there are ruins of the “Ancient Gunma Empire” at the foot of Mt. Akagi, and that we’re fighting a border war with neighboring Tochigi Prefecture. If you do a Google image search and wonder why you see pictures of Africa, it’s leftover from this trope.
Enterprising manga author Hiroto Ida — who moved here from Kanagawa prefecture as a youth — got the idea of making a web-based manga that capitalized on the interest in Gunma as Japan’s least interesting prefecture and started a series titled Omae wa Mada Gunma wo Shiranai (You Don’t Know Gunma Yet), which became huge in Japan, spawning a TV series, a film, and now a short TV anime series.
The Top 11 Jokes from You Don’t Know Gunma Yet
The Train Doors Don’t Open Past Kagohara
In Japan, you could pretty much define inaka (rural area) vs tokai (urban area) by whether or not the doors on the train open automatically. Once you get past Kagohara station, about 70 km north of Tokyo, you need to push a button to open the train doors in the winter months, which is done to keep the warm air inside the train from flowing out at smaller stations were few people are likely to get off. In the anime, the main character is “trapped” on the train because he doesn’t know this.
Gunma is a Windy Place
There’s a strong wind that blows in the winter called kara-kaze, which guarantees that any given bicycle will be blown over when you go to ride it. Also, girls in Gunma will always have incredibly muscular legs, from riding their bicycles to school in the wind.
Gunma Has Its Own Card Game
There’s a 1300-year-old card game played on New Year’s Day called Hyakunin Isshu (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each), which is a fun way for children to feel a connection with history. Gunma has a version of this called Jomo Karuta which teaches local history and geography through tanka poems like Gunma Prefecture/shaped like a crane in flight and Kiryu City/home of silk-weaving in Japan. In You Don’t Know Gunma Yet, prefectural citizens use knowledge of Jomo Karuta as a test to see if outsiders are spies sent from Tochigi.
Ridiculous Love of Häagen-Dazs
There are only three factories that make Häagen-Dazs ice cream in the world, and one of them is right here in Gunma Prefecture, something people here are ridiculously proud about.
Four Prime Ministers
No fewer than four Japanese Prime Ministers came from Gunma Prefecture, something prefectural residents are extremely proud of. One of the most famous was Keizo Obuchi, made famous as the Japanese politician who announced the name of Japan’s current imperial era, Heisei.
We Love Mountains in Gunma
Japanese schools organize annual sporting events so parents can come and see their children running relay races and so on on the school ground. In other parts of Japan, the students are organized into “red team,” “blue team,” and “yellow team.” But in our Prefecture, the tradition is to name the teams after nearby mountains, e.g. “Akagi Team,” “Haruna Team” and “Myogi Team.”
Huge Portions of Pasta
I never thought of it as such a famous place, but an Italian restaurant chain in Gunma called Shango is apparently famous for having huge portions of spaghetti. In the movie version of You Don’t Know Gunma Yet, it’s stated that Gunma has the highest wheat production in Japan, so our spaghetti portions are huge.
The Best Vending Machines in Japan
Japan has the most vending machines of any country in the world, with one for every 24 people, and Gunma has more than its share, with millions of machines. We’re especially famous in other parts of Japan for having cool “retro” vending machines, like Pit In 77, a store in the middle of nowhere that has only vending machines inside, including one that will prepare serviceable udon noodles for you. Part of this image comes from marketing efforts by the Gunma Retro Vending Machine Association, which the internet informs me is a thing.
The Hottest Place in Japan
Two cities in Gunma, Tatebayashi and J-List’s home city of Isesaki, are often reported in the national news as the hottest cities in Japan for that day during the summer. It’s one reason I’m usually all too happy to be in the U.S. for the summer anime conventions that time of year.
Promotion of Gunma Icons
Perhaps in response to being called the least interesting prefix or in Japan, Gunma began aggressively marketing itself to the rest of Japan as a fun tourist destination, which usually involves promoting Daruma dolls and actress Ryoko Shinohara, who is from Kiryu.
Other Imageries from You Don’t Know Gunma Yet
There are lots of other imagery from the Omagun series. Daruma Bento from Takasaki Station. Views of the giant Kanon Buddha statue in Takasaki. The swan boats on Lake Haruna. We could go on and on.
Are you a fan of the Nichijou anime? It’s loaded with Gunma references, too!
That’s all the information on Gunma we have for you. We hope you’ll visit this corner of Japan someday. Thanks for reading!
