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The story
A thread titled “I’m from Nagano Prefecture, ask me anything” popped up on 5ch’s Nanademo Jikkyo board, and a poster claiming to live in Suwa City fielded a stream of questions from other users. Topics ranged from local food culture to the realities of a dangerous festival — rumors about a rivalry between Nagano City and Matsumoto, why salad gunkan-maki (a vegetable-topped sushi roll) is so popular locally, and firsthand experience with the Onbashira Festival. One reply stood out: asked whether they’d ever ridden the felled logs at Onbashira, the local said, “I’ve made it a rule never to ride it — I could die,” revealing just how dangerous the Shinto ritual really is, with an actual history of fatalities. There was also a reply speculating on how the Linear Chuo Shinkansen might affect Iida City. Overall, the thread built up steadily through simple questions and matter-of-fact answers from a local.
What people said
YOU. LIKE GENSHIN? (written in stilted all-katakana for a deliberately robotic, broken-Japanese effect)
It's in Kyushu, obviously.
They don't actually hate each other — it's all just for show, like pro wrestling.
Well, honestly, they're both genuinely nice places — they just like to one-up each other.
Genshin, the game? I don't play it, so I don't really have an opinion either way.
OK. UNDERSTOOD. (same stilted all-katakana delivery as before)
Well, we're landlocked with only freshwater here, and the vegetables are genuinely good. That said, Shinshu salmon (locally farmed trout) is tasty too.
Salad gunkan-maki actually originated in Nagano.
Probably, yeah.
Though honestly, I have a feeling it'll end up being a pretty modest bump in development.
I already said Suwa City.
I've made it a rule never to ride it — I could die. Seriously, that festival's dangerous enough that people have actually died doing it.
Not really, doesn't worry me much. When I actually go skiing, I usually head out to Niigata anyway.
Sounds like something a certain pink-haired, Kansai-dialect-speaking Voiceroid (a text-to-speech character popular in Japanese commentary videos) would say: "Fair enough, my bad — but when you say Suwa, obviously you mean Suwa City!"
Fair point. Also, Lake Suwa's kind of known as a haunted spot — apparently spirits tend to gather near water.
But I own a house here, so honestly, I don't want to leave.
Suwa isn't part of Nanshin (the southern Shinshu/Nagano region), you know.
Don't tell me you moved here recently. You wouldn't get that wrong if you'd actually grown up in Suwa — you'd have competed in the Nanshin regional tournament for school clubs, so normally there's no way you'd mix that up.
For the record, I moved back to Nagano when I was at Shinshu University — I lived in Matsumoto back then. And yeah, I'm 29 now.
Also, funny enough, I actually wasn't born in Suwa.
You mean the Suwa Shiga store?
I don't really eat it much.
Thanks for the answer ("サンガツ" — forum slang for "thanks"). One more question: for local events like the Onbashira Festival, does literally everyone living in the Suwa area have to take part? Or is it fine to skip it if you're not in the neighborhood association?
It's not mandatory or anything. I mean, forcing people to join a festival dangerous enough to kill people would be insane anyway.
Glad to hear it.
Background and Key Points
“I’m from [Prefecture], ask me anything” threads are a staple format on 5ch, usually centered on asking a local about regional geography, culture, and food customs. This thread was no exception, running through Nagano-specific topics like the Onbashira Festival, salad gunkan-maki, and the relationship with Matsumoto. Onbashira is the common name for the Onbashira-sai, a ceremonial event held at Suwa Taisha shrine, where the biggest highlight is “kiotoshi” — sending massive logs sliding down a steep slope while riders cling to them. It’s a genuinely dangerous Shinto ritual with an actual history of fatalities. Participation is generally organized by neighborhood association, so the thread’s claim that it’s “not mandatory” broadly matches reality. As for salad gunkan-maki, one theory holds that because landlocked Nagano has no access to the sea, vegetable-topped sushi rolls caught on there more than raw-fish ones, and some locals even claim the dish originated in the region. The supposed “bad blood” between Nagano City and Matsumoto reflects a light rivalry rooted in their different standings — one as the prefectural capital, the other as a former castle town — rather than any serious conflict. The Linear Chuo Shinkansen is currently under construction between Shinagawa and Nagoya, with a new station planned near Iida City, though the article doesn’t mention that the opening timeline remains uncertain due to delays in the Shizuoka section. Rather than sparking disagreement, the thread mostly consists of simple questions met with matter-of-fact answers from a local, making for an enjoyable read about regional trivia.
*This article is compiled as excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo board) thread “I’m from Nagano Prefecture, ask me anything.”
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