From our other sites
The story
Comedian Koji Tsuchida, appearing on “Odoru! Sanma Gotten!!”, revealed a small city that he says every Saitama native knows. The show featured a “North Saitama vs. South Saitama” talk battle, with guests from the prefecture debating the differences between the north and south — and it became a talking point. On 5ch, guesses flew back and forth over how to read the place name that was revealed, and the conversation eventually turned to Konosu City’s driver’s license center — the only one in all of Saitama. The thread lit up with Saitama residents swapping “relatable” stories about being forced to trek there from far away every time they renew their license.
Koji Tsuchida Reveals the Small City Every Saitama Resident Knows: “There’s Really Nothing There, But Every Saitama Resident Goes”
Comedian Koji Tsuchida (54) appeared on Nippon TV’s “Odoru! Sanma Gotten!!” (Tuesdays, 8:00 p.m.), aired on the 27th, and talked about a small city familiar to anyone from Saitama.
The talk theme was “North Saitama vs. South Saitama.” Based on a north-south divide within the prefecture, cast members from Saitama squared off in a talk battle.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Apparently it's "Ikaruga"
Famous for its milk
With place names it's the sound that matters, not the kanji
The kanji got tacked on afterward
(not counting the ones some bureaucrat picked during a merger, though)
When was the last time I even saw Tsuchida on TV?
Can't remember lol
Is he only doing Kanto-local shows now?
Went this year — they're still there lol
Doesn't Saitama let good drivers renew at their local police station instead?
That's just for when you first get your license, right?
Not sure if you're dumb or just trolling, but most prefectures only have one license center anyway
Wonder if it's got anything now
Why do they always make you go to places like that
The almighty state, I guess
Guess sports fans or concertgoers go there though
Past Narimasu, you're already in Saitama
You've probably been there without even realizing it
Ah, right at the very start huh
Only Konosu for a prefecture that big? That's rough
Akita and Yamagata only have one each too
Proof Saitama still hasn't shaken its postwar "backwater that just happened to get a big population" vibe lol
Tokorozawa and Sayama have it just as bad
No, violation courses are at Konosu too
It feels like such a punishment that I'm sure Saitama residents near Tokyo start driving extra carefully as their renewal gets close
I've lost my license twice, so I've been there three times…
I go like clockwork every 3 years lol
Always screw something up somehow
Who even benefits from that
Wasn't that the plan all along?
The platform was oddly fancy for no reason
even way back then
Futamatagawa is actually better by comparison
That's deep countryside living right there
Why do they always build these in such weird places
Probably so you never want to go back lol
You might actually go out to Chiba, Kanagawa, or Yamanashi, but Saitama really has nothing
Nobody would even notice if it vanished
Idiot, without Saitama we'd be done for from flooding
Don't just casually slip Yamanashi in there
Background and Key Points of This Topic
“North Saitama vs. South Saitama” is a staple TV topic, and this isn’t the first time Saitama has been the butt of self-deprecating jokes. The thread’s drift into talk of driver’s licenses comes down to a real quirk: Saitama has only one driver’s license center, located in Konosu, so even residents of the more populous southeastern part of the prefecture have to travel far every time they renew. Note that this connection was made by 5ch commenters themselves — associating it with “the place every Saitama resident is forced to visit” — rather than being part of the TV segment itself. The actual place name and reading revealed on the show aren’t included in the excerpted portion of the article, and within the thread, the reading was only ever guessed at, never confirmed. Regional jokes are a staple of these threads, but what stood out this time was that the discussion centered less on personal insults and more on shared-experience material like “driver’s license center” stories.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports Breaking News+) thread “[Celebrity] Koji Tsuchida Reveals the Small City Every Saitama Resident Knows: “There’s Really Nothing There, But Every Saitama Resident Goes”.”
Leave a Reply