Locations

The series is primarily set in Sanada, a fictional coastal town somewhere in Japan. Some of the landmarks shown are inspired by real-life places.

Given below is a list of all major and minor locations featured in town.

References to Real-Life Locations
The most notable reference to a real-life location is the riverbank. The well-known promo image of the series - featuring the main trio and Yassan on the bank - is based on the view near the Ichikawa bridge that joins Ichikawa, Chiba to Tokyo across the Edo river.

Other minor locations shown only in the anime opening song are based on places near the Kami-Igusa railway station in Suginami, Tokyo. For instance, Yoshitake is shown at a vending machine near a public bath. The bath resembles one (which no longer exists) that used to be next to the station.

For a comprehensive comparison of these places with their anime depictions, complete with pictures and Google Maps links, see the external links below.

Trivia

 * A town named Sanada (1958-2006) used to exist in the Nagano prefecture in Japan. In 2006, it was merged with other localities to form the new city of Ueda.