Nanoha

**Nanoha** (Japanese: 菜乃葉市 *Nanoha-shi*; Mandarin: 菜乃叶市 *Càinǎiyè shì*; Dutch: *Nanoha-stad*) is a city in the state of Heiwara. As of 2016, the population was roughly the size of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Nanoha is set out like Venice having a large number of canals within the city. The city was named after Omar Amaranta, an Italian immigrant, who had the pen name Nanoha Haruki (Japanese: 春木 菜乃葉).

## History

Nanoha was founded in 1655 when the state of Heiwara was under German rule. Initially called Lüdinglein, it was renamed to Nanoha in 1734 upon Kawagoeland's annexation of the Lüdinglein Colony. At that time, the Empire of Japan and its colonies were still closed to outsiders other than the common Japanese people in the mainland and colonies and the Dutch at Nagasaki's Dejima Island. However, Kawagoenese traders of Japanese descent brought numerous Chinese people to the island to learn Japanese. This increased the number of Japanese language speakers in the city.

Nanoha constructed its first canal in 1675 and was finished in 1687, and was named the Shōtoku Canal (Japanese: 正徳運河 *Shōtoku unga*) in 1734.

A branch of Hakone Centre School for Witches opened in Nanoha in 1797. Nanoha's first haunted house opened in 1856 (Yūsuke Haunted House), and every Halloween (marked as a public holiday in Kawagoeland) several 8,000 people came to Yūsuke Haunted House. The first Carnival celebration occurred in Nanoha in 1899.

Nanoha gained publicity in Japan in 2005 as it shares its Latin script name with Nanoha Takamachi, the central character of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series and its sequels. Thousands of Japanese tourists flocked into the city.

## Businesses

Nanoha is the headquarters of:

* **Takara Tomy Kawagoeland**
* **State of Heiwara Council of Witches** -- This council monitors Wiccans, vampires, zombies and ghosts, as well as Halloween and trick-or-treating activities.
* **Nanoha Carnival Association** -- This council manages the carnival celebration in Nanoha.
* **Haraguchi Cookware Manufacturing Company** -- This company mainly manufactures cast-iron cookware, but also manufactures cast aluminium and copper-cladded stainless steel cookware, founded by Norio Haraguchi (原口 典夫) in 1879.
* **Hayase Publishing and Sales** (隼瀬出版販売株式会社 *Hayase shuppan hanbai kabushikigaisha*)

## Transport

### Highway

Nanoha is the main point for the A7, known as the Nanoha-Kawagoe Highway, and the N75, known as the Nanoha-Kawagoe Night Highway, the latter only opens during late nights up to 5 a.m.

### Public transport

Nanoha Public Transport Management Commission oversees the bus and train networks of Nanoha as well as two medium-sized cities of Takaba and Chichinako. The bus service was once operated by Nanoha Bus Office Company; it is now operated by contractors. Nanoha uses an alphanumeric suffix system - the suffix denotes the branch and service. The most famous bus route is a BRT line that falls under the 20 group, which includes 20 A, 20 C, 20 T and 20 TX, the latter two going to Yūsuke Haunted House.

Nanoha Commuter Rail is a commuter rail system opened in 1969. The system was initially operated by Budd RDCs. Routes S 1 and S 1X are operated by Nanoha Light Rail Transit Company and are operate as tram-trains while S 2, S 3 and S 4 operated by Kawagoenese Federal Railways and operate as heavy rail services.

Nanoha Metro is a metro system that began operations in 1920. The U 1 is the oldest metro route in operation, and the only line to feature a driver in the cab. Routes U 2 and U 3 are driverless metro routes.