The real-life town of Ooarai is currently cooling down from the recent Ankou Matsuri / Anglerfish Festival. Ooarai itself boasts a population of just a bit below twenty thousand, and in recent years the number of visitors for the festival has been estimated to total about twenty-five thousand. This year, however, the number of participants has suddenly shot up to around fifty-five thousand. I wonder why~
Tour around Ooarai (posted some time before the festival):
The Girls und Panzer crew can also be spotted on the Ibaraki prefecture home site and, naturally, on the Ooarai town home site. It should be no surprise, though, that those particular girls know how to carry out an invasion. Panzer vor!
Yaranakya 
Something to remember: 18 montsh ago Oarai was almost destroyed by the Tsunami. And its just south of Fukushima.
Indeed, I hear the local tourism is just beginning to get back on its feet. It’s all the better that things were quite lively this year.
[…] Girls und Panzer. Locals have embraced their new found fame: pictures of the characters can be seen throughout the town and an event celebrating the anime was held earlier this […]