What are your favorite things about Gunma? What activities do you like to do?

11 comments

1. I’m not a Gunma prefecture JET but several years ago I stayed at a wonderful onsen ryokan called Kashiwaya. It’s tattoo friendly because they have private onsens. I definitely recommend booking the combined room and meal plan that includes breakfast and dinner. There’s a cafe owned by the same people that own the ryokan that has good food as well. It’s a short walk from the ryokan. It’s in the countryside but you can book a shuttle bus to take you there. The surrounding nature is beautiful and the onsen baths are incredibly relaxing. Definitely check it out sometime, it is especially beautiful in autumn!

2. Do you have a driver’s license?

   That’s going to make or break life in Gunma for you.

3. My co-workers and I went bungee jumping (or as they write it “bungy”) in Gunma together. It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful there! We went to an onsen and got some kind of traditional Gunma food (I forgot what it was exactly) afterwards. It was such a lovely day! I associate Gunma with adventure sports (there was white water rafting and other activities that looked fun too), large mountains overlooking rivers and cute towns, and having a lot of ALTs! One of the JET Coordinators for DC said he was an ALT in Gunma and that he loved it there.

4. What is an RD?

5. I also just got placed in Gunma! I’ll be in Takasaki! Super pumped.

   I have been to Gunma twice before, so of course I did the more touristy things, but I really enjoyed Kusatsu onsen! I also went somewhere to do some indigo dye work which was a super unique experience!

   Of course, I’d also love to hear more about some of the fun, everyday things to do too! I’m especially interested in hearing about some fun stuff to do in Takasaki since I’ve never been there before.

6. There are a ton of new ALT’s in Gunma aren’t there? I’m in Maebashi as well!

7. Oizumi, Brazilian food and BBQs in the street.

8. https://www.visit-gunma.jp/en/

9. I was in Takasaki in the 2017 cohort. At first I was disappointed that I’d be landlocked, but it ended up being a wonderful and welcoming city with great transit links and beautiful scenery. The mountains surrounding the area are breathtaking (you will be told, at length, all about the mountains by your local coworkers), the food is good, people are nice, and it’s pretty easy to get between the main cities.

   I didn’t have a car but a friend had one that we used to get to hiking spots, Kusatsu, Karuizawa, and some other great day trips. The train to Tokyo is fast and cheap, and there’s plenty of good shopping near Takasaki駅.

   My favorite walks were along the Karasu river in Takasaki, up to the Dai-Kannon, and through the plum orchards north of the city in the hills. I know there are also lots of good flower-viewing spots in Maebashi, so definitely explore those if you’re into that! For festivals there’s plenty of matsuri in Takasaki, Maebashi, and Ota, and Takasaki at least had great Christmas lights (“illumination”) around the holidays.

   Add in a low cost of living, lots of good bakeries and eateries, and pleasant weather, and honestly I’m a bit sorry I left after only a year. Make sure to try the shimoneta negi-senbei, yaki-manju, and local konnyaku, and buy a daruma or two to take with you when you go!

10. Minakami, Gunma JET here! I arrived in October 2021, so haven’t been here too long, but I LOVE Gunma. There is such a great community of JETs in the prefecture (supposedly Gunma has one of the most active AJET groups). Takasaki and Maebashi have all of the great parts of a city (places to shop + eat + drink), but there are also a lot of places around the prefecture to enjoy nature, hiking, other outdoor activities. In Minakami, for example, there is incredible skiing in the winter, and great places to hike and outdoor activities like white-water rafting. Gunma is a great place to be, and as another person mentioned were not too far from Tokyo either!

11. I lived in Kanna-machi 2008-2010 (which, at the time, was basically the most remote placement) and still frequently go back to visit Gunma.

    Lots of onsen in the central/northern part of the prefecture (Kusatsu, Ikaho, etc…) and skiing up north.

    Takasaki has a big-ass Kannon statue that’s pretty neat, as well as the temple where daruma dolls originated.

    There’s a small family-run factory that makes kokeshi dolls about half an hour from Maebashi. It has a free tour and museum as well, and is a great day trip.

    Further south in the Kanna/Ueno area there’s hiking, riverside festivals/beer gardens, camping and the like. Ueno-mura has a “Sky Bridge” 100m or so above the valley as well as a small forest zipline/adventure park.

    Edit: Kanna/Ueno is also where the JAL123 crash happened, and there’s a memorial service each year