Gunma Tours 5: Show-shoeing in Minakami (水上)

Winter scene in Minakami

The fifth tour in our "good things in Gunma" series took us to Minakami, in the northern part of Gunma prefecture for some snow-shoeing. In the summer of 2011 I took a tour to Minakami (and made a series of blogs... yeah), but this was my first time seeing the same place in winter. Also my first time snow-shoeing. Note to photo geeks: we were strongly encouraged not to bring any large camera equipment with us, so all my photos are taken with a point-and-shoot camera.

If you prefer pictures only, you can skip ahead to the photo gallery.

We started off our adventure in the alpine lodge, with a brief lecture by Mike, our guide from New Zealand. We then got fitted for snow wear and snow boots before starting our adventure. Since I'm a bit taller than Japanese standards, I ordered my own XL skiwear online. I was planning to go skiing this season anyway, so it would come in handy later. I also have (apparently) monstrously large feet (US 10.5) which meant I had to use snowboarding boots rather than the typical snow boots.

Geared up and ready for action

From the lodge we headed out by bus up the mountain to the prime snow-shoeing area. I recognized this as the road that leads up to Tanigawa-dake (谷川岳), but we didn't go all the way up to the ropeway entrance.

Lovely snow-covered Minakami

Part of the snowshoeing group

From the initial departure point, we walked for a couple of hours deep into the snow-covered trails. It turned out that walking in show shoes isn't that hard, especially if you're following behind a group who packs down the snow in front of you. I ran into a problem however that the snowboard boots I was using were poorly suited for the snowshoes, and two separate shoes broke while I was walking. Fortunately the guides brought spares and I was back with the rest of the group in no time.

Lunch around a snowy table

After a few hours of walking, we helped our guides stomp/dig out an artificial table and we stopped for lunch. Fortunately the weather was pleasant--a little cloudy but not too cold--so even sitting in the snow wasn't terribly uncomfortable. Our guides handed out tupperware with decent chicken sandwiches and some warm soup.

I try to slide down a slope

After lunch we headed back to the start, but this time on a different path. Our guide sought out a couple of slopes and gave us a chance to slide down. One of the slides required scaling a separate and fairly difficult slope, but fortunately I was able to make it to the top and had a friend take the picture above.

Impromptu ice cream

Just before heading back to the lodge, our guide made a special treat--fresh snow ice cream made from condensed milk, chocolate powder and fresh snow. Actually pretty tasty.

To wrap up this blog, snow shoeing was a very interesting experience. Before I left I thought that it would be difficult, like skiing through a light snowstorm. But I was surprised to find how easy it was. This is partly due to the weather and, perhaps, partly due to the fact that I was in pretty good shape (and had lost a lot of weight since the beginning of the summer). Snowshoeing offers a nice relaxed pace to help enjoy the natural scenery.

Links:

Tourism Minakami http://www.tourism-minakami.com/

Canyons (our guide's website) http://canyons.jp/

Gunma Tours 3: Kusatsu Onsen (草津温泉)

The third tour in the "good things in Gunma" series brought us to Kusatsu, a very famous onsen (hot spring) town located in the Northwest corner of Gunma prefecture. As before, you can skip directly to the photo gallery if you wish.

Some of the hot spring pools on the way to town

Kusatsu is perhaps the most famous tourist destination in Gunma prefecture. So famous, in fact, that this was the 3rd time this year I visited Kusatsu. But this is for good reason--Kusatsu has the distinction of having the largest volume of hot spring water in all of Japan, with water bubbling up at a rate of 34,000 liters per minute in the yubatake in the middle of town.

The yubatake (湯畑) and cooling aqueducts

Close-up of the aqueducts

The water still looks pretty hot at the end of the run

Kusatsu was originally developed during the late 19th century, when Erwin Bälz, foreign medical advisor to the emperor, visited Kusatsu for the first time and sang the praises of the healing powers Kusatsu's hot spring waters. It is said that the waters in Kusatsu can heal almost all ailments, with the exception of lovesickness. For his work in publicizing and developing the area, a statue of Dr. Bälz is prominently displayed in Kusatsu.

Statue of German doctors Bälz and Shiba

In order to really appreciate Kusatsu, however, you need to don a proper yukata (cotton robe) and walk through town. People even do this in the winter, while it's snowing.

Wearing a yukata. Am I doing it right?

Some of the storefronts in Kusatsu

While walking around in our traditional garb, we were led to a hidden hot spring used by the locals. The building wasn't marked from the street, and only locals seemed to know it was there.

Unmarked local (and free) onsen

It was kind of neat to find a local, free onsen, but the water was a bit too hot for my comfort. We guestimated the water was about 47C (115F), which is only fun to sit in for a couple minutes.

Inside the free local onsen

We also attended a demonstration of the Yumomi (湯もみ) ritual. Since the water that comes directly from the spring is too hot to bathe in (54C, 129F), the ancient method of cooling the water was to stir and splash it around using long wooden planks. Although other methods are now employed to cool the water (such as the Yubatake), the traditional ritual/dance of Yumomi lives on, especially as an attraction for tourists.

A group of tourists try the Yumomi dance/ritual

Kusatsu is also well known for skiing. Although there is only one ski resort in Kusatsu itself, it is fairly large with a wide variety of runs. Note that there pictures were taken in the winter.

View from the top of the Kusatsu International Ski Resort (Feb. 2012)

Map of the runs at the Kusatsu Ski Resort

There are also some spots around the Yubatake where you can warm your hands or sit down and warm your feet. This is especially important in the winter when the outside temperature is very low.

Enjoying the feet-warming waters (Mar. 2012)

Steam rising off the Yubatake in early spring (Mar. 2012)

Kusatsu is one of the great treasures of Gunma Prefecture. Most people in Tokyo and larger cities don't know much about Gunma, but almost everyone knows about Kusatsu. I highly recommend coming to Kusatsu, staying in a traditional onsen hotel/ryokan and soaking in the healing waters.

For more information about Kusatsu, check the following links (in English):

http://www.kusatsu-onsen.ne.jp/foreign/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusatsu,_Gunma

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7400.html

Gunma Tours 2: Oze National Park (尾瀬国立公園)

Beautiful day in the Oze alpine marshland

Our second trip in the "Good things in Gunma" series of tours took us on an overnight trip to Oze National Park, located in the Northeastern part of Gunma and also parts of Fukushima, Tochigi and Niigata prefectures.

If reading blog posts isn't your thing, you can skip directly to the unabridged Photo Gallery.

But before heading to Oze, we made a quick stop at Fukiware no Taki (吹割の滝) to see the waterfalls in Numata city.

Unfortunately 2012 has been a very dry summer for Japan, and the falls were not as spectacular are they usually are (or so we were told). We then stopped in for lunch before making our way to Oze.

Lunch. Mmm, tempura...

We entered Oze from Hatomachi Toge (鳩待峠) where many hikers were resting after a long hike.

Hikers relaxing at Hatomachi Toge

The trails in Oze start as a somewhat precarious rock trail, then turn into a long trail of wooden planks. Since Oze is a national park, utmost care is taken to protect the natural environment, and as such it is forbidden to walk off of the designated paths.

Rock path at the very beginning of the trail

Wooden path that continues for the rest of the journey

Bears are fairly prevalent in Oze, and to make sure hikers don't get attacked, bells are located along the trails near bear feeding areas. Apparently ringing the bell signals to the bear that the hikers are humans, and not a threat, and the bears leave them alone.

"Hey I'm a human, don't eat me!" bell

After the initial 3.3km hike in (which takes a little more than an hour), we ended up at the Yama no Hana visitors' center to learn more about the Oze area and its flora and fauna.

Topographical map of Oze National Park

Presentation about the flora and fauna in Oze

We then made our way to the backpackers' Ryokan where we spent the night. Since this is in the middle of a national park, the use of soap and toothpaste is forbidden. The Ryokan had hotspring-style bath, but the use of soap, shampoo, etc is prohibited.

Yama no hana inn

Our room in the inn. That gray backpack is all I took with me.

Inside the inn

As night fell, we went out to view the stars from a nearby clearing. I was kind of shocked that members of our group had never seen so many constellations before. I suppose most places in Japan have so much light pollution that you can't see anything at night.

The tour group stargazes

In the morning we headed out on a long walk around the marshland. The weather was surprisingly similar to summer in Northern California--cool and slightly foggy in the morning, then dry and warm by mid day. Needless to say I felt right at home.

Disappearing morning fog in the alpine marshland

We even made it all the way to Fukushima prefecture (though we turned around and came right back to Gunma)

Sign marking the start of Fukushima Prefecture

Group photo on Yoppi Bridge

Near the end of our walk, we came across a section of the wooden path that was under construction. The boards only last about 10 years and have to be flown in by helicopter due to the remote location. Supplies for the inns inside Oze are carried in by workers since there is no access for vehicles.

Pathway under construction

Speaking of helicopters, we passed a woman who seemed to have a badly sprained or broken ankle, then later saw this helicopter fly in to pick her up. Appologies that you can hardly make out the helicopter in this photo--the maximum zoom on my lens was 50mm.

Helicopter flying in to rescue and injured hiker (I think)

Overall we were very lucky that the weather cooperated on our hike. Cloud cover or rain would have made it hard to take so many photos. I would highly recommend Oze as a destination for avid hikers, and even for city folk who come prepared (good walking shoes, extra water and snacks, OK with not using soap/toothpaste inside the park).

For more information about Oze National Park, here are some links (in English)
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/gumma/oze_gunma.html
http://www.env.go.jp/en/nature/nps/park/parks/oze.html

Gunma Tours 1 - Blueberries, Soba, Lettuce

Our tour started in the Kawaba-mura (川場村) area of Gunma, specifically at Miyata Orchards (宮田果樹園). After getting off the bus, we were lined up and given an overview about the Miyata farm, with the local press watching intently (Gunma TV, Yomiuri Shimbun).

Listening to the briefing about the Miyata Farm

Local press taking pictures and video

The Miyata Farm is benefiting from a growing interest in "farm tours". People from Tokyo and other big cities are retreating to the countryside to take in the natural sights and enjoy the fresh produce from Gunma prefecture. According to our guide, the clean water available in Kawaba-mura is especially good for agricultural uses. The main cash crop at the Miyata Farm is apples, but we were here today to pick blueberries. 

How to pick a ripe blueberry: make sure the fruit is not red near the stem

We then set off to the blueberry fields to pick a jar of berries to bring home. Unfortunately this summer has been unseasonably cold, and as such many of the blueberries weren't quite ripe.

The diamond in the rough--a ripe berry surrounded by the unripened

Part of the tour group picking berries

These are the berries I picked. Notice that some aren't quite ripe.

Our guide showing a second type of blueberry tree

The tour group watches intently

Unfortunately the berries at the Miyata farm were a little tart--this was both due to my lack of skill in picking ripe berries and the fact that most berries were still unripened at this point of the summer. But the berries that were ripe were sweet and flavorful, just like California blueberries.

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After picking our share of berries, we headed to a nearby part of Kawaba-mura to enjoy some hand-made soba. Hand-made meaning hand-made by us.

The beginnings of soba

Unfortunately, due to the hands-on nature of making, well, hand-made soba, I didn't have a chance to take any pictures of the soba-making process. Our group had a number of missteps, but in general the process was very similar to my previous post about making soba.

An artistic shot of our final hand-made soba. Note the non-uniform width of the noodles XD

Fresh soba and vegetable tempura. Yum.

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After lunch we headed over to Showa-mura (昭和村) to walk through some of the vegetable fields that make Gunma famous. If you notice a dramatic change in the quality of my pictures, this is because I had to change to a point-and-shoot camera as I didn't want my good camera to be damaged by the rain.

Map of "The Showa-mura Vegetable Kingdom"

Our guide explains about the crops as the tour group looks on. In the rain.

Rows of Konnyaku plants. Gunma is well known for growing Konnyaku

Onions. This photo really reminds me of rural Monterey County, CA

An artistic shot of lettuce saplings

Cabbages. Gunma is the #1 producer of cabbages per capita in Japan.

Young lettuce plants. Note the white covering that helps reflect the light and heat from the hot Japanese summer.

We walked around the Vegetable Kingdom for about an hour, looking at all the crops being grown, before ending up at a lettuce field where we took some souvenirs. Our guide told us we had to take at least 3 heads of lettuce each, and my group members gave me the knife to perform the slaughter.

I did the lettuce harvesting for my group. I think they regret giving me a knife.

At the end of our tour of the vegetable fields, I walked back to the Vegatable Kingdom shop, where some of the produce grown on-site is sold. I considered buying some cabbage, but I figured that 3 heads of lettuce was enough greens for the next week.

Vegetables grown on-site being sold in the produce store

And of course, no Gunma tour would be complete without gelato.

Part of the tour group eats gelato

That's all for part 1 of the Gunma Tours series. You can check out a gallery of all my photos here.