cute bentos at Takasaki Station |
steam locomotive a short walk from Minakami Station |
So we had a weekend trip to Gunma Prefecture 群馬県 via Takasaki 高崎, a couple of hours from Tokyo. First we stopped by Minakami 水上 which is apparently quite popular for summer water sports like rafting, canyoning, and such. On the first day, we made a short visit to Tanigawadake 谷川岳, one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan 日本百名山, which has amazing autumn foliage! We stayed for a night at Matsunoi Hotel 旅館 松乃井 then spent a couple of hours walking form the station to Suwakyo Gorge 諏訪峡 before taking the bus to the fabulous mixed outdoor Takaragawa Onsen 宝川温泉.
Minakami is certainly not the best looking town but this little walk along the river was nice enough, with some autumn colors although there's much better autumn colors at the nearby Tanigawadake or Takaragawa Onsen, both about half an hour away by bus. Weirdly enough, I saw a 2-page spread for this place in a Japanese magazine but Tanigawadake is just a small blurb. It's definitely not a must-see as lots of Japanese rivers look very similar to this, so do it only if you have extra time. There were people bungee-jumping from the bridge which kind of made it slightly more interesting.
