Week 13: This blogpost came out on time, you're the crazy one

June 22nd 21st, 2026

(The week was boring until Friday, so let's fast forward until then.)

Friday morning I planned to wake up at 8, but slept in until 10. I was off to Gunma for a 2 day trip, and ended up taking the Shinkansen to save some travel time because I started late.

Gunma is a prefecture about 2-3 hours northwest of Tokyo, known for onsens and mountains. It’s also known for being where my Japanese professor (aka sensei) grew up.

After leaving some of my stuff at a locker in Takasaki station, I took a bus a few stops away and walked over to Doukutsu Kannon (Cave of Kannon). It’s an artificial cave that has dozens of statues of Kannon, a Buddhist figure. It was really cool, in both senses of the word. It was 88 degrees and very sunny, and because there wasn’t a ton of public transport (like last week in Nikko), I had to walk a lot. The cave was maybe 20 degrees cooler, which was a nice reprieve.

There was also a really pretty Japanese garden next to the cave, with pretty hydrangeas, a waterfall leading into a pond, and many birds. I would’ve stayed a bit longer to take it all in, but because of how late I got there, it was closing and I had to get to my next location.

Next up was Kannon-yama park, a nearby park that had a playground and some trails. It was a nice area in an opening in the forest, but it was just so hot that I had to chill out there. There was more I wanted to do in the area, but I would have had to walk there and I was just too hot. I ended up chilling until the next bus came about an hour later to go back to Takasaki.

Right next to the station is the Takasaki Tower Museum of Art, and there were some really cool paintings in there. I took pictures of 2 of them before realizing I’m not allowed to take pictures. I’m really bummed I couldn’t take a picture of my favorite one (because the employee was staring at me as I was the only other person in the museum). The painting was of a nighttime landscape with fireflies and it was very sparkly. Hopefully I can find it again at some point.

From Takasaki to Maebashi, the other big city, it was only a 10 minute train ride. And just a 2 minute walk from the station was my hotel where I was able to check in, and walk to a restaurant to get a nice curry dinner. Afterwards, I went to a nearby onsen which was really relaxing and was the first one I went to that had a cold bath. It was so nice to be able to switch between that and the hot spring.

The next morning, I checked out of my hotel and went a couple stations away for sensei to pick me up. She was visiting her parents for the month, and she offered to bring me to a lake up in the mountains because it’s difficult/impossible to get there with public transport. Of course I accepted. We stopped at her house, and I got to meet her parents and aunt and uncle, who were all very sweet and hospitable. I wasn’t the first student to visit her family, but I was the first in over 15 years, so it’s pretty significant!

Sensei’s uncle drove us up to Mt. Akagi through a windy (like with twists and turns, not the air moving type of wind) mountain road and as we got towards the top we realized just how foggy it was that day. They said they have never seen it this foggy in their lives. We couldn’t see anything—sometimes you can see Tokyo from up there, and we could barely see 20 feet in front of us. They were very apologetic, and while it would have been cool to see the whole area, I do also like fog.

We stopped at an observatory where we observed...nothing, but I became beautiful Princess Akagi and bought some things from the gift shop.

After that, we drove a little further up and stopped at a store they didn’t recognize called Hobo no Eki Akagi. It used to be a train station, but stopped running nearly 60 years ago. They weren’t sure what it was now, and neither did I, but the only connection I could make is that I’ve seen 'hobo' in Hobonichi, a company created by Shigesato Itoi (who I later remembered is from Gunma). Sensei and her family know him because he was a famous copywriter from their area, but in America, some people might know the company from their year planner, Hobonichi Tekko. But I know it because Itoi also created the MOTHER series of games (MOTHER 2 in America is titled EarthBound). But it’s a bit of a stretch to see one part of a word and connect it to a company. But then, I saw EarthBound characters in the window and started to get excited.

Turns out this was a new Hobonichi store that only opened 2 months ago, and had a whole wall of EarthBound/MOTHER merch, some of which I bought. I talked to the clerk for a while about the store, the games and myself and it was really cool to learn about the store and talk to someone about it. It was such an amazing coincidence and I’m so glad we made it there.

We stopped for lunch near the lake (which we could barely see) and I had two Gunma specialties, yakimanju and sauce katsudon. Both were really good, and it was a very cute traditional restaurant.

After stopping by a temple at the top of the mountain, we headed back down to sensei’s house, where her dad, an award winning calligraphy artist, decided to give me three of his pieces which are all beautiful. One is the kanji for horse, another is similar to ‘what you have is enough/be thankful for what you have’ (the one that looks like a coin), and the last is ‘every day is a good day’. All very fitting, because that day was a good day, I’m thankful to have those calligraphy pieces, and my mom’s favorite animal is a horse.

After talking for a bit it was time to head back to the station (but not before stopping at the hotel to pick up my toiletries that I accidentally left in my room). Sensei dropped me off and I headed back to Tokyo. Overall, it was an absolutely lovely trip that I’m so glad I was able to go on. It all felt like very authentic rural Japan, and getting to go to the Hobonichi store was just the cherry on top.

On Sunday, there was big news! I saw my neighbor feeding the cat, and asked if she knew its name, and she did! It’s Nora-neko. I also learned that nobody owns it, but some of the people in the area feed it and it hangs out in the area. It also sniffed my finger and play bit me. No pets yet, but getting closer.

Until then. Have a lovely day.
-Dan