Haruna Day Bus Tour

Bus tour day! I had taken leave for today as there was the special bus tour going to Lake Haruna! At the initial arrival into Takasaki, the BOE staff had given us a little sheet detailing the information of this bus tour – it’s being run by volunteers, and they’re taking us to Lake Haruna, Haruna Shrine, Ikaho hot spring, and the Kokeshi wooden doll factory where we’ll get to paint our own dolls! All for ¥2500, though we do have to bring our own lunch.

I woke up at 7:15am, had a banana and fruit jelly for breakfast, and left the house at 8:15am to arrive at the city hall on time. Most people had gotten there early, and we set off promptly at 9:00am! The tour bus was air-conditioned, which was super lovely. Our first destination was Haruna Shrine – the walk to the actual temple is 50 minutes, so since we were on a pretty tight schedule we walked just a little bit, and then turned back. The nature was beautiful though! A lot of waterfalls, rivers, forest greens, and red bridges. I will definitely come back to walk all the way to the shrine next time!

After that it was on towards Lake Haruna! The drive up was definitely steep and curvy, and you could see all the drift marks on the road where all the racers and Initial D fans must have sped down the mountain. The lake was gorgeous! Truly picturesque with mountains in the background. There were actually a lot more shops and tourist-y things up here than I thought! I thought it was just a lake on top, and maybe some fields/beaches/banks around the lake for people to picnic on, but it was a very developed area. We had our lunch overlooking the lake, and it was very nice, albeit the burning sun and many insects!

We all became super sleepy after lunch, and to make us more sleepy our next destination was Ikaho onsen! Gunma actually has quite a lot of famous onsen (not just known in the prefecture, but throughout Japan!) and Ikaho is one of them! There was a massive flight of stairs which you could climb to see the shrine at the top, but we headed straight for the onsen since we only had 1 hour to spend there. It was a great hour of relaxation, and I made sure to get the glass bottle milk afterwards! Onsen in Japan is just the best. My shoulders finally don’t feel so stiff anymore! I need to find an onsen near me so that when I get my car I can make weekly onsen trips!

Feeling refreshed from the onsen, our next and final stop was the Kokeshi wooden doll factory. It was super cute and we got to paint our own wooden dolls! We actually had 3 different types to choose from – the normal doll (shaped like an egg!), a pencil holder doll, and a toothpick holder doll. I chose to paint the normal one! It was hard to decide what to paint, but in the end I went with Totoro, after seeing the adorable character dolls on display. We had 40-ish minutes to paint the doll which made us all into speed painters! The factory staff then varnished them for us, so we looked around the shop and the exhibit upstairs while waiting.

After the doll painting, we headed back towards the city hall. Since it was on the way, we dropped off a few people (it was closer for them rather than going back to the city hall) near their homes! Arrived back at the city hall at around 16:15, and cycled straight back home to make my dumplings, and eat dinner.