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Gunma-ken is justly famous for its innumerable hot springs. Though the idea of forking out your hard-earned yen to sit in a tub (or, for that matter, a river in plain view of the road) with naked strangers may not sound too appealing at first, visiting an onsen can be a liberating experience both physically and culturally. Don't take my word for it, though -- check 'em out yourself!

At the Gunma Prefectural Library I found Margaret Price's book on "Classic Japanese Inns" (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1999). It's a good reference for those of you who are already onsen fans and are looking to find a top-quality Gunma-area hot spring inn to stay at. I've taken the liberty of transcribing below the book's section on Gunma. These inns are pricey, no doubt about it, but I thought I'd take the liberty of passing along the info regardless.

enjoy!
Daniel

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Gunma is regarded by many as the hot spring capital of Japan; it also has its share of rustic inns. But given my criteria for inclusion in Classic Inns, most of them are either too rough and ready, too ordinary, or too expensive. Only three Gunma inns are described here -- the legendary Choju-kan; the Sekizen-kan, because it is home to the oldest extant inn building in the country; and the Kaya-no-Ie for its laid-back atmosphere.

The so-called yokozuna ("grand champion" in sumo terminology) of outdoor hot spring baths is Takaragawa Onsen. It is quite accessible from Tokyo, but a stay is unwarranted because the inn's new wing is unforgivably ugly. Nevertheless, if you are a hot spring lover, a dip in Takaragawa's outdoor baths, set by a fast-flowing stream, is unbeatable.

The historic spa town of Kusatsu may also be of interest for its daily demonstrations of the beating and stirring of the scalding waters of one of the old baths, and its yubatake, racks of mineral sediment harvested from the hot spring water and sold in bags for private use. Kusatsu has some atmospheric old inns in the town center, including the Yamamoto-kan (0279-88-3244) and the Osaka-ya (0279-88-2411), but the best Japanese guides all recommend the upmarket Tsutsuji-tei (0279-88-9321) for contemporary luxury.

Ikaho, another Gunma hot spring area on a refreshing mountain plateau, has the luxurious Fukuichi (0279-20-3000)

(1) CHOJU-KAN (location: Hoshi Onsen)
Isolated old country inn with a famous bathhouse.

RATE: ¥13,000-22,000 w/2 meals, 20% off w/breakfast only, children 30% off. CREDIT CARDS: AMEX, DC, VISA. ROOMS: 39 Japanese style (3 w/bath). COMMUNAL BATHS: 2--mixed, women's. CHECK--IN: 15:00. CHECK-OUT: 10:30. LANGUAGE: Some English.

0278-66-0005 Fax: 0278-66-0003
650 Nagai, Niiharu-mura, Tone-gun, Gunma 379-1401

ACCESS:
BY TRAIN: 40min by taxi from Jomo Kogen Stn
BY CAR: 25km via Route 17 from Tsukiyono IC (Kan'Etsu Expressway)

The Choju-kan is a seemingly lonely inn in the wilderness of Gunma that has become a legend in its own time. The holy man Kukai (also known as Kobo-daishi; 744-835) is said to have discovered the hot spring there twelve hundred years ago, but eleven centuries passed before an inn was built to accommodate overnight visitors. However, it is not the inn so much as its bathhouse that has made the Choju-kan famous. Images of this bath appeared in a series of travel advertisements in the 1980s and it has since become the most photographed bath in Japan.

With baths that were built before the turn of the nineteenth century, the bathhouse is a big barn of a building with elegantly arched windows. An ethereal light filters through the windows, turning the interior into a splendid wooden cathedral -- a holy place for bathing. Soaking at 43°C (110°F) takes place in four enormous sunken chestnut-wood tubs, each divided in half by logs. Rest your head on a log while massaging your feet on the pebble floor and enjoying the hot water bubbling up from below. It doesn't get much better than this.

Bathing is mixed at the Choju-kan -- the only detraction from an otherwise perfect opportunity for solitude. But the bathhouse interior is so dim and steamy that you can go about your ablutions almost unnoticed.

The food is nourishing country-style fare. Your meal at the Choju-kan may include turtle soup in addition to such inland hot spring staples as carp sashimi and wild mountain greens.

For an inn so rustic and remote, the accommodations in both the old and new wings are of a consistently good quality. However, for atmosphere, try to book the original wing, the honkan (built in 1920). Hoshi Onsen is said to be at its best when the world is transformed by the silent whiteness of winter. You will need chains on your tires.

(2) KAYA-NO-IE (location: Kawaba-mura)
A new two-story wooden lodge with big hot spring baths and vegetarian meals in the quiet countryside.

RATE: ¥15,000-18,000 w/2 meals, from 9,000 w/breakfast, children from ¥9,000 (w/2 meals). CREDIT CARDS: Not accepted. ROOMS: 6 Japanese style (1 w/bath). COMMUNAL BATHS: 2--men's, women's. CHECK--IN: 15:00. CHECK-OUT: 11:00. LANGUAGE: No English, reservations in Japanese.

0278-52-2220 Fax: 0278-52-2234
2077-1 Kawaba Yuhara, Kawaba-mura, Tone-gun, Gunma 378-01012

ACCESS:
BY TRAIN: 30min by taxi from Jomo Kogen Stn
BY CAR: 15 min (15km) from Numata IC (Kan'Etsu Expressway)

Kawaba-mura is a charming rural community about fifteen minutes from Numata (on the Kan'Etsu Expressway) and thus highly accessible from Tokyo by car. It offers pastoral scenery; scenic half-day, full-day, and two-day walking courses sprinkled with old stone statues; and excellent milk and yogurt products from the local dairy.

A good base from which to explore Kawaba-mura is the Kaya-no-Ie. A cluster of new, thatched-roof accommodations originally built so that students of a Takasaki technical college could experience country life, Kaya-no-Ie is now run as a nonprofit ryokan. It is not luxurious, but it has a certain style about it. The cypress baths are spacious, with mountain views. The food is vegetarian. Breakfast might consist of brown rice gruel, tofu, and slices of daikon (giant white radish). There are no televisions or karaoke equipment. Rather, guests gather around a sunken hearth for long chats into the night. In short, Kaya-no-Ie offers a perfect escape for overburdened Tokyoites seeking fresh air and a casual, relaxing getaway.

(3) SEKIZEN-KAN HONKAN (location: Shima Onsen)
Japan's oldest hot spring inn building and a 1930s Romanesque bathhouse

RATE: From ¥7,500 w/2 meals, children 30% off. CREDIT CARDS: DC, MC, VISA. ROOMS: 23 Japanese style. COMMUNAL BATHS: 9--3 men's, 3 women's, 1 mixed, 2 outdoor (men's, women's). CHECK--IN: 14:00. CHECK-OUT: 10:00. LANGUAGE: No English, reservations in Japanese.

0279-64-2772 Fax: 0279-64-2369
Internet: sekizenkan.co.jp
e-mail: info@sekizenkan.co.jp
Shima Onsen, Nakanojo-machi, Agatsuma-gun, Gunma 377-0601

ACCESS:
BY TRAIN: 40min by bus from Nakanojo Stn (JR Agatsuma Line)
BY CAR: 1 hr (39 km) via Route 353 from Shibukawa/Ikaho IC (Kan'Etsu Expressway)

An antiquated notice on the wall of the Sekizen-kan Honkan dating back to the forty-fourth year of the Meiji period (1912) proclaims that the price of an overnight stay shall be one sen for Japanese and five sen for foreigners. Foreigners, it was thought, could not survive without such Western-type foods as bread, butter, and meat, and these provisions had to be carted in at great expense. It is astonishing to think that even in the early 1900s a remote country inn was willing to go to the trouble of bringing in Western delicacies for a few guests. More astonishing is the thought that foreigners of the time were venturing that deep into the wilds. Even today, the trip takes over two hours by car.

The rocky dirt track leading to Shima Onsen must have been well worn even back then, for Japanese travelers have been visiting this hot spring for four hundred years. The Sekizen-kan Honkan is one of the oldest inns in Japan. The lobby building was constructed in 1961, which makes it the oldest standing hot-spring-inn structure in the land. Gunma Prefecture has designated it an important cultural asset. Guests stay in newer structures that have been added on, but you are free to walk around and admire the old pillars and beams and the modest display of historical odds and ends.

However, the main attraction at Sekizen-kan is the 1930s bathhouse with tiled floors, arched windows, and five symmetrically placed stone bathtubs (in each of the men's and women's bathrooms). Enter from the outside pathway and you can see straight into the bathing area. Anyone with a passion for hot springs will no doubt have visited Choju-kan (also listed in this section) for its amazing wooden bathhouse. Sekizen-kan's bathhouse is a stone-and-white-granite version of the legendary Choju-kan bath. I enjoyed it even more since it is segregated and has such delightful touches -- in the ladies' bath, at least -- as a petite goldfish tank built into the rear wall, and a couple of amazing 1930s steam baths, which you reach by crawling through dwarf-size arched doors. Once inside, you lie on a tiled couch while the steam works to open your pores.

The Sekizen-kan has added a modern and more expensive section called the Kasho-tei Sekizen, but if you don't mind roughing it up a little bit (taking out and putting away your own futon, sharing a rather sparse bento-type meal in a big tatami dining room, and putting up with no air conditioning), you'll find a stay in the 1930s rooms of the honkan much more rewarding. And the modest price (half that of the new section) includes two meals and access to both the 1930s bathhouse and the sparkling modern baths (with rotemburo) found in the new section.