What to Do in Nakanojo

Sawatari Onsen

Sawatari, an onsen town in Nakanojo, is home to several hot springs and has a long history as a destination for literati looking for a civilized escape in the northern wilds. Visitors over the years have included Wakayama Bokusui whose tanka, written as he traipsed across Japan and occupied Korea, formed a sort of poetic, alcoholic travel literature. Sawatari and nearby onsen towns were the inspiration for several of his poems, and it’s not hard to see why.

Perhaps the unassuming baths of Sawatari’s Public Bath House are the truest way to experience local bathing culture. The water here is rich with minerals and the aroma of sulphur hangs in the steam. Like many other travelers to these onsen, Wakayama Bokusui was surely looking for the health benefits promised by local lore. If not quite a fountain of youth, the minerals in the baths are said to rejuvenate the skin. (Whatever health benefits Wakayama himself enjoyed were outweighed by his love of sake: he drank himself to death at 43.)

沢渡温泉

群馬県吾妻郡中之条町上沢渡

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Shiriyaki Onsen

Fed by the mellifluously named Nagasasazawa River and the volcanic mineral jets that feed into it, Shiriyaki Onsen is an open-air bath as far away from the luxury onsen experience as possible. In the raw bath, hot spring jets are visible bubbling up from the riverbed below. Admission is free, but there is none of the onsen infrastructure you might expect (although there is a covered bath on-site).

尻焼温泉

群馬県吾妻郡中之条町入山

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Ozen Falls

Ozen Falls, not far from the onsen town of Kusatsu is fed by waters thundering down from Matsuiwasan. A hike up from the bus stop will bring you to a trail that leads up the waterfall. In the warmer months, the mist feeds the surrounding forest; and in the winter, the falls are even more dramatic, frozen into a ragged pillar of ice.

Nakanojo Museum of Folk History Musée

The building that now houses the Nakanojo Museum of Folk History Musée was once the home of the Agatsuma Daisan School. The museum, open from 9am to 5pm every day of the week except Thursday, preserves some of the spaces and quotidian miscellany of the former school house, as well as local folk art.

Nakanojo Museum of Folk History Musée

Nakanojo has been reborn in recent years as a center of the arts, hosting the Nakanojo Biennale and sites like the Creative Communication Center Tsumuji, but the region has long been a cradle of local folk arts. The majority of the collection is made up of items that were used in day-to-day life, lovingly arranged and curated in the old schoolhouse.

Nakanojo Museum of Folk and History Musee

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Gunma Agatsuma-gun Nakanojomachi Nakanojomachi 947-1

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Isama Studio Park

After winning the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes, director Oguri Kohei's return to cinema was bankrolled by the local government of Gunma. The native son directed Sleeping Man and based his crew in the former schoolhouse. The props used to turn the school into a filming location remain, as well as some vintage movie equipment. In recent years, the Isama Studio Park has become one of the venues for the Isama Studio Film Festival. The Studio Park is open 9am to 4pm, every day of the week (this changes to only weekdays from January to March) and there is no admission.

Isama Studio Park

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Gunma Agatsuma-gun Nakanojomachi Gotanda 3527-5

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