Youtube Video & Strava Route
Strava Route File: https://www.strava.com/activities/3715339667
Intro
This is Kusatsu Onsen Town. Known for being one of the 3 most famous onsen towns in all of Japan it is well known for its healing waters that are said to cure anything but a broken heart.
Situated in the western part of Gunma Prefecture at over 1,200m elevation Kusatsu makes for the perfect summer escape from the brutal heat and humidity of the Kanto region in the summer months.
And when I say it’s hot and humid in the summers in Japan I mean it. They even have their own term you will hear everyone throwing around this time of year “mushi-atsui” meaning isn’t it humid & hot?
So, after a few weeks of hiding under our air conditioner at home down in the lowlands of Japan, we’d had enough and decided to duck out in July to get some much needed reprise from the Mushi Atsui weather.
We booked a hotel for the week & decided to try out this fancy “workcation” thing everyone has been talking about and began drawing up plans to ride over to Kusatsu from Kiryu, and then to explore by bike and foot once we got to town.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, summer in Japan is also the rainy season. And if there is one thing you can guarantee in the rainy season.. It’s some rainy weather. So with plenty of rain gear packed we set off on a week of high altitude living and exploring at Japan’s famous Kusatsu Onsen Town!
Day 1 – Riding Kiryu to Kusatsu Onsen Town
The Route
The day before our trip Michelle took lead on the packing, and I took lead on getting the bikes setup and routing.
Our route out is one I have done in the past once before, but this time with some 15kg of extra weight to carry all of our computers and clothes for the week, it was shaping up to be a new type of epic ride.
Check out the the links at the top for the routes, but in a nutshell, the ride is 100km with around 2,100m of gain that comes in two climbs up two volcanoes each summiting over 1,000m above sea level.
Morning to Maebashi
So, the following morning we decided to get up before sunrise to get out early, like really early. The reason being the ride from Kiryu to the base of Mt Haruna is kinda just a mess of busy roads, and traffic doesn’t really start here until around 7:30am, so if you ride a more major road before morning rush hours it’s actually really quiet.
We got to Maebashi City by 7am, stopped for our first conbini stop at a 7-11, and headed towards Mt Haruna.
The First Volcano Climb Up Mt Haruna
In Gunma we have a phrase 三名山 San-mei-zan, or three famous mountains that is used to describe the three prominent peaks in the Gunma area. From the Tone Valley, where most of the population of Gunma lives, the peaks of Mt Akagi, Mt Haruna, and Mt Myogi are visible at almost any point in the massive valley.
I will link to my other video in the upper right about Mt Akagi as that is the largest mountain of the three at over 1,800m above sea level and the one we live closest to so I ride it much more often, but Mt Haruna is just a little shorter than Akagi at 1,400m above sea level. Both Akagi and Haruna have caldera lakes at the top, but Akagi a bit higher up with the lake at 1,350m and Haruna’s lake at 1,100m.
We climbed up Rt 28 from Maebashi, and had an awesome time riding through a mystical pine forest shrouded in mist, and even got to see a Kamoshika!
If you have never seen a Kamoshika, this may surprise you. Yes, this is a Kamoshika, a serow in english. It is a sort of mountain-cow that lives at high altitudes and grazes much like a deer, but as you can see whoever made this creature surely had a few drinks before handing in their final project.
Down Into Nakanojo Valley
Once atop the climb we dove into the caldera where the clouds had cleared a little and rode around Lake Haruna and up and over the backside down into Nakanojo Valley.
It was at this point that conbini stop two was in order, and as to not make things too repetitive, this time it was off to Lawson. Of the three main chains 7-11, Lawson, and Family Mart, I think Lawson is my favorite. They often have this section with what I have come to call “the real ingredients section”, where all the food is made with like 5-10 ingredients that you can read and understand (assuming you can read Japanese). I mean I love me some konbini food like the next guy, but the quality out of this section in Lawson is definitely a cut above the rest.
So with 10am lunch in our stomachs we headed along the newly finished Rt 375 towards Kusatsu. This part was pretty awesome as last time I came out to Nakanojo this road was not finished, and the main road down in the valley is quite old and narrow with heavy traffic, but this newer road has a huge bike lane the whole length of it which was great to see and ride!
Up to Kusatsu Onsen
This took us to the foot of our final climb of the day up to Kusatsu Onsen Town some 600m above us. I have ridden three of the four routes into Kusatsu before, so I wanted to try something new this time taking the smaller Koame Rindo (or little rain forest road) into Kusatsu. If you have ever driven into Kusatsu you would know they have the newer 299 route that is basically a 2 lane highway up and one lane down that can be downright scary to bike up. I highly recommend the old 299 or the Koame Rindo 小雨林道 over that as they are way less trafficked and honestly way prettier of a route. There is also the Nakanojo-Kusatsu Line 中之条草津線 (rt 55) if you want a more roundabout way in, that is also great. But we were planning to ride that in the week so opted for the Koame Rindo instead.
The summit was just over 1,200m and from there it was a quick drop down into town! We took a victory lap around the Yubatake 湯畑 or Hot Spring Field that is the centerpiece of town before grabbing some much needed second lunch. Then, headed up to check in to our hotel, soak in some onsen hot spring baths, and get in a much needed afternoon nap.
In the next video in this series we will head out of town by foot to explore one of the nearby hikes in Kusatsu Onsen Town, the Ousen-no-Taki Waterfall 嫗仙の滝 as well as see a bit more of town.
Thanks for reading along & be sure to subscribe if you want to see more, and let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, and see you next time!