Some years back I made a trip to Japan to visit Tokyo and to see Ms. Tsukuha-san. Trip was awesome, but I didnt expect ending on top of Mount Haruna in Gunma.
Mount Haruna is also known as mount Akina in Initial D series.
At some point I jokingly asked Tsukuha-san if she knew Initial D because at the time she was involved in car manufacturing. She said no, but next day she asked if I wanted to visit the Initial D area in Gunma.
“Of course”
Our journey started from Akasaka in downtown Tokyo.
Our trip took us through Saitama, took a picture of the Saitama area map while we stopped at a rest area.
Nothing unusual while driving, but then I noticed the mountains in the distance.
Then we turned to smaller roads
We passed a small town called Ikaho while driving uphill. Tsukuha-san was slightly worried that the road would be icy up in the mountains. I didnt have a japanese driving permit back then so I was declared a emergency driver if there would be snow or ice.
There was a small parking place with cool scenery where we stopped
Then after driving on for few moments uphill ended and I suddenly recognized the spot. We were at the exact location where the guys in the anime started their downhill runs. I told this to Tsukuha-san, who asked me how the FUCK I can recognize the place which I have only seen in the anime.
Tsukuha-san suggested that we should stop there on our way back. I agreed and we drove to lake Haruna. Below, I had to blur my reflection.
In the middle of the picture is one of the peaks of Mount Haruna. On top of it is a shrine and the top of the mountain is accessible with cable car. You can see Tsukuha-san at the lower right corner.
While having a dinner, Tsukuha-san wondered how tall the peak is from the lake level and I guessed between 100 and 150 meters. If I remember correctly, the top was 207m from the lake.
The cable car didnt go all the way. We had to climb the rest.
“On a clear day you can see the Kantō plains from the top of the mountain”
Well it was cloudy.
Tsukuha-san is reading about the shrine, while I took photos.
Me and Tsukuha-san:
Im sure that I took a better photo of this… oh well.
We then headed back to car and drove to the starting line.
Tsukuha-san checked the location from her phone…
…and I told her that there should be a sticker on the barrier telling that we are in the right place…
Kanjo racers from Osaka?? Randam?
Its getting cold
We then drove the downhill section all the way to Ikaho. Ikaho is halfway down from the mountain and below it is Shibukawa city. It was never mentioned in Initial D, but the guys lived in Ikaho and had a job in gas station in Shibukawa.
Ikaho, being a tourist attraction, gets a lot of visitors who dont speak japanese. After parking the car, the cashier of the parking lot noticed me and asked if I could make a better translation of the prices and rules they have.
With Tsukuha-san, who speaks excellent english, we tried our best to make a good translation, but only manage to do a so bad pig latin translation of the rules that Im still ashamed 😀
I noticed later that the parking lot where we parked was also featured in Initial D – the people who in anime/manga came to see the race left their cars in the same parking lot where we just had left ours.
Then we climbed the famous Ikaho stairs. Tsukuha-san told me about the history of the buildings and onsens in the area, especially the one that was owned at some point by the kingdom of Hawaii.
I have to check this, but there should be 365 steps, one for each day of the year.
Finally the Mizusawa shrine! Idiot me didnt take a picture of the shrine! Look here for the photos. Tsukuha-san climbing in front of me.
Coming back down was easier – again, the scenery was absolutely stunning.
Afterwards we stopped to examine a tram. While looking at the tram and wondering what the hell it was doing so high up the mountain, we noticed that there was a “conductor” inside, who then told to Tsukuha-san that this was the only day the tram was open to public – it was a old local tram that was converted to museum.
Old tracks and a Ikaho station sign.
One curious passenger
Outside, we found a plaque either about poem or poet. Tsukuha-san tries to translate it for me.
Tsukuha-san then noticed that it was getting late and the weather was turning into worse. We left immediately back towards Tokyo but declared that Ikaho was cool.
It seemed that half of Tokyo was visiting the countryside and had the same idea, to get back to Tokyo as soon as possible. There was plenty of traffic going into same direction.
Tsukuha-san told me that she wanted to stop on a certain rest area on our route. I got a surprise of my life. The entire rest area was themed after Saint-Exupérys Little Prince and half of the signs were in french with japanese translations. My french is questionable at the best so I was unable to understand in two languages! 😀
After that we continued back to Tokyo, laughing almost all the way back. Tsukuha-san dropped me off at Akasaka, I walked back to my hotel and she drove away.
I woke up in the middle of the night to the weirdest sound – the water drain in front of my hotel room window bubbled and gurgled with 20cm of snow. Luckily I woke up, it was fantastic to see how everything was under thick cover of snow 🙂
Next day looked like this:
