Mt. Haruna

For the summer holiday (I took three days off being the boss), we visited Mt Haruna (榛名山) and its mystical mountaintop lake (榛名湖). It's located in the middle of Gunma prefecture (群馬県), and a well-known place for illegal downhill races (no longer tolerated) thanks to Initial D's fame. In the anime the name is mysteriously changed to Mt. Akina (秋名山).

So I took my Mazda Roadster for a moderate downhill run (by run, I mean stroll) with lots of precaution since it'd been raining pretty hard, and my wife feeling car sick.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful lake.

Ikaho onsen (伊香保温泉) at the foothill; foggy


morning; from the submit (榛名富士), a stratovolcano

The lake view from our room's balcony. The entire hotel is inches from the lake and all the rooms face the lake. We saw a large fish (near human size) swimming by in the early morning.