Last Sunday, four Bekka students from Waseda University, went all the way to Gunma (群馬県) and Ibaraki (茨城県) prefecture by train for only 1500 yen.



Leaded by yours truly, these four students left their dorm at 4:30 am. It was around the week of exams and deadlines, they should be studying and writing reports in their rooms instead, not having one day trip at somewhere 90 kilometres away. Miss Teo only slept for 2 hours because she was 'trying' to finish her homework before that.

Of course, she spent more time watching dramas (Code Blue, Tomorrow, VOICE, Love Shuffle) than doing homework.

They first reached Kiryu (桐生), Gunma at 7:24 am.


This is the first time I see signboard with picture as background. Interesting.

Then, they took this non JR train (270 yen one way) to their first destination, Omama (大間々).



The reason the tour guide, Miss Teo chose to visit Omama because it is not too far away from Kiryu, and it is reachable by foot.

They walked past Hanetaki Bridge (はねたき橋), and Teo saw her first ever dam, Takatsudo Dam (高津戸ダム).


Apparently Hanetaki Bridge is quite famous for suicide purpose. They even have a stone monument to comfort the spirit of the workers who died because of accident during the construction the dam. I didn't know about this before I went =x

Group photo!


Left to right: Taiwan, Slovakia, China, Malaysia.

They were the only group of gaijins (foreigners, aliens) playing around Takatsudo-Kyou (高津戸峡), because this place is not really a famous tourist spot. Only weird people like Teo will go there for sight seeing. It was beautiful though, and peaceful. Behind is Watarase Valley.


Kids, do not play near the river, it is dangerous. The small pond nearby is actually covered with a thin layer of ice.

They hiked along Yougai Mountain (not really a mountain). Teo almost ran out of breath on the way to the top, even though she is the youngest *ashamed*.

After playing for nearly 3 hours, they went back to Kiryu and, FREE rental bicycles~



They waited for more than 30 minutes to have lunch in this restaurant.


Shitamiya Honten (志多美屋本店), this shop is famous for sauced pork cutlet over rice (ソースカツ丼), which is famous in Kiryu. Since I don't eat meat, I ordered Tamago don (Egg over rice). Why am I bringing them to eat meat anyway?

After the lunch, they were already late for the train to their next destination. The next train was one hour later. So Teo decided to cycle around Kiryu Town. Since she was too lazy to read the map (so did the rest), they were just wandering around, passing by Shinshuku (新宿) not Shinjuku, and enjoyed being 'lost'.

They rented the bicycles for free from this place called YUI.



Y.U.I in capital letters, what sort of coincidence is this?? FATE. Anyway, the staff there was really glad that foreigners like them went all the way to such unknown small town. She was trying to ask them a bunch of stuff, too bad they didn't have the time.

Hence they moved to the next destination, Mito (水戸) in Ibaraki Prefecture, which is 2 hours away from Kiryu. When they reached Mito, it was already getting dark. Still, they decided to go to Kairakuen (偕楽園), so called Japan's top 3 gardens.

When they reached Kairakuen, it was almost completely dark, and people were leaving the park. 难得来到这里，还是得绕一圈，走一趟。


Kairakuen is famous for its 3,000 plum trees. Most of them were not blooming yet when we were there. We were arguing whether the plum flowers are pink or white, since we were in the darkness. Camera showed that it was pink after all.

Maybe due to global warming, no lights around Kairakuen. They could only depend lamp posts, the lights from trains, vending machine, cellphone, camera and Mito City. Just went they gave up the thought of exploring Kairakuen, they saw bamboo forests on the map of Kairakuen. Miss Taiwan who claims herself as Singaporean said that bamboo trees at night are scary. A lot of horror stories in Taiwan happened in bamboo forests.

Teo was like, what? Scary??? Interesting *smirks*
Slovakian girl was like, Ninja will fall from above bamboo tree?

So the group returned back to Kairakuen and went further inside. Teo started to realise that this place is really BIG, and bamboo trees at night are indeed, creepy. Still, it was really fun, having no idea what's ahead. Even the camera screen was completely black when they were trying to take pictures.
(My mom will kill me if she finds out that I did such things, especially at night.)

And they returned back to the bus stop after spending 1 hour exploring Kairakuen and nearby Tokiwa Shrine (常磐神社), which was closed. 4 of them occupied the whole bus on way back (230 yen one way).

They couldn't think of anything to eat, so they ended up in Saizeriya, famous Italian chain restaurant for high school students and poor university students.


My seafood pilaf, 499 yen. I had to eat another onigiri because I wasn't full enough.

After the dinner, they said good bye to Mito and took 7:40 pm train to Ueno, reached Takadanobaba (where they stay) at 10 pm.



It was a long day, but fun.

Since Teo considers herself as 'Veteran Train Passenger' after stepping on 25 prefectures by train, she was sleeping most of the time in the train, without worrying much, unlike the other three beginners, who had to double confirm the time and having the thought of riding on the wrong train.

This trip is made possible with the existence of Seishun 18 Ticket.


Four of us used up the remaining four spaces in this ticket.

It was actually sold at 11500 yen, which can be used for 5 days/times, but Teo bought it for 5200 yen from some ticket reselling shop near the west exit of Shinjuku station, and requested 1500 yen from each person. Why is it so cheap? The deadline to use Seishun 18 ticket during winter period is on Jan 20 which was 5 days later when she bought the ticket, and as we mentioned earlier, it was around exam season, plus that ticket can be used for another 4 times or 4 days. Normally one time ticket is more expensive.

In the end, she only paid 800 yen for JR train rides whole day. One way to Odaiba in Tokyo already costs 500 yen =P　In total, she only spent less than 4000 yen in this cross prefecture trip. No souvenirs, no crowd of tourists, yay.

青春１８切符万歳～

Now that she has cleared Kanto region, Teo is sure that she can conquer remaining 15 prefectures in upcoming spring holiday break.

Now she just has to finish her homework.

PS: Special thanks to Kate, Kevin and Megumi for accompanying me. Travelling with friends is so much fun, if I were alone, I won't be going to the park for sure, let alone wandering around bamboo forest at night. 本当にありがとう！楽しかった。また今度遊ぼう～