Most visitors to Gunma follow the same circuit: bus to Kusatsu, perhaps a night in Ikaho, and back to Tokyo. That circuit is genuinely worthwhile, but it leaves the majority of the prefecture unexplored. Beyond the famous onsen towns, Gunma contains an abandoned mountain railway of extraordinary engineering, a rural town that has elevated the humble leek to a local obsession, a narrow-gauge scenic railway through one of Japan’s finest autumn valleys, preserved farmhouses that are still lived in rather than museumified, and a gorge that turns incandescent in October. These are places where you encounter almost no other foreign tourists, where the pace is dictated by agricultural seasons rather than tour schedules, and where the experience of Japan feels noticeably more authentic for the unfamiliarity.

Meganebashi Aqueduct Bridge — Usui Pass Railway Ruins

In 1893, the Japanese government completed the Usui Pass Abt rack railway, an extraordinary feat of Meiji-era engineering that hauled trains up a 66-permille gradient through the mountains connecting Nagano and Gunma. The line was closed in 1963 when it could no longer compete economically, but the infrastructure was left largely intact in the forest, and today it constitutes one of Japan’s most rewarding industrial heritage walks.

The Brick Arch and the Forest Walk

The centrepiece is Meganebashi — the “spectacles bridge” — a double-arch brick aqueduct that carries the old rail bed over a forested ravine. The structure dates from 1892 and is built from locally fired brick in the same French-influenced engineering style seen at the Tomioka Silk Mill. Access is free and involves a short walk from the roadside near Yokokawa Station on the JR Shinetsu Main Line. The path continues further into the forest, passing tunnels, retaining walls, and disused station platforms in various states of overgrowth. On a clear weekday in late autumn, you may have the entire area to yourself.

Yokokawa Station is best known to Japanese day-trippers for the ekiben (railway station bento) sold on the platform, a tradition that has survived the closure of the pass line. Combining a Meganebashi walk with a stop at the station for the famous touge no kamameshi (mountain pass rice in a clay pot) makes for a very satisfying morning.

Shimonita Leek Town

About an hour’s drive south of Takasaki through the Kan-Etsu corridor, the small town of Shimonita has built an identity around two agricultural products: its negi (Japanese leeks), considered among the finest in the country, and its konnyaku (konjac), a fibrous mountain vegetable that Gunma produces in larger quantities than any other prefecture.

A Town Obsessed with Leeks

Shimonita negi are thick-stalked, sweet-tasting, and prized by Tokyo chefs who come to source them at the autumn harvest. The town’s main commercial street features restaurants serving leek-centric dishes — grilled negi, negi hot pot, negi tempura — alongside shops selling negi-themed condiments, pickles, and souvenirs that range from charming to aggressively kitsch depending on your tolerance. The best time to visit is October through December when the harvest is underway and the roadside farm stalls are piled with freshly cut bundles.

Konnyaku Industry and Kanra

The surrounding area is also the heart of Gunma’s konnyaku industry. Shimonita and the adjacent Kanra district are where the konjac corm is grown, processed, and sold in forms ranging from the familiar grey blocks used in simmered dishes to noodles, jelly sweets, and beauty products. The konnyaku park run by a major producer near Shimonita offers free tours of the processing facility and complimentary samples of various konnyaku preparations — an odd but genuinely interesting half-hour detour.

Agatsuma Gorge

Following the Agatsuma River west from the Ikaho and Shima Onsen region, the landscape compresses into the dramatic cliffs of Agatsuma Gorge, particularly striking in the area around the Yagisawa Dam where the reservoir narrows into canyon walls. The gorge walk follows the river through sections of sculpted rock, passing waterfalls and viewpoints that would be celebrated attractions if they were more accessible.

Autumn Foliage and the Canyon Walk

Agatsuma Gorge reaches its visual peak in mid-October when the cliff-face maples turn red and orange against the grey stone and the blue-green water below. The approach from Nakanojo or the Yagisawa Dam area provides several viewpoints accessible by car, and short walking trails connect some of the better vantage points. The area is quiet on weekdays outside the autumn peak, and the combination of dramatic geology and vivid foliage is genuinely comparable to more famous autumn destinations in other prefectures. Accommodation is available in nearby onsen guesthouses, making this a practical addition to a Gunma mountain itinerary.

Watarase Keikoku Scenic Railway

The Watarase Keikoku Railway operates a narrow-gauge line through the Watarase River valley from Kiryu in eastern Gunma, following the river upstream through forested hills to Mato and beyond. The line once served the copper mines at Ashio, and the valley it travels through bears the marks of that industrial history alongside natural scenery that has largely recovered since the mines closed.

One of Japan’s Most Scenic Short Lines

The railway’s reputation rests on the autumn season, when the trees lining the valley turn from green to gold to scarlet over the course of October and November. The single-car diesel trains move slowly enough to make the foliage genuinely visible from the windows, and the combination of riverside scenery, old wooden station buildings, and the mechanical sound of the narrow-gauge locomotive creates a nostalgic atmosphere that feels genuinely rare in contemporary Japan.

The line also operates lunch trains (torokko ressha) during certain seasons — open-air carriages on scheduled excursion services with bento meals. These are enormously popular with domestic tourists and sell out weeks in advance; check the railway’s website for schedules and booking. For regular services, Kiryu is accessible from Maebashi and Takasaki by JR, making the valley railway a practical day trip even without a car.

Kanra Traditional Farmhouses

The Kanra district in southwestern Gunma, centred on the town of Kanra-machi, preserves a landscape of traditional farmhouses that differs from the curated open-air museum experience at sites like Shirakawa-go. Here the gassho-zukuri thatched-roof structures, or similar vernacular farmhouse forms, exist within a functioning rural landscape where the surrounding fields are still cultivated and the buildings still inhabited or maintained as working properties.

Lived-In Rather Than Museum-Like

Visitors who seek out Kanra will find a quieter, less staged version of traditional rural Japan. There are no entrance fees, no queues, and no explanatory signboards in English — just farmhouses set against terraced fields and mountain backdrops, visible from the small roads that wind through the valley. The local autumn foliage combines with the farmhouse silhouettes for compositions that are more authentically Japanese landscape than almost anything you will find in the heavily visited equivalents.

Kanra is best reached by car, roughly 30 to 40 minutes south of Takasaki. Combining it with nearby Shimonita for the leek town experience makes for a coherent day in the less-visited southern part of the prefecture.

Practical Tips

  • A rental car is essential for most of these destinations. With the exception of Meganebashi (reachable by JR to Yokokawa) and Watarase Keikoku Railway (a destination in itself), the hidden gems of Gunma are poorly connected by public transport. Pick up a rental in Takasaki or Maebashi.
  • Combining in one day: A practical loop from Takasaki covers Meganebashi (morning), a drive west through Shimonita and Kanra (lunch), and then north to Agatsuma Gorge (afternoon) before returning via Ikaho. The distances are manageable within daylight hours.
  • Best timing: October for Agatsuma Gorge foliage and Watarase Railway; October to December for Shimonita leek season; Meganebashi and Kanra are rewarding year-round but most atmospheric in autumn and spring.
  • Language: These destinations attract few international tourists. Having a basic offline map app loaded with the addresses in Japanese (useful for GPS navigation in Japan) is strongly recommended. Google Maps works well for most of these locations.
  • What to tell people: When locals ask why you are in Shimonita or Kanra rather than Kusatsu, the fact that you sought out the prefecture specifically is invariably met with genuine warmth. Gunma residents are well aware that their non-onsen destinations are underappreciated.