Gunma Kayabuki-no-sato Hatago - Location

The traditional inn, Hatago, is located in the mountain area in Gunma.
Nearest station is "Nakanojo Station".

We took JR express train from Ueno to get there.
It takes about 2 hours.

From the train window

Finally we arrived at Nakanojo Station, and there was...NOTHING!
No shops around there...
I only saw one Soba restaurant but we actually bought Ekiben so no need to go there...

Nakanojo Station

Actually to get to the inn, it'll take another 30 minutes.


Inn has a shuttle bus service but they operate twice a day only and the timing is not right for the train we took..
(Tour agency website didn't mention that! But Inn website does...)
From Inn website:

[Access Info]

Shuttle Service

**Prior reservation required. Please contact JAPANiCAN Customer Service by phone or email support_japanican@gmt.jtb.jp for more details. Notify us that you will be using the bus when you are making yours reservation if you will be arriving by train.

Nakonojo Station ⇔ Hotel

To hotel from station: Departs at around 2:25PM, and around 5:10PM

To station from hotel: Departs at around 10:20AM, and around 12:50PM

According to the inn staff, it's easy to catch a taxi from the station but...no taxi stand...?

We looked around and found something like taxi stand a little further from station, so we walked there...

It was a very small taxi stand and nobody's there - no staffs, no passengers.
After waited 10-15 minutes, we called the number but no answer...
There was another taxi stand in front which looked more like...charter taxi (which means more expensive!).

When we are about to go there, one taxi came (yay!).

According to the driver, there was an election coming soon, so many candidates are blocking the road and many taxies are stuck.

In any case, we were able to head to the inn!

From taxi window