Japan Tourism - Kusatsu

Natural Hot Springs, Active Volcanoes, Magnificent Red Leaves and Awesome Skiing and Snowboarding, Kustsu is simply a stunning Japanese Cultural Experience only 70 mins from Tokyo, Japan.
When we visited Kusatsu, my initial thoughts were if I was to visit Japan for only a few days then this is the place that I would want to visit. We actually hired a car for the day and drove from Tokyo and were able to soak up the best of what this region has to offer. Located in the Gumma prefecture, Kusatsu sits at 1200m and is surrounded by the spectacular Japanese Alps.
The main street of the town is dedicated to the water cooling process, as the water is 100% natural spring water and is directed to over 100 outlets throughout the town releasing 32,000L/min.
In the main street you will witness Yumomi which is a traditional method of cooling the water using long wooden paddles and without adding cold water. This is a method that has been practised for hundreds of years in Kasutsu.
PS. The water has a super high sulfer content so just a warning, beware of  the smell of rotten eggs. However the water is said to have strong therapeutic and healing qualities due to the high acidity. Out of 330 onsens (hot springs) Kasatsu is voted as number 1 by Japanese tourists.

Creeping up out of the ground and looking like a martian landscape where the vegetation suddenly stops due to the acid content in the ground (see below), Mt Shirane which is about a 30mins drive outside of Kasatsu and stands 2160m high. During the drive there are large amounts of volcanic activity with plenty more rotten egg smells and geysers along the way.
At this top you will find Yugama Crater Lake which is a sulfur lake appearing as an impressive aqua blue color and is defiantly worth a look.
Between April and November, buses run every hour to the top.

One of my fond memories of this region was the river hot springs. It was an awesome experience to swim in a cold flowing mountain river and to have hot spring water bubbling up through the river bed.
Of course there are other parts of the world where you can experience this but only in Japan would you have a situation where a 70 year old lady is photographing her husband who is wear nothing but a cloth (the size of a face washer) whilst she is taking photos with a large grin on her face. We thought this was quite amusing until he started to loose his balance, bend over and, bare it all (we were just behind him, and looked to make a hasty exit).
On top of that, and just moments later a random man came walking out from the forest like Tarzan himself (only imagine that this was before Tarzan has made contact with civilization and had absolutely no shame at all)

We put it all down to.. Welcome to Japan! ;)