Kanto, Japan · City
Gunma prefecture's de facto capital and the spiritual home of the Japanese daruma: the Shorinzan Daruma-ji temple, birthplace of the tradition of painting these good-luck dolls, with over a million made here every year, and the Byakue Daikannon, a 42m white Kannon statue with a viewing platform inside. A solid base for food (gyoza and Jomo wagyu) and the natural jumping-off point for Tomioka and Ikaho.
Train — Direct Joetsu/Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo, no transfer, ~50min, ¥4,810 unreserved (very frequent trains, roughly every 15-20min). Gunma prefecture's natural rail hub: local lines to Tomioka (Joshin Dentetsu) and Ikaho/Shibukawa (JR Agatsuma) branch off from here, making it the logical base for exploring the area without depending on a return trip to Tokyo.
The temple where the tradition of the Japanese daruma was born, the round good-luck doll whose eye is painted in when making a wish and the other when it comes true; over a million are made here every year, and January brings one of the country's largest daruma markets.
A 42-metre-tall white statue of the goddess Kannon on a hill beside the city, with an interior viewing platform reached by climbing up through its hollow body.
Craft workshops where you can paint and decorate your own blank daruma under the guidance of local artisans, a far more personal souvenir than a ready-made one.
A city with a strong gyoza tradition (rivaling Utsunomiya for the unofficial title) and access to Jomo Wagyu beef, raised in Gunma prefecture itself.
Gunma has the largest concentration of burial mounds in Japan; here two fifth-century ones have been reconstructed with replica haniwa figures lined up as they originally stood.
A 1974 building by Arata Isozaki inside a large forest park, one of the most interesting contemporary art museums outside the big cities.
On 6 and 7 January, the most famous night market of daruma dolls in Japan fills the temple with stalls and with people buying their daruma for the year.
In August, some 15,000 fireworks launched in barely 50 minutes, one of the most intense displays in the region.
Gunma is Japan's great wheat region and Takasaki has an unusual density of pasta restaurants, with an annual contest (King of Pasta) that picks the city's best dish.
The largest nightlife area in northern Kanto: hundreds of izakayas and bars in a few blocks, with no foreign tourism at all.
The German architect Bruno Taut, an exile from Nazism, lived here between 1934 and 1936 in a cottage on the temple grounds, writing about the beauty of Japanese architecture.
The station bento served in a daruma-shaped box, and yakimanju, a grilled bun brushed with sweet miso sauce that is Gunma's street snack.
A 1913 cinema, restored and still operating, home to a film festival with decades of history.
A 1961 auditorium with a striking folded concrete structure, a modernist masterpiece by the architect Antonin Raymond.
Two mounds with a stone burial chamber you can enter; the grave goods found in one of them are designated a National Treasure.
A park at the foot of the great white Kannon, with a playground and views over the Kanto plain.
The station concentrates local produce shops and department stores: the best place in the whole prefecture to pick up daruma, konnyaku and local sweets.
A municipal museum next to the station, with the Inoue family's historic house and garden integrated into the grounds.
The city's arena hosts international gymnastics and badminton competitions, and in spring the marathon is run around Lake Haruna.
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