We start this chapter immediately after the end of the previous chapter. Then on page 85, they suddenly teleport to Ikaho Onsen, as Nadeshiko mentioned in the planning chapters. Google says it takes 19 minutes by car to get there from the campsite. And I’ve gotta say, they’re here for so little time that I’m genuinely disappointed. Are there pages missing?
The title page (back on page 83) is about here, though some of the signage has changed in the years since the Street View was taken. The second panel of 85 is about here, while the third and fourth panels are here. Dunno what’s with the ducks - I’m fairly sure the nearby shooting galleries give them out as low-level consolation prizes, but I dunno why they give them out, or why people leave them here. There used to be a marker here on Google Maps labelled “Ahiru Shrine”, if memory serves, though whether it was named that because people leave ducks here or if people leave ducks here because it was named that, I have no idea - currently the marker is named ゴミステーション (with “rubbish dump” as the type).
Anyway, they spend the next two pages (and the first panel of the one after) at Ishidan no Yu. Exterior shot. (There’s a very nice rotenburo up at the top end of town, kinda which they’d visited that.)
And that’s it, they leave after the first panel of page 88. Though, I, uh… still managed to write multiple paragraphs about it.
On the second panel of 88, they hop on the bus for Mount Haruna. As per the sign in the last panel of that page, the road in between is one of Gunma Prefecture’s Melody Roads - if driven over at the correct speed, this particular one plays 静かな湖畔 (aka the tune of Incy Wincy Spider). By the top of page 89, they’re at the mountain’s lower ropeway station. And then they’re at the top.
Can’t find any photos of Mount Fuji from Haruna on Google, but I did find the sign from the first panel of 91. At the bottom of 91, they’re at Harunafujisan Shrine.
Bottom of page 92 is here. Top of 93 is somewhere around here. Bottom of the same page is probably in this sort of area (if you turn the camera to the left, you’ll also see the second panel of 95).
At the middle of page 95, they’re back at Takasaki Station. After going shopping, at the top of 98, I’m fairly sure they’re at Gunma no Daidokoro, though admittedly I’m not completely confident. Point in favour is that I happen to know this is the place at Takasaki Station that sells the Yokokawa kamameshi, though I don’t know whether it’s the only place, and I’m not at all sure that they sell other ekiben as well.
On page 100, they arrive at Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi Station on the Agatsuma Line… which also stops at Shibukawa Station, the nearest station to Ikaho. Googling says you can go from Lake Haruna to this station via Takasaki, but it’s significantly shorter (on the order of one and a half to two hours shorter) to backtrack to Ikaho and go via Shibukawa.
Then they’re on a bus for the remainder of the chapter. Google doesn’t want to suggest a bus route for this trip, and the campsite’s website doesn’t seem to have the usual access instructions… that I can see, so I have no idea what bus this is. I managed to find some of those mysterious red pyramids that catch their attention on page 103, though.
I’m fairly sure I posted this link last volume as a sort of preview, but if people want a more detailed look at the town of Ikaho Onsen, here is the post in my travel blog from my visit back in 2023. And also the first half of the post after. Here’s some relevant photos I took, too:
Also, page 99, kamameshi:
(If I’d rotated the bowl ninety degrees anti-clockwise before taking this photo, it’d precisely match the drawing in the manga, which is kinda interesting.)
Proper nouns
Page 87:
草津温泉 = くさつおんせん
草津白根山 = くさつしらねさん
Page 88:
榛名山 = はるなさん
