One of the good things about living in Gunma Prefecture, located in the exact center of Japan’s main island of Honshu, is being near beautiful mountains which provide recreation in the form of skiing, hiking and…driving really fast. The other night I mentioned to my son that the Perseid Meteor Shower was going on, and he suggested we could go up into the mountains and try to see some meteors, so the next thing we knew we were zooming up Mt. Akagi. We didn’t have much luck in the end — it was drizzling and we could barely see any stars through the clouds — but it was fun to go for a night drive while playing the soundtrack from Initial D, the anime about street racing set in Gunma. At the top of the mountain there’s a parking area where other drivers show off their decked-out cars, and it was fun standing with them trying to catch sight of a shooting star, even though they were a little freaked out to have an American there. If you’re a fan of Initial D, you might be interested in our Moero Downhill Night racing-themed eroge trilogy, which is a lot of fun.
One of the best things about Gunma is the mountains.
