Although Gunma is safe from most largescale natural disasters, it’s good to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. In addition to preparing an emergency kit and knowing emergency contact numbers, it’s helpful to know the closest shelter to both your home and workplace. Your workplace may even be a shelter!
There is a very convenient map of designated shelters on Yahoo!, but the guide is all in Japanese. English instructions have been written below for your convenience.
Evacuation Site Map
https://crisis.yahoo.co.jp/map/

If you don’t know where you are, leave the box blank and …

~Osusume Café Series~
written by Tamara Schoenberger
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This week’s café review is for anyone who appreciates a hot coffee paired with some cool jazz.
Concert Café in Takasaki
I almost didn’t notice this café as I walked past. But from the inside, deep and earthy tones of a double bass found their way through seams and glass panes and leaked into the streets. The low, inviting rhythm caught my attention and I had to stop and listen.

By the entrance there is a menu board listing all the artists to play over during the current month. I …

~Osusume Café Series~
written by Tamara Schoenberger
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Warming your hands with a steamy mug of house coffee as you look around in awe of the cozy, contemporary and themed atmospheres of Japan’s coolest cafes doesn’t have to be limited to weekend ventures to Tokyo! With these articles, I aim to bring the spotlight to the more than deserving cafes of Gunma. Even in the inaka (and surprisingly enough, especially in the inaka) there are hidden gems scattered all around the prefecture just waiting to be unearthed. As I find these, I want to …

Finding music gear in Gunma
by Neal Beaver
 
New Year’s resolution is to get a new hobby? If you’ve set your heart on learning a musical instrument, but don’t know where to get one, this guide is for you! I used to trek all the way to Tokyo, thinking the big city would have the best deals, but I learned that Gunma has hidden gems of its own. There are plenty of music stores in Gunma that didn’t make this list. If you had a great experience somewhere, please share in the …

So you’ve decided that you want to keep your original phone from your country and only get a sim card in Japan. Use this handy guide to get yourself set up!

It starts snowing and my brain goes into survival mode. My t-shirt reads “I survived Snowmageddon”, but snow is as alien to me as a South African in an izakaya. We don’t get snow in South Africa—at least that’s what I tell people—but speaking for myself, it’s more that we don’t “get” snow.

It’s been about four months since I’ve left Gunma after my year on JET. I’m currently working full-time at a private school teaching third grade as an aide, while also actively looking for the next step in my career. Finding a job is on everyone’s minds as they end their tenure in Gunma. I think about Japan pretty often, and came up with a list of things I wish I knew (and wish I did) while I was in Japan. Hopefully, this can help you in preparing to go back …

You’ve run out of ideas for warm up activities and you no longer get excited by 24-hour combinis. JTE small talk still isn’t getting any easier and, worryingly, you’re actually starting to like melonpan. Despite Japan feeling like a second home, you’re edging towards the dramatic conclusion that is “Stage 4.” It’s time to awkwardly decline that offer to recontract because, if you’re honest with yourself, you know it’s time to move on. Only one issue remains: what next?

As I sit in the staffroom sipping my lukewarm, bitter, flavorless school drip coffee (because I’ve run out of the next best thing, Blendy sticks) I cast my mind back to my weekend in Tokyo… visiting amazing cafés, stylishly drinking macchiatos as if I was Kim Kardashian buying shoes at Louis Vuitton. If you’re feeling like me and (constantly) craving a decent coffee then here is my top five cafés to visit in Tokyo for a bloody decent coffee.

The temperature is steadily dropping here in Takasaki. As the crisp night air of fall makes way for the dreaded karakaze of winter only one thing can drag me from the warm confines of my apartment (or my kotatsu). Ramen.