I've driven by Maebashi on my onsen adventures. Rural area and scenic, like much of Japan away from the cities.
Here's a map so the Boss of Mosses and others may increase their knowledge of Japanese geography. If you really want to expand awareness of geography in Japan, I recommend watching all 48 of the
Otoko wa Tsurai yo (男はつらいよ, "It's tough being a man" films, as Tora-san treks all around the countryside in his ill-fated quest for romance.
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I spent quite some time trying to find something for the OP, but I am limited to English only searches.
I did find the sad tale of English teachers in the area working six days a week, paying much of their salaries back to the school in rent, mileage fees, and apartment repairs. However, some posters liked working there. My favorite post was this one:
rch 20, 2010 10:18 PM said...
I taught at GLC for a few years and was extremely happy there!
Over time I had ingratiated myself with Horiguchi-san so that I could gain an advantage over the other teachers at GLC. It’s a small school but Horiguchi-san has fashioned it as competitive as any Japanese corporation, playing the teachers off each other, rewarding and punishing as he sees fit. If you understand Japanese society like I do, then you will do well at GLC. The gaijin who come here and complain are the ones who don’t know how competitive this country really is, even in a farm town like Gunmamachi.
The normal number of class hours at GLC is between 20-25 per week, and the drive time (unpaid) averages around 5 hours per week. However by doing favors for Horiguchi-san, over time I was able to wean my classes down to less than 5 hours per week with less than 1 hour driving. Some of these favors included helping GLC get new teachers from the internet (but I wasn’t allowed to tell them about the 6-day work week or unpaid driving), and reporting any teachers who said bad things about him.
Sometimes, as I sat on my patio all day enjoying the sun while all the other teachers were trudging off to their classes, I felt a little guilty. But when I collected my full salary each month, paid for hardly working, the guilt escaped me. I also tricked one of my friends from back home into coming to Japan and working at GLC. He was a little pissed off because I didn’t warn him about the 6-day work week or unpaid driving, and eventually he quit like all the others.
True, GLC is in the middle of nowhere, but for me this is okay; I am a YouTube addict, I like going to karaoke and onsen (especially while the other teachers have to work), so I was never bored in Gunmamachi like most gaijin are.
I also hit on one of my female students till she reluctantly became my girlfriend (Japanese girls are pushovers!), which helped me kill the time. Actually, it’s against GLC rules to date your students, but in my case Horiguchi-san was willing to overlook it.
Tokyo is several hours away by train; the other teachers could never go to Tokyo because they all had to work on Saturdays, but not me However, I don’t like Tokyo; it’s too “hip” a scene for a corduroy and penny-loafers wearing fellow like me. The Tokyo girls never talked to me at the clubs I went to, so I wound up just going to karaoke, which I could have done in Gunma for much cheaper!
It’s true, many teachers leave Gunma Language Center in disgust within a few weeks or months, but none of these gaijin ever understood that in Japan you must go along to get along.
There have been many colorful characters to pass through our school: the 2 lesbians; the guy filming a reality TV show about GLC; the boy who trashed his apartment like a rock start after Horiguchi-san fired him; the old guy who wore a kilt to class and did swan dives at the onsen (so rude!); the lady who walked around in her bikini to tease all the sex-starved male teachers here; the weird rock climber prone to temper tantrums; the creep from California who was obsessed with Japanese high school girls; and assortment of alcoholics; and, most famous in GLC, the guy who went clinically crazy from being overworked and had to be institutionalized.
I’ll probably be remembered as “The Guy Who Got Paid For Not Working” and this is one of the reasons why I finally quit GLC. Because instead of having 3 years teaching experience, all I really have is my first year repeated 3 times. Nor can I say that I ever saw or experienced anything memorable in Gunma since all I ever did was sit in my apartment watching YouTube or playing video games.
I feel kind of stupid now, hence this outpouring of my feelings. But besides all that, GLC is a fine place to work for someone like me. Ignore the original poster of this blog; he’s just a disgruntled GLC employee. As for me, I know that if I fail in my own country, I can always return to GLC where I am wanted. Go GLC!!!
http://whenartemisfalls.blogspot.jp/2010/03/theres-man-goin-round-in-this-town.html