What if you want it all--to live close to Tokyo, but go rafting on rushing rivers, snowshoeing in the mountains, and sansai-gathering (wild vegetables) in the spring? All of these activities await in the mountains of Gunma-ken, just two hours north of Tokyo by special express train. A fair percentage of the Tokyo foreign contingent heads for the mountains during the sweltering summer months. One enterprising local town even rents rice paddies out to Tokyoites who want the experience of planting seedlings by hand in the mud and harvesting it in the fall. Less urbanization and more traditions are what you'll see here, although most of the young people head for the city lights as soon as they're old enough.
Nagano prefecture, the gateway to the Japan Alps and host of the 1998 Winter Olympics, is west of Gunma. If you'd like to live surrounded by snow-capped mountains, you can find a place here. Some areas of Nagano are summer resorts for city folk, such as Karuizawa. You can experience a rural lifestyle, connected to the earth and strikingly scenic, yet only two hours from Tokyo--thanks to the shinkansen (high-speed train) tracks laid down in time for the Olympics.
(excerpt from p. 203)