On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 23:56:55 +0900, Eric Takabayashi
<etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> belched the alphabet and kept on going with:

>I'd like to get my own Dash Mura going and put up some
>small buildings, domes, tipis, yurts or log cabins, to
>expand or work from home. I've been looking for a place
>for years, and somewhere large or affordable enough is
>usually hidden away in the hills say an hour from town
>without a highway or train line, but it doesn't get
>much more conveniently located on paper than this:
>
>http://tinyurl.com/x7c3
>
>Check it out on the map:
>
>http://tinyurl.com/x7bu
>
>Zoom in, zoom out. Enlarge the map. Check it out to
>scale. Check the amenities in the pull down menu.
>Practically walking distance for me. No nursery schools
>or kindergartens in that town, though. Not even a
>junior high.

You need to do a yingyong google. I found a 保育園 near South
Snakewell Station: http://tomiokaizumi.hoikuen.to/index2.html

There are four 幼稚園 listed here:
http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~caw79710/list/list1_10/1003.html

And I'm pretty sure those are just the private ones. There must be
some run by the city as well.
>
>Is that area decent? How's Tomioka City? I don't
>believe I've seen a city that small on a map.

I've only been over there once or twice. I don't recall having any
particular impression of the place. 
>
>http://www.city.tomioka.gunma.jp/
>
>Their homepage makes it out to be a nice, quiet place,
>close to nature.

The contour lines on the map would tend to verify that. You would be
at the absolute bleeding edge of the Kanto Plain.
>
>Of course that house needs work, probably more than the
>entire property costs.

Depends on what you're willing to tolerate.
>
>But do you think this is worth looking into?

If I had the money and the sort of career that would allow me to make
a living while isolated on the edge of nowhere, I'd probably drive
over there and take a look at it myself. Like you said, it's
convenient to the ultra-boonies of Nagano and the backwater metropolis
of Maebashi.