Kiryū (桐生市, Kiryū-shi), a city located in Gunma Prefecture in Japan.

Also known as a town of textile, or silk town!

I'm not really the type who goes overseas for sight seeing and I prefer interactive activities. I think my boyfriend knows me too well because when I do see a nice view or a beautiful sight.... I will be like "wooh~" and takes many photos :') lol!

So.... how to go there? I took the JR Line, or JR train to JR Kiryu Station. That was the nearest option to the shop that we wanted to go. There are many things you can do at Gunma but it is better to plan it out first before going there. If I remembered correctly there are a few train lines that can be use to reach certain locations in Gunma so check carefully!!

At JR Kiryu Station we took the south exit and that's where we saw Kiryu Citizens Activities Promotion Center. After checking up their website, I realized it is also known as YUI. This is their website, you can either translate the whole page or talk to them on Facebook. You can also get further information including accommodations and tourist spots over there. When we were there, there was a lady who could speak fluent English and that was how we rent our electrical bicycles.

I didn't thought of taking photos of YUI, so for the sake of helping others how to recognize YUI at JR Kiryu Station, I took this from the site HAHAHAHA! 😆😂 Certain things might shift or change in time so feel free to step in and ask the staff, they are very friendly.

And yes, it is possible to rent bicycles at Yui!

Their electrical or non-electrical bicycle comes with a front basket, bell and night light.

Apparently if you do not know yet; having a person to sit or stand behind another person's bicycle is strictly against their law. :')

It is also required to show your ID when renting a bicycle.
When we were renting a bicycle there was no chargeable fee, so I guess it's still currently free of charge.

//Side tracked// This was the second time I am using bicycle as a transport in Japan and I noticed this white line on the road not far from the path but separates from the main road. I realized the paths are for walking and the thin road separated from the main road by these white lines are for bicycles. Some of them are quite weathered though.

Lines for cyclists 😮

Okay back to the main topic; my visit to Kiryu was to check out this particular small silk shop.

They have many machine displays, products and workshops. We were going to explore their machines and check if they have smaller versions of Flamingo 40 a hand made weaving loom by Kyoto Handwoven weaving machine institute.

After cycling for an awesome 30mins under drizzle I was too excited and forgot to take photos of the shop front, name, and the surroundings LOL. Shop name is Kobo Kazahana! Written in Japanese though LOL "Kobo" means a workshop. "Kazahana" means “Snowflakes are dancing in a clear sky. Well at least we could remember our way back to the shop by bicycle route though. Things might change with time, so I am not sure if they will look the same but this was how they look like from the inside~

Spot me in here? 😆😆😆

I think they often hold their workshops here. I'm not very sure yet but they do have schedules of workshops and courses. I came quite unexpectedly for them so they kinda gave me a crash course on how to use the weaving loom and experience the different types of silk. 

Pardon my blur phone's photo :'3

They even allowed me to bring back my crappy work HAHAHA 😂😂👍

 This was the outer area of the previous photo. They have different sizes and types of machines for silk work here.

 The other part of the outer area where they did silk spinning.

This was probably one of the older version of silk spinner.

This is a huge electric silk spinning machine. Took a quick video of this with my phone so pardon the quality. Feel free to enlarge and view in full screen 720pHD option on your bottom right. (ᅌᴗᅌ* ) I can't seems to make the video display bigger on my blog oh well~ (ಥ⌣ಥ).

This is a short video of me learning how to use a weaving loom. 😅😅😅
Boyfriend took a quick video of me before he goes around to check out the other machines.
We will definitely come back to this shop again as one of the ladies told us that these weaving looms sold out real fast. Although it was almost a year ago when they ordered their smaller version of weaving looms, but that batch of order is still not done yet as they are all hand made by only one man from Kyoto Handwoven weaving machine institute. So I guess we will wait a year or two, before we visit them again!

Just in case you missed it,

This is the main website for Tourist Guide of Gunma Prefecture.

This is the main website for Kiryu Citizens Activities Promotion Center.

Click here for more Travel Information.

Click here for direct to Recommended Routes.
Info by & Thanks to Shinoda from Marunaka.co. for replying our email!!