The honest waste guide for foreign burners at Burning Japan 2026 — 千鬼夜行 Senki Yagyo, Oct 8–12, Tsumagoi Bokujo ranch, Gunma. Written for that burn and kept up afterwards: what to do with every piece of it — at the burn, in town, and on the way home. Plus the three buses a day that are the only way off the mountain.
You carry out 100% of your own waste — that's the official policy. Bring your own bags and sort as you go: 🔥 burnable 燃えるごみ · 🥫 cans 缶 · 🍾 glass びん · 🧴 PET bottles ペットボトル. Compress, double-bag against smell — palm civets raid camps at night.
Official exception for public-transport attendees only: hand sorted bags to the gate at exodus — bins, cans and PET separated. Fire ash too hot to carry? There's a BBQ grill at the gate that accepts burn residue (燃えかす). Drivers: assume this is not for you — your trash rides home with you.
Not even trash from things you bought there. The event treats this as severe as a law violation — a Japanese camp event once lost its next year over roadside dumping. Store bins are for small on-the-spot purchases by that store's customers, never for camp trash.
Only pure water may be poured on site. Soapy, oily, food-touched water — and yes, coffee and tea — go into a closed, labeled container (グレイウォーター) and leave with you. Never into the portable toilets: it kills them for everyone. Tea leaves don't get buried; "biodegradable" is not Leave No Trace.
携帯灰皿 (keitai haizara) — sold at every konbini for a few hundred yen. Butts and ash go home with you. Glitter, confetti and micro-beads are banned outright; zip-tie clippings and tape shreds go straight into a sealed bag before the wind takes them.
The burn is on a working cattle ranch in Tsumagoi Village, Gunma (嬬恋村) — Japan's #1 summer-cabbage producer, at 1,400 m on the Manza Highway toll road. The village has made a formal declaration:
That means a visitor has no legal public disposal option in the village — at all. Local collection stations belong to resident neighborhood groups; using one as an outsider is treated like dumping on someone's lawn, and the village facility only accepts waste from residents and villa owners. Illegal dumping (不法投棄) in mountains, rivers or roadsides is a crime — up to ¥10M / 5 years under the Waste Management Act. The only moves that exist: the gate (if you came by train), your accommodation (modestly, with gratitude), or your own home city's bins by its own rules.
The single most important lesson: garbage rules are municipal, not national. "Burnable" in one city is "non-burnable" in the next. Each town sells its own designated bags (指定袋 — at supermarkets, drugstores and konbini in that town; that's how you pay for disposal), publishes its own calendar, and collects at resident-run stations, usually 6–8 a.m. on the right morning only. Wrong bag — or a black bag — simply doesn't get collected. There are essentially no public trash cans anywhere (most were removed after 1995 and never came back); everyone carries their trash home. So do you.
Below is the real system of Komoro City (小諸市, Nagano) — the nearby town across the prefecture line where many burners stay, and one of the only cities in Japan that composts all food waste into fertilizer. Five bags. If you're staying somewhere else, the shape will be similar but the details will differ — ask your host.
Paper scraps, dirty plastics, all plastic products (toothbrush, hangers, toys — anything without the プラ mark), leather, shoes, cloth, wetted ash. Everything cut ≤ 50 cm.
Glass, ceramics, metal items, mirrors, umbrellas, bulbs. Knives & broken glass: wrap in newspaper and label 刃物 / ガラス.
Veggie scraps, leftovers, shells, coffee grounds — drained of water. Komoro turns it into fertilizer.
Only items with the プラ mark: trays, wrappers, bags, styrofoam, PET caps & labels — rinsed and dried.
Cans → blue container. Bottles → color-sorted. PET → net. Paper & cardboard tied with paper string. Clothes tied crosswise.
Straight from Komoro City's official sorting dictionary (分別ガイドブック 第5版, March 2025). Komoro's rulings — your town may differ.
| Item | Category | The ruling |
|---|---|---|
| Beer / drink can 空き缶 | Resource · can | Empty, into the can container. Rusty cans too. |
| PET bottle ペットボトル | Resource · PET | Empty → cap off → label off → rinse → crush. Bottle to the PET net. |
| PET cap & label キャップ・ラベル | Plastic pkg | Different bin than the bottle! Green プラ bag. |
| Glass bottle 空きびん | Resource · bottle | Color-sorted containers: clear / brown / other. |
| Broken glass ガラス | Landfill | Wrap in newspaper, write ガラス on it. Blue bag. |
| Cigarette butts & ash たばこの吸殻 | Burnable | Red bag. (On site: portable ashtray, carry out.) |
| E-cigarette / IQOS 電子たばこ | Landfill | Blue bag — it's electronics, not a butt. |
| Camp-stove gas canister カセットガスボンベ | Resource · can | Use gas up completely → can container. No puncturing needed in Komoro. |
| Spray can スプレー缶 | Resource · can | Same: fully empty, no hole. |
| Propane / LP tank ＬＰガスボンベ | Not collectible | City refuses it. Specialist contractor or the rental shop it came from. |
| BBQ charcoal 炭 | Burnable | Red bag. Ash: confirm dead-out, wet it, wrap in newspaper. |
| Disposable chopsticks / skewers 割り箸・串 | Burnable | Red bag. |
| Paper cups & plates 紙コップ・紙皿 | Burnable | NOT paper recycling — food-soiled paper burns. (Banned from gifting at BJ anyway.) |
| Food wrap サランラップ | Burnable | Red bag — it's dirty plastic. |
| Styrofoam tray / box 発泡スチロール | Plastic pkg | Green bag, broken into pieces. Clean only. |
| Shopping bag レジ袋 | Plastic pkg | Green bag (it carries the プラ mark). |
| Food scraps / leftovers 残飯・生ごみ | Food waste | Paper bag, water drained. Becomes fertilizer in Komoro. |
| Coffee grounds / tea leaves コーヒーかす・茶がら | Food waste | Paper bag. (Tea bag itself → burnable.) |
| Eggshells / shells 卵の殻・貝殻 | Food waste | Paper bag. |
| Cooking oil 廃食用油 | Resource · depot | Collection points: city hall, Clean Hill, welfare & culture centers. Solidified → burnable. |
| Tent fabric テント（シート） | Burnable* | *Only if cut into ≤ 50 cm pieces. Whole → oversized, facility, fee. |
| Tent poles テント（ポール） | Landfill | Blue bag — metal. |
| Blue tarp ブルーシート | Oversized | Facility (cutting class) — or ≤ 50 cm pieces → burnable. |
| Sleeping bag 寝袋 | Oversized | Facility — or cut ≤ 50 cm → burnable. |
| Rope / cord ロープ・ひも | Burnable* | *Cut to ≤ 50 cm. |
| Leisure sheet レジャーシート | Burnable* | *Cut to ≤ 50 cm. |
| Cooler box クーラーボックス | Oversized | Facility (crushing class) — landfill bag only if it actually fits. |
| Ice pack 保冷剤 | Burnable | Red bag. |
| Disposable hand warmer 使い捨てカイロ | Burnable | Red bag. |
| Dry-cell batteries 乾電池 | Hazard pickup | Special hazardous collection — never in a regular bag. |
| Rechargeable / power bank モバイルバッテリー | Not collectible | Store take-back (JBRC network). Lithium starts truck fires — never bag it. Anywhere. Ever. |
| Disposable lighter 使い捨てライター | Landfill | Empty it completely first. Blue bag or hazardous collection. |
| Aluminum foil アルミホイル | Burnable | Red bag — yes, really. Komoro's ruling. |
Komoro extras: self-haul to Clean Hill Komoro (クリーンヒルこもろ, 菱平367-1, ☎ 0267-26-0022) weekdays 9–12 / 13–16 & 3rd Sunday morning — intake form + photo ID + cash, ¥100 per 10 kg, oversized items add ¥100–1,000 each. Food waste not accepted there. The facility's waste heat runs a ¥100 public bath. Whether a non-resident visitor may self-haul is not stated anywhere official — call first (see below).
Komoro collects by district — four of them, each with its own calendar, and collection days cannot be guessed. If you're at the ZuCity Japan houses in Yoramachi (与良町, along the old Hokkoku Kaidō), you are in District No.1 (第1地区) — verified against the city's official FY2026 collection calendar and the collectors' area lists. The weekly rhythm:
Morning-of only: bags go out on the morning of collection day — never the night before (the crows know this schedule too). Your house's station (集積所) is the specific spot your block uses — confirm it once with your host or house manager, then never guess again.
Exact dates — the monthly cans/bottles Wednesdays, paper days, landfill, clothes, hazardous pickups and Clean Hill Sundays — live on the ZuCity calendar above, sourced from Komoro City's official District No.1 calendar feed (JST-corrected). In a different part of town? The city page carries all four districts — ask your host which one you're in.
Screenshot this section. Pointing at a phrase works perfectly in any shop, inn or city office.
You are at 1,400 m, on a working cattle ranch, beside a cars-only private toll road. Burning Japan's own access page sums the situation up in one line: "only 3 buses a day." That is not a figure of speech. Miss the last one and you are sleeping in Gunma — so the exodus plan is part of your packing list, not an afterthought.
Everything below comes from the Seibu Kanko Bus official autumn 2026 timetable, valid from 1 October 2026 — the very PDF Burning Japan links from its Access page. The ranch has its own bus stop in it: 嬬恋牧場 愛妻の鐘 (Tsumagoi Bokujo · Aisai no Kane), right at the bell. Route letter M.
One bus does all of them — you just get off at a different stop.
And the one that doesn't work: ⚠️ the Manza Bus Terminal ↔ Shirane-kazan ↔ Kusatsu Onsen stretch is 運休 — suspended, printed right on the current timetable. Do not plan an exodus "over the top" to Kusatsu. The Kusatsu highway bus is still reachable, but only the long way round, down the valley and through Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi as in route ③.
Route M, downhill (toward Karuizawa). Screenshot it — this is the whole exodus on one grid.
| Stop | Bus 1 | Bus 2 | Bus 3 · last |
|---|---|---|---|
| 万座バスターミナル Manza Bus Terminal | 9:55 | 14:25 | 16:40 |
| 嬬恋牧場 愛妻の鐘 Tsumagoi Bokujo · Aisai no Kane — THE BURN | 10:08 | 14:38 | 16:53 |
| 嬬恋プリンスホテル前 Tsumagoi Prince Hotel-mae | 10:18 | 14:48 | 17:03 |
| 万座・鹿沢口駅 Manza-Kazawaguchi Sta. — JR Agatsuma Line | 10:39 | 15:09 | 17:24 |
| 鬼押出し園 Onioshidashi-en | 10:55 | 15:25 | 17:40 |
| 中軽井沢駅 Naka-Karuizawa Sta. | 11:32 | 16:02 | 18:17 |
| 軽井沢駅 Karuizawa Sta. — Hokuriku Shinkansen | 11:45 | 16:15 | 18:30 |
Coming in the other way, the same three buses leave 万座・鹿沢口駅 at 8:32 · 12:53 · 15:08 and reach the bell at 8:53 · 13:14 · 15:29. Karuizawa Sta. departures that reach the ranch: 9:10 · 13:00 · 15:05 (Sat/Sun/holiday) / 9:10 · 13:00 · 15:55 (weekday) — read the PDF, the Karuizawa end has many more buses that stop short of the mountain.
And the trains waiting at the bottom. 万座・鹿沢口駅 → Takasaki/Shin-Maebashi (checked for Mon 12 Oct 2026, a national holiday):
| Departure | Connects from | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 06:48 · 07:20 · 08:35 | no bus yet | Early birds only — the first bus down doesn't arrive until 10:39. |
| 10:53 | bus 10:08 | 14 min to change. Easy. |
| 12:47 | no bus | Only if you taxied or hitched down. |
| 15:24 | bus 14:38 | 15 min. This is the one that catches the 16:23 highway bus. |
| 16:21 | no bus | — |
| 17:36 | bus 16:53 | 12 min. The last bus-to-train handshake of the day. |
| 18:59 | no bus | Last departure that still reaches Tokyo the same night: 21:52 via shinkansen, or 22:51 all-local. |
| 20:14 | last train | Last train out of the valley. Whether it still connects to Tokyo the same night — unverified, check on the day. |
Because how you leave decides where your garbage ends up. The bus doesn't have a luggage bay. The station has a konbini across the road. Those two facts have ended events before.
This is the official concession for public-transport attendees, and it is the single best reason to come by train. Hand it over already separated — 燃えるごみ burnable / 缶 cans / ペットボトル PET, in their own bags. Fire residue (燃えかす) goes on the BBQ grill at the gate if it's too hot to carry. Drivers: this is not for you — 100% of it goes home in your boot.
Picture it honestly: one door, a numbered-ticket machine, a fare box, people behind you, a driver on a timetable, 8.8 km of switchbacks ahead. Nobody tips out a bin bag on the step. Do the separation at your camp with daylight and gloves, tie it, compress it, double-bag it against smell, and arrive with bags you can carry on your lap.
The convenience store beside Manza-Kazawaguchi Station is the most tempting bin in Gunma, and dumping there is absolutely forbidden — Burning Japan's words, no exception even for things you bought in that shop. The same goes for Karuizawa Station, Kusatsu's bus terminal and every rest stop on the way. Tsumagoi Village formally refuses outside waste; a past Japanese burn lost its venue over exactly this. Carry it to where you sleep, then sort it by that town's rules.
Soapy, oily, sweet, tea- or coffee-coloured water goes in sealed bottles labelled グレイウォーター, upright, in a bag that can hold a leak. Two hours of mountain hairpins will test every lid you own. Pure water only may go in the street drains at the burn; nothing goes in the toilets, ever.
Coming by train means every can, bottle and bag you bring, you also carry back up the step of a bus. That is the real reason burners buy fewer cans, decant drinks into a bottle, strip packaging at home and skip paper plates. Leave No Trace isn't only an ethic out here — it's a weight limit.
Screenshot it. Rural drivers rarely speak English, and pointing works perfectly. Pair it with the garbage phrase card above.
How to pay the bus: take a 整理券 ticket when you board, pay at the front when you get off. Suica / PASMO and contactless cards work on this route, and the fare box changes ¥1,000 notes — nothing larger. Carry coins anyway; 1,400 m is no place to discover an empty IC card.
The number for "is the bus running / what time is it today". Route-bus desk, 9:00–17:00 (depot hours on the timetable: 8:30–17:30). Japanese.
The local taxi company, based in Kanbara, minutes from the station. Hourly charter ¥6,980 (4-seat) / ¥8,520 (9-seat). Naganohara branch 0279-82-2288, jumbo taxi up to 8 with a booking.
Train times, fares, seat availability. 8:00–21:00. Must be dialled from the 050 prefix.
Reservations and inquiries for 上州ゆめぐり号, 10:00–17:00. Seats are reserved — book before you leave the ranch.
One minute from Manza-Kazawaguchi Station, 8:30–17:15. Humans who know the buses, can call you a taxi, and rent bicycles (¥1,000/day). Your best friend if the plan breaks.
For anything official. Remember: the village accepts no visitor waste — don't ask them to take your bags.
No ride at all? Burning Japan runs its rideshare board on its own Discord — the carpool channel is the community's actual answer to "I have no car," both directions, and it's where last-minute exodus seats appear. Ask early, offer to chip in for tolls and petrol, and tell your driver how many bags you're bringing before they say yes. The toll road alone costs money; a quiet ¥2,000 and a cold drink is the gift economy working properly.
Hot springs, while you still can: Manza Onsen is ~15 min by car, Kusatsu ~30 min, roughly ¥800–1,000, and Manza's day-visitor desks stop taking people around 16:00 — so the 10:00–14:00 window is the one. Manza is reported to be relatively tattoo-tolerant. Go clean, leave sorted, catch the 16:53.
A wrong bin instruction is worse than "ask the city office." Everything above traces to official municipal pages or Burning Japan's own published rules. These points we could not confirm — don't guess, call:
Mon–Fri office hours · genryo@city.komoro.nagano.jp · Japanese (bring your phrase card or a translation app)
Komoro's disposal facility · weekdays 9–12 / 13–16 · 3rd Sun 9–11:30
The village the burn is in. Remember: it officially accepts no visitor waste.
Tsumagoi's facility — residents & villa owners only.
All checked October 2026. If an official page and this guide ever disagree, the official page wins.
Not affiliated with Burning Japan, Tsumagoi Village or Komoro City — we're burners who read the official rules so you don't leave a trace by accident.