Our 135th entry in this blog is our first time trip to Karuizawa, in Nagano, Japan. This is a popular summer resort area for the residents of Tokyo. This place is just 1 bus ride away from our Station in Yokohama. But a very long ride for sure… at least 4 hours on the road! Just similar with our plane ride going to Japan huh! So here, our little Sai is very much asleep while bringing along his fury dinosaur.

We arrived around, God knows what time, I forgot! haha. I bet it was way way past lunch time and we were so hungry we can eat just almost anything. The station is fronting the Prince Shopping Plaza, an outlet shop. So we had our lunch/dinner in there before doing anything else.

And suddenly it’s night time! Time flies so fast. I think it was just 4pm. But it’s winter and it gets dark so fast. brrrrr and so cold. We immediately checked in to our hotel , the Hotel Rosso Karuizawa. Just a few walks from the station, but we waited a bit for their van because it’s freezing to walk outside. 🙂

The next day, we spent the day by exploring the outlet shops, and the very nearby Prince Snow Resort. This was Ate Rei and Sai’s first time to play with snow! Yey! It was a long day, we rode the sightseeing lift to reach the most top area of the snow resort. And a lot of building snow man and snow castles. Fun fun fun!

And on our 3rd day in Karuizawa, we went to Shiraito Waterfall. Shiraito no Taki literally means “the waterfall of white threads”, which aptly describes its appearance, as multiple streaks of water drape over the surface forming what seems like a white curtain. It was quite a weird waterfall as we do not know where the water came from, it just falls! haha 🙂

Then, we also went to the streets of Karuizawa. The town has a pleasant atmosphere with chic restaurants and cafes aiming at affording patrons and with forested residential districts made up of holiday villas. It was so quite it seems like we are the only people here. hehe. Most probably because it is a weekday, and a work day, despite that it’s Christmas Day!

Karuizawa offers a wide range of shopping opportunities, including a local version of Ginza, Tokyo’s most famous upmarket shopping district. The Karuizawa Ginza shopping street has a romantic ambiance and is suited for a stroll or for buying souvenirs and local desserts.

Here we are so happy to see a Ghibli themed store. We saw Totoro and Kaonashi 🙂 The store is selling all sorts of Ghibli products and some Anime items as well.

Jam is a local specialty and many shops here offer it in multiple flavors. A lot of weird souvenir stuffs are also available. Unfortunately this time, not all shops are open due to the pandemic.

After we explored Karuizawa’s old shopping street, we went back to the station to get food before our long bus ride home. And that was our quick trip to Nagano’s Karuizawa. This might be our go to place to spend time with snow as early as December! hehe. Until next time Karuizawa! 🙂