chubunagano
Karuizawa
Karuizawa is a mountain resort of forests and summer villas at about a thousand metres in Nagano Prefecture, in the Chubu region, at the foot of Mount Asama, about an hour from Tokyo by the Hokuriku Shinkansen.
- Prefecture
- Nagano
- Region
- Chubu
- Journeys
- The Custom Tour of Japan
overview
A highland forest where Tokyo has gone for cool air and quiet for well over a century.
Karuizawa began as a post town on the Nakasendo, the inland road between Edo and Kyoto, where travellers paused before or after the Usui Pass. Its second life began in 1886, when a Canadian missionary, Alexander Croft Shaw, came through and found the cool highland air a relief from the summers of Tokyo. He built a cottage two years later, other missionaries and diplomats followed, and Karuizawa became the summer retreat of foreign residents, then of Japanese families, writers and the imperial household. The Emperor Akihito met the Empress Michiko on its tennis courts in 1957.
The town is spread through a forest of larch, birch and maple below the cone of Mount Asama, with villas set back among the trees on lanes that rarely meet a straight line. Old Karuizawa, around the original post town, has the shopping street, the chapels and the old villas; Naka-Karuizawa, to the west, has the Hoshino onsen, the forest and the stone church; and the art museums are scattered through the woods between.
Karuizawa is above all a place of ease: walks along streams and around ponds, an onsen in the forest, a museum in the afternoon and dinner in a dining room among the trees. The cooking draws on Nagano: soba, mountain vegetables, river fish, wine and cheese from the farms of the highlands.
see and do
What to see in Karuizawa
Old Karuizawa Ginza
The main street of the old post town, now lined with bakeries, jam makers, delicatessens and shops, leading north to the chapels and the oldest villas of the resort.
Shaw Memorial Chapel
A small wooden chapel in a grove of trees off the Ginza, built by Alexander Croft Shaw, with a replica beside it of his first cottage of 1888, from which the whole resort grew.
Uchimura Kanzo Memorial Stone Church
A church of stone arches and glass in the forest at Hoshino, designed by the American architect Kendrick Kellogg and completed in 1988, where the light falls between curving vaults of rock.
Karuizawa Kogen Church
A wooden church in the forest at Hoshino, where writers and poets gathered for open lectures from 1921, its wooden spire among the larches.
Kumoba Pond
A pond fed by springs in the woods of Old Karuizawa, ringed by a level path of about a kilometre under maples and larch, with Mount Asama visible above the trees.
Shiraito Falls
A waterfall only three metres high but some seventy metres wide, where spring water seeps from a curved wall of rock in hundreds of white threads, in the forest north of the town.
Hiroshi Senju Museum
A museum of the painter Hiroshi Senju's waterfalls, designed by Ryue Nishizawa, a single open room whose floor follows the slope of the ground, with glass courtyards of trees and moss within it.
Kumano Kotai Shrine
A shrine on the Usui Pass that stands across the border of two prefectures, Nagano and Gunma, with a viewing point nearby looking over the mountains towards Myogi.
Harunire Terrace
A village of wooden shops and cafes on decks beneath old elms beside the Yukawa stream at Naka-Karuizawa.
Sezon Museum of Modern Art
A museum of twentieth-century art in a garden of lawns, streams and sculpture in the woods west of the town, with works by Kandinsky, Rothko and Klee among its collection.
experiences
The best of Karuizawa
An onsen in the forest
An evening in the open-air onsen of the Hoshino springs, among the trees beside a stream, where poets and writers bathed when the springs first opened to guests a century ago.
A walk through the woods with a naturalist
A level walk of an hour or two through the wild bird forest of Karuizawa with a guide who knows the birds, the trees and the springs, then tea by the stream.
Nagano at the table
The cooking of the highlands: handmade soba, river trout, mountain vegetables, Shinshu beef and the wines of the Nagano vineyards, served in a dining room in the forest.
Art in the trees
An afternoon among the museums of the woods, the Hiroshi Senju Museum, the Sezon Museum of Modern Art and its sculpture garden, with a driver waiting between them.
plan your visit
Karuizawa on a journey through Japan
- How long to stay
- Two nights in Karuizawa is a lovely pause after Tokyo, and three if it is the quiet centre of a journey into the mountains of Nagano.
- Getting there
- By the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo in about an hour on the fastest trains, or about two and a half hours by road. Nagano is about thirty minutes beyond by Shinkansen, and Kanazawa about two hours.
where to stay
Luxury hotels and ryokan in Karuizawa
Karuizawa's hotels and ryokan are spread through the forest, and the best are in the woods of Naka-Karuizawa and Old Karuizawa rather than near the station. Among them, a resort is built around the old Hoshino onsen in a valley of streams and ponds, its pavilions set along the water among the trees, with the stone church, the wild bird forest and Harunire Terrace a short walk away.
Old Karuizawa has the historic resort hotels and villas around the Ginza and the chapels, and the newer hotels on the edges of the forest have rooms turned towards the trees and the slopes of Mount Asama.
journeys
Karuizawa on a private journey
We bring guests to Karuizawa on the Custom Tour of Japan, created around your party alone, on your dates, with your own Tour Director.
questions
Karuizawa: questions answered
How far is Karuizawa from Tokyo?
About an hour by the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo or Ueno station, or about two and a half hours by road.
What is Karuizawa known for?
As the highland resort of Tokyo since the 1880s: forest villas, chapels, onsen, art museums and cool air, at about a thousand metres below Mount Asama.
How many days should you spend in Karuizawa?
Two nights for the forest, the onsen, the chapels and a museum or two; three if you want to walk and do very little, which is what Karuizawa does best.
Does Karuizawa have onsen?
Yes. The Hoshino springs at Naka-Karuizawa have been welcoming guests for about a century, and several hotels in the forest have onsen of their own.
Where should you stay in Karuizawa?
In the forest of Naka-Karuizawa, around the Hoshino onsen, for quiet, streams and the stone church, or in Old Karuizawa for the chapels, the Ginza and the historic villas.
Is Karuizawa worth visiting?
Yes, as a quiet pause after Tokyo: an hour away by train, with forest walks, onsen, good cooking and fine small museums, and an easy link to Nagano and Kanazawa.
Can Karuizawa be part of a private tour of Japan?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, with your own Tour Director, and it can go anywhere in the country, Karuizawa included. If you would rather travel independently, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.
chubu
More in Chubu
Karuizawa, planned for you.
Tell us when you would like to travel and what draws you to Karuizawa, and we will answer with a Custom Tour of Japan created around your party alone, or, if you would rather travel independently, an Expert Japan Itinerary that plans every day for you.