One-day trip to Karuizawa
One day round trip to Karuizawa from Tokyo
I departed from Shinjuku Kabukicho at 08:00 and arrived at Tokyo Station at about 8:30 to catch the 09:04 Shinkansen train.
If you are not familiar with the network of Tokyo Station is need a little time to find the Hokuriku Shinkansen platform.
Karuizawa is not far from Tokyo, an hour and ten minutes to reach Karuizawa.
Arriving at Karuizawa Station at 10:14, seeing the passengers around me running up the elevator, I arrived at the tourist center to inquire about the ride route only to find that the Seibu sightseeing bus I was supposed to take had left at 10:17.
The staff of the tourist center told me that the next train would not arrive until 11:00. I checked Google map and found that a taxi over to the Plateau Church was only JPY 3000. Due to limited time for the day trip, I immediately walked to the taxi station to take a taxi over.
The drive only takes about 10 minutes, and as soon as you get off the car, you are surrounded by a patch of green, and every breath of air is sweet and very fresh.
The Plateau Church is like a cottage in a fairy tale.
According to online information, in the 10th year of Taisho, the Karuizawa Plateau Church was born in Karuizawa, a place full of Christian culture.
Photography is not allowed inside the Plateau Church, so I walked inside and took a look or two before walking to another attraction, the Church of Stone.
Designed by American architect Kendrick Kellogg, the church is infused with five natural elements of “stone, light, water, green and trees”.
After the visit, we went to Maruyama Coffee in the town of Elm Street, a ten-minute walk away, for refreshments and coffee.
I went to Karuizawa without doing research, so I misunderstood the large, very large Maruyama as Maruyama main store.
I agreed on the bus schedule and arrived at the bus stop early to take the bus to the next stop, Yunba Pond.
It only takes six minutes to get to Yunchang Pond from the bus station, and there are forested avenues along the way.
Yunchang Pool is actually an artificial lake, the area is actually not large this day, the scenery of Yunchang Pool is very beautiful because I know the bus schedule, I have only 45 minutes of actual time to tour here, I walked around the lake for a short distance.
I took the bus back to Karuizawa terminal and started shopping at the outlet.
This outlet is very large and although it is next to the station, it also takes 7-8 minutes to walk from one end of the outlet to the station, so be sure to leave early.
It was really tiring after a whole day of strolling around, but fortunately the Shinkansen train was very comfortable and I was able to take advantage of the hour-plus drive back to Tokyo to rest.
A very fulfilling day!