My Japan Trip - Visiting The Peaceful Karuizawa

Hello! It's my 2nd post in the Pinmapple community and thanks for reading this!

I have done a few overseas trips last year, as some of my friends here would know, and I have been wanting to share some of the interesting places that I have visited. However, life has been busy and I have been procrastinating penning these entries and recently, I revisited this target of mine and finally broke the inertia!

One of my memorable trips in 2023 was to Tokyo, Japan, and during that trip, I did quite a few day trips to nearby cities and towns and one of them is Karuizawa!

We took the train from Tokyo Station in the morning to Karuizawa Station, and once I stepped out of the station, I could feel the peace and quiet in this little town.

It was so unlike the bustling city in Tokyo. The streets weren't crowded and the air felt so fresh!

We took a relatively short walk from Karuizawa Station to one of the must visit places in the area, Kumobaike Pond. Interestingly, it was filled with quite a lot of visitors, who went there to capture the beautiful shots of nature.

This was the iconic spot to take the shot where the greenery is intertwined with the skies, and the reflection in the waters made this a spectacular sight to admire.

We took a stroll around the perimeter of the pond and this photo was taken further in. The weather wasn't so hot during the time I was there and it was a very therapeutic hour being in close proximity with nature and the air was really, really fresh.

After the visit to Kumobaike Pond, we headed to outlets for some shopping at Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza. It's interesting that there were shopping places in this town, which was really all about nature and mountains. As you could see from the photos, the landscape was really pretty, with all the mountains behind the outlet buildings.

They even had a water body in the middle of the shopping plaza to introduce an element of calmness and peace amidst all the shopping experience. I thought the landscape was very pretty here.

I didn't shop much as it was more of a sightseeing adventure for me - but I would never miss out on the matcha soft serve! Even though it was from a street stall by the roadside, it was still very good!

So that summed up my day trip from Tokyo to Karuizawa. I really enjoyed the peace and quiet in the town, and I guess that's partly because I live in a city where everything is so fast paced and sometimes it can be suffocating. Been transported into a place like this can really be quite therapeutic and I could literally take a breather.

With that, that's all for my sharing today, and do look forward to my travels to other places around Japan! Also, let me know in the comments if you have been to Karuizawa, and what are your thoughts about this place?

Finally, thanks for reading my second post in the community! More to come I promise! :)