karuizawa day 1

It's a little over an hour from where we live to Karuizawa, Nagano.

A lot of Japanese celebrities and wealthy people have second homes here.

We should've checked out this place earlier, it was waaaay cooler than Tokyo, especially in the shade!

Lunch was at Monzen Yoshoku Fujiya, a western style restaurant that uses the same "noren" (shares the same "brand") as Fujigohonjin which has been in business since 1648

This hamburger had an apple & shoyu sauce, the hamburger was beefy, loved the salad that was served too

Satoshi had all sorts of things on his plate, he whacked it before a photo was taken...

After lunch we went to have mocha soft serve from Mikado Coffee.

I had thought Mikado Coffee was from Karuizawa but they are from Tokyo!

Why there was a preserved prune on my soft serve I do not know

Still this was delicous!

Then we made our way to the Karuizawa Kogen Church and Stone Church

can you see the wedding couple?!

We weren't able to see inside this church because they were having a wedding ceremony at the time.

I've been wanting to see this stone church for some time, built in 1988, designed by Kendrick Bangs Kellogg to honor Uchimura Kanzo, "the Japanese Christian evangelist who founded the Nonchurch Movement in 1901, promoting the philosophy that religion should not be building-oriented, that where you pray is the church" from Atlas Obscura

Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to view the insides of the stone church because they were having a wedding and we also needed to catch a bus to the area we would be staying.

Even if the area is called Kita Karuizawa it is actually part of Gunma Prefecture.

On this day they were having a mosaic art exhibit...how cute is this bear made of rocks?!

We met a new friend at Mihara Denki (there was also a black cat that reminded me of Malia)

Dinner was delicious.

Pasta with proscuitto, broccoli, homemade pesto & meat sauce

caesar salad

katsuo (bonito) carpaccio : a little too fishy for me

clam chowder : was starting to get full so I was glad this was a thin type of soup 

loved the dining area with large windows and screens to feel the night air

steak with homemade onion sauce (not shown)

vanilla ice cream with mango

the pension we stayed at was pet friendly so furry ones could sit in the dining room while their family ate their meal

It was a long day and we got to see quite a bit.

The weather was still blazing but at least in the shade it was cool.

Monzen Yoshoku Fujiya

Prince Shopping Plaza

Open when the shopping plaza is

Hours: 11:00-21:00

Mikado Coffee

Prince Shopping Plaza

Hours: 10:00-20:00

Pension Eden

1988-400 Kitakaruizawa

Naganoharamachi, Azuma-gun, Gunma