Alpine Route Extended: Return, Karuizawa [Trip Day 4] アルペンルート：帰り・軽井沢

Tatayama Kurobe Alpine Route – Return Trip

After another night at the mountain lodge Raichoso (雷鳥荘), we made an early depart just after 7 am, as we would have a fair bit of travelling to do to reach our last destination of the trip, Karuizawa. First, a return trip on the Alpine Route – we made it to the Murodo terminal waiting for the first service of the day.

: Farewell to the mountain lodge. This is the common area, stocked with many mountainerring books. To the bottom right is the coal fire place. Cozy in cold weather.

: Walking back to the Murodo terminal. Another clear day.

: Looking up from the cable car window

: Spotted rainbow while going past Kurobe Dam.

: We still had time for a late breakfast. This is the famous curry dish at the restaurant near Kurobe Dam. Each food item represents something – the white rice is the dam, the spinach curry is the lake, etc. Use your imagination.

: An exhibition documenting construction of the dam in this rugged terrain. It’s an amazing engineering feat. The dam provided vital hydro power for Japan during the time of high economic growth.

: Raicho (雷鳥) stuffed toy. It is a signature bird in the Japan Alps. Our mountain lodge is called Raichoso because of this.

Karuizawa (軽井沢)

There were a few things we had wanted to check out in Karuizawa’s large outlet mall – the main attraction there for a lot of shoppers. We didn’t expect our shopping would take too long, so we allowed about two hours for some brief sight-seeing. With a rental bicycle, we were just able to do a circle route up to the Old Ginza (旧軽井沢銀座) area. There are definitely more places to visit than possible with the available time – Shiraito No Taki (白糸の滝) waterfall being one I was interesed in.

Regarding bicycles, unless your sole purpose there is for the outlet – which is right next to the train station, then they are quite necessary, as places Karuizawa are a bit far apart to walk. Buses could also be an option, but bicycles are generally ok as the area is flat (though I hadn’t checked for the sites that are further out of town). One problem though is as you get closer to Old Ginza, the pavement can get pretty crowded that you have to get off and push instead. Also, don’t forget that you have to park your bicycle. The rental cycle shop provided us with a map showing the parking spots, which helped greatly.

: Express bus to Nagano City.

: Karuizawa station sign. From Nagano, it was a relatively short Shinkansen ride.

: Main pedestrian street in the Old Ginza area. Quite a few interesting cafes and restaurants here. But admittedly very busy – may be not much point if you are trying to escape busy Tokyo?