A Day in Karuizawa Fits Inside Kyu-Karuizawa Alone

Do not add destinations. Keep the day in Kyu-Karuizawa

You reach Kyu-Karuizawa by bus from Karuizawa station. The town's guidance gives 4 minutes by bus to St Paul's Catholic Church and 3 minutes on foot from the stop. Once you are inside the area, the rest connects on foot. St Paul's Catholic Church information

The reason to choose this area is that nothing here runs to a timetable. For deciding which direction to head in at all, see how to choose an area; for the day that climbs north from the station's north exit, see how to shape a day trip.

Choosing the train from Tokyo is covered in getting to Karuizawa. This article is only about what happens after the ticket gate.

The two free houses are open in periods that do not overlap

Shaw House Memorial Hall is free to enter. It opens 9:00 to 17:00, and until 18:00 in July, August and September. Shaw House Memorial Hall information

It closes on Thursdays, and opens when that Thursday is a public holiday. It stays open every day from 15 July to 15 September. From 4 November to 31 March it is closed for the winter.

Muro Saisei Memorial Hall is also free, but it is open only from 29 April to 3 November, with no closing days in that period. It has no car park and no telephone. Muro Saisei Memorial Hall information

So both are open from spring into autumn. On a Thursday the Muro Saisei house is the safer one; in winter both are shut. Look at the calendar for your date first.

Shaw House is where the Karuizawa villa began

According to the town, A. C. Shaw first came to Karuizawa in 1885 and spent the following summer here in 1886, in a rented house with his family. He is the man who called the place a hospital without a roof. Shaw House Memorial Hall information

Then in 1888 he built the first villa in Karuizawa himself, and that building became the model for the villas that followed. What stands today was reconstructed in 1986 and donated to the town in 1996.

Next to it stands the Karuizawa Shaw Memorial Chapel of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. The town describes it as the oldest church in Karuizawa, the church where Shaw served as a missionary. Shaw Memorial Chapel information

The villa came first; the street of shops came afterwards. Knowing the order changes how the same street looks.

On the street, settle where you will rest and find a toilet

The Karuizawa Tourist Hall stands on the street itself. It is a wooden building, an information desk and a place to sit between walks. Karuizawa Tourist Hall information

It opens 9:00 to 17:00, with extended hours during Golden Week and in summer, and closes only at the end of the year. There is a public toilet here that costs ¥100; it is free for visitors with a disability. Carry coins.

For St Paul's Catholic Church, the town's listing gives an opening time of 9:00 and no closing time. The building is described as the work of the American architect Raymond. Services and events are held here, so ask the church directly if you want to go inside on a particular day. St Paul's Catholic Church information

Walking the street itself is covered in how to choose an area, and deciding what to eat in what to eat in Karuizawa.

Climbing to the pass belongs to a different day

Beyond Kyu-Karuizawa is the viewing point at the old Usui Pass, on the boundary between Nagano and Gunma, with a view out to Mount Asama and the Yatsugatake range. Usui Pass viewing point information

But the town asks anyone going up into the hills to carry a bear bell, a radio or something else that makes noise, to walk in a group rather than alone, and to take all food and drink back down with them. It is not somewhere to wander up in the shoes you walked the street in.

If it rains, see what to do in the rain; if you are coming with children, see coming with children. What is written here is a guide, not a timetable that accounts for queues and late buses.