Kusatsu, Karuizawa and Gotemba- Japan

Before the boys were in primary school, I never paid much attention to PSLE marking days, days where the rest of the school would be given holidays to assure the quiet or enable the teachers for the primary school leaving class cohort’s examinations. As much as I wavered about taking a quick trip away, it seemed really coincidental that the timing lined up with when my dad would be in Japan and when somehow we managed to catch the return leg flights on Zipair for $130! This was our jam-packed itenary over 2 days in Kusatsu, 2 days in Karuizawa and a day in Gotemba.

I had never been to this part of Japan- it is a 1hr Shinkansen out of Tokyo but it took almost 4 hours of driving door-to-door, stopping for lunch and gaining a new-found appreciation of Japanese rest stops along the way. Sign me up for roadtrips where you can have katsudon and ramen while you re-fuel! I also wasn’t sure what to expect as we had chosen a ryokan, Urakusatsu Tou, off an agglomerator site but it just looked very modern and it was indeed very modern and very beautiful. What we didn’t know was that it was just a 3 min walk to the center of Kusatsu city and made for a great immersion into the town.

I would highly recommend it with and without children! I give them a lot of credit for being able to deal graciously with a 4-children family. They have both 355sqm and 592sqm rooms- we had the smaller size but it was still enough space for the kids who slept on floor futons. The room finishings were very new, the linen was fresh and they provided yukatas as well as children’s yukatas for everyone in the family. I loved that the hotel was done in dark slate grey wallpaper and light hinoki wood and that every attempt had been made to make each space, like the central staircase and the rooftop terrace, architectural.

The hotel was well-priced for a family room at $260/night especially with the supplemental meal plans for $96 that included breakfast and dinner, and actually far more reasonable than the onsen-ryokan we stayed at in Hokkaido. It was especially relaxing after the flight and drive, to be able to spend a few days- in your pyjamas. I already knew the children would be thrilled to go to the baths and the meals in their yukatas, they loved the steaming outdoor onsen pools, which were neat and contained, much like the hotel itself, and they slept soundly through each night, waking only just in time for the delicious hot Japanese breakfasts of appetisers, pickles, grilled salmon, dashi soup and warm rice.

During the day, we explored Kusatsu, which is a charming and historical town built over the hot springs that rush from the spring’s source, Yubatake (generic: hot water field) which forms a steaming pool in the town center feeding all the public bathhouses that line the central drag. Kusatsu, with it’s old Japanese roofed bathhouses and cobbled streets of sweets and yakitori stands, made me feel like it is the movie-set version of Kyoto. Kyoto was much larger than I thought a geisha-town would be and much more cosmopolitan, but Kusatsu is sort of the right size of gossipy narrow streets that I envisioned would house secret bathhouses and gambling dens and business bars, that fascinating mix of both weird, odd, traditional and beautiful.

We were very fortunate to be there at a time when the air was crisp but not biting, when the steam from the sweet potatoes mingled with the sulphur from the nearby volcanic silt in the evening cold, the shouts from ‘yumoni’ monkeys beating wooden paddles to cool the water and the click-clogs of all the people as they bustled in their bathing gowns and hand-towel baskets, all came together to make it so very atmospheric, so very local. All the English spoken here was halting- on the first day, we tried to find a place to hike. “Nature?” I asked the receptionist, “forest, hiking?” She directed us to walk up the steep steps just to the right of the Yubatake and we wandered up to Sainokawara Park, a walk filled golden light, auburn trees and natural pools of steaming water, where people would dip their feet. What I didn’t realize is that the whole of Kusatsu Onsen is located in the Joshinetsu Kogen National Park.

The dinners at the ryokan were exceptional. For $70, we were fed a beautiful 8-course Kaiseki dinner, with incredible sashimi, some of the freshest and firmest I’ve ever eaten. Dinner began with lacquer box or table stand arrangements of appetizers, which the boys pulled faces at. Then came a stewed dish, a grilled meat of fish or pork - one day it was this incredible fried amadei fillet with the thin crispy scales- then a cold dish, a sashimi platter, a soup, a tempura and a Staub pot of steaming rice. One night the rice was with chestnuts and sweet potato and the next night, it was a perfect barra chirashi topped with lots of ikura. This was incredible value, given that it was a great experience for us and it also fed the kids fully! The girls were usually so over-tired by then, that they were falling asleep over their hot rice and soup, but they would revive themselves to polish off our desserts, typically a sponge cake slice with ice cream, fruits and a macaron, before falling straight into their futons asleep. Except for the receptionists, where we were met with typical expressionless inflexibility, the dining staff were so kind, friendly and accommodative of the children.

Sated and rested after our two days of hiking, soaking and sleeping, we awoke to our only rainy day in the trip, and drove the 40 min journey toward Karuizawa, stopping at Matsui Farm to pick apples. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect before we came upon this fairly large orchard- at the base there was a farm shop, where we filled a couple boxes with produce to tied us over the next two days- carrots, leeks, eggs, apple and peach juice, garlic, vegetables, then further up the hill, there were ponds of fish and some enclosures of rabbits and small animals. The girls fed most of my carrots to the rabbits- which is when I discovered that the bunches of short, fat carrots were in fact so moist and so juicy, then I couldn’t break them! They would bend, bend and bend in a way that I had never seen before! At the side of the hill, there was a fruit shop, with crates and crates of apples and it took us awhile of milling around before I decided to ask about the apple picking.

They charged us a small fee- about $4 per child, which is absolutely a loss-making exercise with my children because they probably ate 4 times that amount just going up the hill along the orchard- and we started up the path winding through the apple trees. These were unlike the apple trees that I’ve seen in the US, these were wizened apple trees, grown in different shapes and statures, with the most show-stopping large apples I’ve ever seen. They were quite glorious- deep stained, almost violet ones, blush pink ones in the prettiest rose hues, yellow speckled ones, all growing in almost a protruding way from the branches.

There are rules about apple picking, you have to politely identify the one you want, then you cannot pluck it, because that would shake the whole tree, but rather, you turn the fruit upside down and break the stem gently away from the tree. Of course we didn’t know this on the way up, and this was at first, lost on especially the girls, especially Pip Pip who immediately plunged her hand into the first apples she saw. It was still a cold blustery day, but as we ascended the hill, munching apples, we saw the vistas of apple trees and on top the hill was a stand, with some kind Japanese men, a spinning apple peeler and an apple corer to cut and serve your chosen fruit on melamine plates. They fussed around the children and helped them move ladders to reach the apples they wanted to pick.

It was really the most enchanting and pretty orchard I ever saw and as the day settled with shadows of light dancing through the leaves, it was a marvellous experience. You could sit in arbors of apples and the apples were really crunchy and tasty- one day I would love to come back here in blueberry and peach season. We had chosen this particular driving route because Nagano and Gunma, the intersection of which Karuizawa sits at, are the prefectures directly above Yamanashi, where Mt Fuji is located. This entire region is filled with agricultural produce and it is a literal bread basket, you drive past field after field of enormous cabbages, kale, squash, I had never understood what the draw of Karuizawa, its spa-towns like Takayama, or its tea brands like Delicia are, and now I very much understand.

Karuizawa has a central main street, along which you can find many world-famous patisseries like Sadaharu Aoki and L’Atelier but suffice to say that you could eat at a different bakery every day, and drink a different coffee and it would all be really high quality. The supermarket Delicia became famous for their original processed and local-ingredient foods like honey, jam, juice, tea and alcohol “produced in Shinshu”. This area while local, just screams discerning and it is full of incredibly architectural builds and hotels, as well as the famous Hoshinoya Karuizawa resort which is set in a lake.

I had gone back and forth on staying at a large encompassing resort like Princes Hotel East or Harvest Club, with their spacious grounds and autumn colours, and during our stay we found some really high-end contemporary designer villas, like the Shishi-Iwa House by Shigeru Ban with its stunning hinoki-crafted interiors and organic Ploh towels, as well as some better value stays like the Hoshino Resort BEB5 with its wooden decks and shared lounges. In the end though, we decided to rent a tiny A-frame house which was marketed (by a Chinese company and couple, as we later discovered) as a part of a trio of cottages called Forest Four Seasons. This was close to town but had a wooded tree-lined backyard with a hammock and an outdoor bath. The house had a cosy sleeping loft and a small, simple kitchen set up, from which it was really fun to cook our own meals and spend some quiet time as a family.

We made scrambled eggs for breakfast, which we ate with bread toasted with fresh butter and ham. For dinner, we sliced up the remaining carrot, leeks, broccoli, to make hot pot with shabu shabu beef and pork, and boy, those carrots and broccoli were so sweet and delicious! You can always tell when the kids fall silent eating and afterward, Pip Pip said in almost a reverant voice, and not just because she missed her broccoli- the vegetables are so gooood, mummy. Even the stock had been flavoured so sweetly by the vegetables and meats! I added rice into the leftovers and cooked it into a porridge with poached fresh-sashimi tuna slices and mitsuba for the next day. The produce was so good that we didn’t try any of the cafes in Karuizawa nor did we have much desire to peruse the boardwalk of kitchsy, off-beat stores and old Ginza shopping street leading to the tourist area- but on one afternoon, I did drive out with Pezzy to Sadaharu Aoki at tea-time, where we devoured a mont-blanc, a matcha opera and a macaron together.

We spent the day trekking near the Usai Pass- sadly we didn’t get to the suspension bridge so one day I hope to come back- and the Shiraito Waterfall. When we planned the trip, we considered going to Nikko, which would have been a further drive but which promised more wooded and raw naturalistic hiking. I was glad that Karuizawa had plenty of walks and fall colours and the mountain pass scenary between Nagono and Gunma is plenty impressive. I don’t know how Japanese people can live in other Asian cities where you don’t see mountains, they must miss these sights and seasons very much. Getting to travel during Fall, is something of a luxury to me and yet it restores my soul- it has always been, and remains my favourite season.

The few days flew by in a haze of naps, play and regular family mulching around like cooking and reading together, doing laundry and using the outdoor bath with all its attendant fun and silliness. It seemed like we could have stayed and camped in Karuizawa for much longer. We drove through Yamanashi stopping at the small Budo no Hayakawa Orchards where we picked over-grown grape vines for the remaining bunches of sweetness, then stopped at Lake Fuji-Kawaguchiko to play at the base of Mount Fuji and to buy fruit- long green finger grapes ($6), bright vermillion persimmons ($2.50 a bag) and a juicy musk melon ($12). If I were doing it over again, I would have stopped at our first pick of Nakagomi Orchards, which appears to be the largest orchard in the Kofu area. It only had apples during this season but there are grapes, blueberries and it is best known for peaches in summer. There are also many well-priced onsen ryokans in Kofu which all boast large sculpted onsens and that they have hosted the imperial family, the mineral-dense water being believed to have healing properties.

We went to meet up with my dad in Gotemba, a city 45 min away from Lake Kawaguchiko and Mt Fuji, which I had never been to before. We joined their group at Hotel Clad, a large, clean but somewhat soulless modern hotel where several high floors look directly into Mt Fuji- Paxton, who stayed overnight with grandad, came back enthusing about the view and saying goodnight and good morning to the mountain in the pretty picture window. Hotel Clad is also known for an onsen with a great view, and for being built right next to the largest premium outlets in Japan, a joint venture between Premium Outlets purveyor Simon and Mitusubishi. The outlet is big enough to live in and eat in, literally, with well over 200 stores in 3 separate sections, all in the shadow of Mt Fuji- which lends a very strange sort of Disneyland feel to the place as you walk around.

Arriving back to Narita, we had just enough time to pick up some tax-free souvenirs - brightly-coloured New Balance shoes for the kids who had outgrown their old ones, a couple heat tech Uniqlo waffle sweatshirts and artisanal suede Travellers Factory notebooks, to say nothing of the sacks of new rice and Japanese snacks we had squirreled away during the drive- of a truly marvellous and enchanting trip. Japan, you’ve been so good, we will be back!