Karuizawa

Karuizawa was a declining post town on the Nakasendo when Alexander Croft Shaw, a Canadian Anglican missionary, built a summer house here in 1886 because the altitude of about a thousand metres made it cool and dry compared with Tokyo. Other missionaries followed, then Japanese elites, and the place became a villa town - the wooden Shaw Memorial Church and several early chapels survive among the larch woods, along with the Mampei Hotel of 1894. Shinkansen access since 1997 put it seventy minutes from Tokyo and changed it again: a large outlet mall sits directly beside the station, and the town now runs on day trippers as much as villa owners. The older half is still there in the trees - the Kyu-Karuizawa street, cycle paths through larch, Shiraito Falls, and the raw lava field of Onioshidashi on the flank of Mount Asama, an active volcano immediately north.

What you actually see

• A missionary's resort - founded by a Canadian who built here in 1886 for the climate.
• Larch woods and villas - early chapels and the 1894 Mampei Hotel among the trees.
• An outlet mall - a large one beside the station, and the day-trip economy round it.
• Onioshidashi - a raw lava field on the flank of the active Mount Asama.

When to go

May to October; December to March for skiing. Two days.

Honest expectations

Summer weekends and the outlet mall bring heavy traffic and congestion. Prices are high for Japan. Winter is very cold and many villa-area businesses close. Asama's alert level occasionally restricts access on its flanks.

Nearby

Onioshidashi is north; Nagano and Zenkoji are west.