Shopping in Karuizawa is not just limited to the famous outlet mall, Prince Shopping Plaza but there's also their own version of Ginza. If you compare it with Tokyo's Ginza, Karuizawa's Ginza is more friendly to the pocket.
Kyu-Karuizawa Ginza Street (旧軽井沢銀座通り) is what they call it. It is located on the opposite side of the Karuizawa station, maybe a 20-30 minute walk from there. Many vacation-goers rent bicycles to go around Karuizawa, so this place shouldn't be missed. Some people like us though opted to ride the bus, which was around 150-200 yen (or around 1-1.5 USD) and sometimes need to be paid in cash, depending on the bus you rode.
Kyu-Karuizawa Ginza Street is located in the Kyu-Karuizawa (旧軽井沢) area, which is the main center of Karuizawa, along with the Prince Shopping Plaza and the Karuizawa Station.
A little Kanji lesson:
The 旧 (kyuu) in 旧軽井沢 (kyuu-karuizawa) means old or former, thus this means the Old or Former Karuizawa.
As I have mentioned, you don't have to spend a luxury to enjoy shopping in this shopping street. There are many shops selling random items and many entertainment shops too like a trick art museum and art gallery.
There are fruit stalls too but mostly are hybrid like this shop. They don't just sell fruits but also souvenirs.
The honey store on the left, well, obviously sells honey. They have a lot of flavors including Honey Lemon on a jar but what's interesting about this store is the photo of the guy covered with bees placed at the entrance of their store. I don't like insects so when I saw that big photo, I had goosebumps and tried to stay away right away.
We even found a snoopy store! I might have watched snoopy TV shows when I was still young but I honestly don't remember it. Nevertheless, I like snoopy because of its cuteness. I mean, it's cute, who cares hahaha
Outside this store, they're selling ice cream but I was too preoccupied looking at a couple who just bought an ice cream and it fell, so I totally didn't check what flavors and designs they were selling.
The lower floor is selling snoopy merchandise, including chocolates! On the upper floor is a cafe with snoopy designs so fans can dine in there.
The 3-piece set of chocola sells for 1,080 yen or around 7.87 USD, while the 6-piece set sells for 2,052 yen or around 15 USD, and the 9-piece set sells for 3,024 yen or 22 USD. There were many cute designs to choose from so if you wanna get everything, just get the 9 pieces.
There were also kitchen and dining utensils with cute designs. There's even an apron and tote bags. Small tote bags are popular in OLs (abbrv of Office Lady and a common term in Japan), usually, at lunch time, these OLs will bring their small tote bag when they go out of the office.
There were so many people and nothing attracted me so we went out buying nothing.
While there are many shops, there are many restaurants too. It was around lunchtime when we arrived at this place so we were looking for something to eat. There were cafes but we wanted to eat a heavy meal.
We arrived at Church Street, a complex that houses a lot of restaurants to choose from. Most people dine in here but we didn't. There were so many people so for sure, restaurants would be too crowded and many on the waiting list.
We continued exploring and found a quiet alley with few restaurants. We decided to dine in at a Chinese restaurant named Ajihei because there were a few vacant seats that could fit us. They have very spicy Taiwanese ramen, which my friend ordered. I went for the miso ramen though. All of us got the set meal, either paired with half chahan or gyoza.
After filling our tummies, we continued walking around the shopping street.
We ended our walking tour of the shopping street in Cerfeuil which sells a lot flavorful jams in a jar. Karuizawa's known souvenir is jam so it's no wonder you would see a lot of jams around the area. We especially looked for this store, because my friend remembered to buy a very delicious one from here when he first went to Karuizawa.
I kinda regretted not buying one because I wanted to have a taste. There were so many flavors and variants, and there were even seasonal flavors. I should have gotten at least the limited edition flavors, right?! But then again, I don't really eat bread with jam. 😅
I saw basque cheesecake in the label so not sure if it's a cheesecake flavored jam or really a cheesecake in a jar. I also saw jam pudding in a jar which looks so delicious. There were also cookies sold here, and a set of gift items containing a bag of cookies and a jam in a jar. It's a pretty store actually, so many women flock to this posh store. Their jars are affordable too. Mostly 1 jar is 680 yen or around 5 USD so my friend bought 2.
In our tour around Old Karuizawa Ginza Street, I only bought a mood ring which costs me around 500 yen or around 3.5 USD. I wore it right away after buying, and it's also like a friendship ring because some of my friends also bought for themselves. 😂 No photography in the accessories shop, but they sell a lot of good stuff there, somewhat similar to an accessory shop in Enoshima in Kanagawa-ken where I also bought a necklace and earrings.
When you travel to Karuizawa, don't forget to visit this famous shopping street!
Hope you enjoyed a tour of Kyu Karuizawa Ginza Street!
Happy #MarketFriday! This initiative is initiated by @dswigle in hopes of seeing different markets all around the world. I'm pretty sure you have something to share about yours too so join us!
Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.