Karuizawa

So we went to Karuizawa. Where is Karuizawa and why you ask? Karuizawa is in the Nagano prefecture. A little bit more than one hour with the shinkansen from Tokyo station. We went there cause we watched Terrace House, a Japanese reality TV show on Netflix. And the last season was in Karuizawa. 

Maybe for the most people I have to explain Terrace House first.
It's not like German or American reality TV. So don't expect so much trash there.
In the Terrace House six young people are living together and get filmed through their daily live. So they talk, they work and they Date. Actually most stories are about the dates of the Terrace House members. Some of them have some goals they want to archive while staying in the Terrace House and move out when they reach that goal. Some just stay there the whole time. Some move out very quickly. There is no script and no forced games or something like that. But to be honest many of the members are models or actors. For the normal Japanese salary man it's hard to be on a TV show.
The show itself gets commented in Japanese style. So there are some people watching the show and then talk about what they just saw. Like you would if you watch it. Many Japanese shows have those commentaries. It's really fun to watch.
If you are interested in Japanese nowadays culture, Terrace House is a good way to get a glimpse in the life of some young japanese people.
There are at the moment 3 seasons on Netflix (playing in Tokyo, Hawaii and Karuizawa).

While the Karuizawa show, the members where on many dates and intressting places so we tried to check them out. 

Beforehand we bought a travel catalogue to plan our trip. But our expectations were too high. So while Karuizawa is a good place, it sometimes is bad to think too much beforehand how awesome it gonna be!
First we underestimated the weather. Karuizawa is on much higher ground than Tokyo so it was naturally a little bit colder and on that day a little bit foggy and rainy.
Then we went to that huge Waterfall that we saw on the show and at the catalogue.
It was a little adventurous cause it's more up in the mountains and we drove with a bus through the scary mountains roads. Finally at the bus stop near there, we expected to walk a long way to the Waterfall. It was a 2 min walk. The huge Waterfall was way smaller than expected. I think it's still nice and one it's a very wide one but in our mind it was like 30 meters tall cause of our anticipation. It's actually 3 meters tall. It's still big. Just not if you expect 30.
Then we wanted to walk to another Waterfall there but there were warnings cause of bears in the wood. So we skipped that.
After that we wanted to go to a soba restaurant from the father of one Terrace House member. But we didn't checked the opening times beforehand. It was closed on that day. Our own fault but still disappointing.
Next idea was checking out Kyu-Karuizawa the old Karuizawa, which is a shopping street.
It was nice. Some tourists shops, some more expensive stores and some German restaurants. So it's actually ok.
The mix of people was quite funny. Mainly middle to old age people, Chinese tourists and younger couples who often talked about Terrace House. So we were not the only ones checking out the place cause of that reason.
Also I was the only western looking foreigner I discovered on that day.
After the shopping street we went to an Yakitori Restaurant (grilled chicken) were one of the Terrace House members worked before.
He was not there. But it tasted very good and the owners were nice. It seemed to be an old couple. So it was a very family like feeling.
Later we went to an onsen (Hoshi no onsen). It was also a little bit smaller than expected. But it was a very quiet and relaxing place.
Near the onsen was a small shopping street which was very empty. But I assume it was cause of the weather.
For dinner we went back to Kyu-Karuizawa to eat soba in another restaurant. It was tasty but a little bit expensive.
Then we went home again with the shinkansen.
The whole traveling in karuizawa
we managed by bus. Which is a little bit complicated cause of the paying system which im not used to. 

It's like that:
You enter the bus and take a sheet with a number from a machine.
At the front of the bus is a screen with the numbers and it shows how much you have to pay when you get out at the next station. Paying was only with coins at a machine near the bus driver. If you don't have enough coins, you can exchange 1000yen bills to coins at that machine too. You just need to use the right holes. Then you put the sheet with the number and the right amount of money in the machine.
Here is what I did while I wanted to pay for us both 800 something yen:
Exchange the 1000yen. Get a 500 yen coin and put it in another wrong hole and get thousands of 10 yen coins. Panic... wife helps and we put the coins in the correct hole. Many people are waiting politely behind me. I felt not watched at all in that situation :D
But it's OK. As a tourist it's part of the deal to behave strange sometimes. At least I tried to do it correctly. I drove already buses in Tokyo, Fukuoka and Okinawa. But the systems are always a little bit different. And in Fukuoka and Tokyo I could pay with an IC Card (Pasmo or Suica).

So overall it was a worthfull but expensive (cause of the shinkansen) experience to drive to Karuizawa. Just our expectations were to high.