Karuizawa Summer Retreat

I didn't know that Waseda University was so rich to purchase a property at Karuizawa, a popular summer retreat that is around 2.5 hours car drive away from Tokyo. Temperatures there were around 16-26 degrees whereas Tokyo was around 28-35 degrees.

The guys who came here last year complained about the dirty shower rooms so they had to go to spa every night. But luckily for us, they just opened two new buildings so everything was clean and new. This was so much better than staying in those youth houses that my scholarship organization had arranged...  The only complain that I had was the shower room's location, which was at the cafeteria building and not in our dorm building (duh?). The guys had 5 shower cubicles but girls only had 2 (duh duh???). My sensei joked that maybe Waseda has a lot of guys...that shower for a long time...

The universities call such facilities "Zemi House". Zemi means research group that one joins under the guidance of one professor until graduation. This Zemi House facility includes 2 tennis courts, a large soccer field and BBQ pits.

Our Japanese friends were busy helping out to set up the BBQ fire, while us, the foreigners, were busy taking photos and posing like One Piece characters:

Hehe...

We later asked if they needed our help but they kept on saying no. BBQ pits there were clean and sheltered.

The kitchen prepared all the ingredients for us beforehand because they didn't want us to get food poisoning. If someone gets food poisoning, the whole area would have to be shut down for at least 7 days or so for investigation. Trash had to be sorted by cans, pet bottles, combustible (paper and food scraps) and non-combustible (plastics).

Sensei grabbed whatever he could from the convenient store, mostly alcohol. Japanese loves beer, very very much!

We were lucky that the skies cleared up at night and we could see the stars and almost the milky way! I had never seen so many stars before and saw the big dipper for the first time. It was exactly like what appeared on the textbook. We even saw a shooting star within the first 5 mins! (Too bad for those that came later and missed it) The guys lied down on the grass to gaze at the remarkable sight but we girls are just too concerned about the mud and dirt to follow.

xxx DAY TWO xxx

Karuizawa is famous for soba and this shop seem pretty famous and always have customers lining up at the door.

We waited for a long time for our soba and tempura set (1790yen).

Tempura should be served with salt to enjoy its crispiness and not dipped in sauce!

We walked around Karuizawa Ginza street. It is called Ginza because Karuizawa is visited by the rich from Tokyo. I feel rich by walking around here and there, tasting free samples but not buying anything~ XD

There were ham stores everywhere... Very declious (and expensive)

Advertising with a dog...

Karuizawa is famous for honey too!

Singapore's Merlion is here too! Ok noted that Singapore is rich too!

Next we went to "climb" a mountain, which was actually part of a lava formation formed by Mt. Asama, an active volcano. The entire rock garden (Onioshidashi Garden) was formed naturally as the result of the eruption.

The water was cooling and safe to drink.

It is said that the mountains behind is the sleeping Goddess of Mercy or Buddha (they can't make up their mind). The bump on the middle is the tummy.

We had to wait for our Taiwanese girl friend to choose her prayer beads for her mum, so we were stuck with a few bees for a long time. While the guys were busy running away and trying to slap them off. I attempted to see if bees will sting if I remained still. So when a bee approached me, I didn't move and hoped that it will fly off. But damn, it landed on my elbow instead and crawled over my fingers (I was folding my arms). Then it flew around to the back of my ears and that was when I decided to move off (hey no face ok). The guys were amazed and thought I didn't notice the bee but I told them I wanted to test the hypothesis if bees will not sting if I remained still. They were amazed about my calmness and I must say, I was pretty darn crazy!

Besides rocks and bees, there were also glowing moss! They literally glowed on and off in the dark!

This is the oni (demon) that was said to have pushed the rocks, causing the volcanic eruptions to happen...

This was where we should hide in case the volcano erupts again. They even left umbrellas there for rainy days, how considerate!

To make rock observation more fun, they put this chart for you to identify the formations, such as the "Godzilla Rock", "Dog Rock", etc. Hmm... interesting but I will not take photos of abstract rocks.

We were quite tired after our trip and went for a one-hour onsen (hot spring) that was included in our study camp fee. Karuizawa is nice :)

xxx DAY THREE xxx

This is my breakfast the next day. I still prefer good old bread, bacon, sausage and eggs, and my coffee! Unfortunately, they don't have a fantastic selection... no scrambled eggs/sunny side up and red meat. The Japanese style includes rice, miso soup, vegetables, pickled vegetables, tofu and fish. Sorry, not used to such food in the morning =_=;;

Next we went to make soba!!!

We had to wash our hands without using soap and wipe clean with paper towels.

This was our super strict sensei! We were very slow so he blamed us for not listening. Sorry my Japanese is not fantastic and getting old, so memory is failing. I could teach you painting in English to help you understand our difficulties.

We gave them our soba in labelled boxes and packaged the rest home. The above is by me and my Japanese partner (and soba sensei). Not bad, but I prefer their yummy tempura.

They have these cute and pretty toothpick origami holders but I didn't take them because I'm already trying very hard to reduce unnecessary luggage back home.

Karuizawa was great fun and wonderful place to escape from the intense heat back in Tokyo. Bye bye Karuizawa, see you again when I become rich... ...someday~