For Golden Week and Dixie's Birthday we decided to take a minibreak and spend the night in Caro Foresta Karuizawa. Last year we stayed in the Yamanakako hotel and it was great so we decided we would try the Karuizawa one which was just opened in March! We took the girls to a dog run/farm first but this was cut short by the rain so we decided to head to the hotel. The traffic was horrific and it took more than 1.5hrs to get to the hotel just 22kms away!
We checked in and let the girls check out the room and the dog run before a very yummy 5 course dinner. The next morning we ate a Japanese breakfast and let the girls have one more run in the dog run before heading off at 10am. On the way back to Tokyo we stopped in Takasaki and just by chance found that they were holding a month long flower festival in the parks and gardens there which was really beautiful. The weather was much better than yesterday with lovely sunshine. We had a great little get away!
This weekend we hired a car with snow tires and drove up to the mountains in Nagano to another Caro Foresta hotel. There was a lot of snow on the ground when we arrived and more fell over night.
Jazz and Dixie had fun exploring our room as well as joining us in the dining room for dinner and breakfast.
We went on our first little getaway with the new car on the weekend. On the way to our accomodation about 120km out of Tokyo we stopped in at a place called Mother Farm complete with many farm animals and dog runs. Some of the trees around still had their autumn leaves.
There were quite a few dog runs for various purposes such as agility, sports dog and general socialising runs for small and large dogs.
For lunch we stopped by the BBQ terrace for mongolian style BBQ with Jazz and Dixie.
When we arrived we were very pleased to find the place just as it was shown on the internet. A cute little trailer house with its own "front yard" which Jazz and Dixie just loved. They chased each other round and round as it became dark.
Inside the trailer house it was quite spacious and had everything we needed. Jazz and Dixie were quick to check everything out.
For dinner we had BBQ prawns, sausages, steak, yakitori and vegies on the deck outside the trailer house. I made the fire and Shin had the job of cooking!
Check out was 10am but unfortunately it rained all night and was pouring rain when we awoke. We had planned to let Jazz and Dixie have a final play together in the dog run but instead had to bundle them into the car and head home. We all had a great time yesterday.
