Surrounded by forested mountains an hour by train northwest of Tokyo, the resort town of Karuizawa has long been a retreat for wealthy families fleeing the capital's summer heat, said Katie Kitamura in Travel + Leisure. It was here in 1957 that the Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko met. Later, John Lennon visited several times with Yoko Ono, who said it was "like the Hamptons, except it's in the mountains".
With its Alpine-style buildings, forest walks and outdoor onsen (hot spring baths), it is a deliciously quiet spot, with a "timeless allure". It's also lovely in winter, with good ski slopes nearby. And in recent years, renowned architects have built hotels and houses here, lending it "a new and decidedly modern appeal".
None of the town's hotels marry old and new more convincingly than Hoshinoya Karuizawa. Founded a century ago, it now consists of a "sprawling collection of pavilions" set beside a "burbling river" – a "minimalist fever dream" of a ryokan, or traditional inn. It has its own natural onsen, and its restaurant – which serves kaiseki, or multi- course, cuisine – is excellent.
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Also beautiful is Shishi-Iwa House, a hotel with two buildings designed by the architect Shigeru Ban and one by Ryue Nishizawa. One of Ban's buildings "curves its way through the forest", while Nishizawa's is "a playful take" on the machiya, or traditional wooden house, with covered outdoor corridors and courtyard gardens.
Among the indispensable stops on a modern-design tour of Karuizawa are Shiongama (where ceramicist Shion Tabata creates "unique" tea-ceremony bowls), Kendrick Bangs Kellogg's Stone Church ("a marvel of organic form"), and Nishizawa's Hiroshi Senju Museum. There are also a dozen or so superb private houses that marry avant-garde design with an older Japanese sensibility, including TNA's Ring House, a tower with alternating layers of wood and glass – loveliest at night, when the glass layers appear to be free-floating.
