When I went on a trip with my friends to Karuizawa, we went shopping at a famous outlet mall in the area. Karuizawa is an hour bullet train ride from Tokyo and is a renowned vacation spot, especially for wealthy people in Japan who usually have a vacation house in the area. I'm not part of the rich circle if you're curious. π
The famous outlet mall is called Prince Shopping Plaza. Sounds normal, right? It's actually just an ordinary mall right beside Karuizawa Station.
Karuizawa's Prince Shopping Plaza houses over 200 brands, international and local brands. You'll recognize some of the famous brands in the fashion industry here.
I was in Karuizawa over the weekend and we went to the outlet for 2 days too. LOL I wasn't even sure where I got all the money to buy the stuff I bought. π
Our first stop was the Nike Factory Outlet store. I was so close to buying shoes, as I am a shoe-lover and I have a lot of Nike shoes at home BUT unfortunately (or wait, should it be fortunately?!) I can't find the model I was really keen on buying. Instead, I found a very nice design of an Air Force 1 but the staff said it's only available in the online store.
A few weeks before this trip, I already bought myself an Air Force 1 but I still wanted to get this new design. Argh. Okay, my wallet was saved.
While my wallet was saved, my friend's wallet wasn't.
Right beside Nike were the Adidas and Under Armour stores but we weren't interested so we skipped them. To be honest, we skipped a lot of stores because of 3 reasons: (1) we're in a race against time, (2) we don't know the brand, and (3) we're not interested.
The East area is where you'll find athletic brands like Columbia, The North Face, Asics, New Balance, and many more. Another friend went inside the Vans store and got himself a new pair of boots-looking sneakers!
We passed by a small space for eating. Shoppers in the area would really be attracted to the aroma of the ramen this food truck was selling. Even if you're not hungry, the aroma will make you starve.
Since it's Autumn, sunset came early. We haven't explored the whole place yet. We're still 1/4th of the whole mall! That means we needed to hurry.
Actually, although we're touring Karuizawa, we're not staying here. We're staying in different areas and we gotta take the bullet train to get to our accommodations. π Also, the mall will close at 8 PM and we still wanted to go to a lot of shops.
We skipped the Garden Mall area for Saturday but we went back there on Sunday.
The Tree Mall area was where we spend most of our time.
The shops in the Tree Mall area include famous brands like Gucci, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Burberry. My friend who loves collecting Gucci went inside but was not able to buy anything. I guess he wasn't impressed or maybe he got them already. More importantly, most of the items they sell were for women.
We went inside Burberry too but found nothing to buy. Balenciaga and Saint Laurent were intimidating for us because there were only a few customers inside so if we go inside, they would surely entertain and expect us to buy something. LOL
We went inside Michael Kors so our guy friends had to wait for us. π I was looking for a backpack but the designs in MK weren't what I wanted to have.
We were surprised to find a number of people inside the Coach store. With lots of discounts on all of their items, who wouldn't attract a crowd, right?
This time, my guy friends were happy because Coach is selling for both genders, not just women's items.
I found the backpack I was looking for. Actually, I was looking for a backpack that could fit my laptop because the old bag I have is so old and sometimes the zipper breaks. (No, I won't throw it away. I will give it to my family. π )
While the backpack could surely fit my laptop, it's too manly for me. Sometimes, I wear girly clothes so it doesn't match. Well, it's manly because this backpack is intended for men. So I said to myself, if I could not find a nicer backpack than this, I'll just get this Coach backpack, which costs around 40,000 yen (286 USD).
My friends took time in roaming around Coach, planning to buy something (or anything! LOL) so while they're on it, I got tired and went outside for a breath of fresh air. I caught a glimpse of the illumination in the park in the middle of this area.
After a few minutes, I went back to check on my friends and they were already in the counter. Turns out, my friend who got the Nike shoes bought something in Coach.
Just behind The Tree Mall area is the New West area where unexpected shopping happened.
We found Kate Spade store and being a Kate Spade lover, I couldn't miss the chance of going inside. My guy friends of course were waiting outside. Glad there's a bench outside for them while my friend and I did my shopping.
I found the laptop bag that's perfect for me! It's not labeled as a laptop bag, the staff said it could fit A4. Good thing my macbook fits that size so after thinking hard about it (for 2mins), I bought it! One weekend I showed it to my partner and he said it looks so nice and matches me so I'm really happy with this purchase. After discounts and everything, I got it for around 25,000 yen (or 180 USD).
My guy friends said they found Tommy Hilfinger store so they would go there ahead and we would all be meeting there. They got bored watching the girls do they shopping. π
In the end, we didn't buy anything in Tommy's. I almost bought a sneaker though but my friends didn't buy anything so I wasn't really peer pressured into buying it. We went to our last stop which was Levi's and we bought some clothes there. Yep, I bought something for myself too, a hoodie. π
We ended our Day 1 shopping with a nice dinner in a Japanese restaurant that serves set meals. I forgot the name of the restaurant but it's just around the Center Mall area. This area is close to the train station.
Day 2 we went to the outlet mall again before parting ways, some of us were going back to Tokyo ending our vacation, some were going to Nagano. This time, we first went to the Garden Mall because my friend wanted to check Prada.
Prada was intimidating. There were only a few customers inside their store so we decided to just check from outside. They mostly sell women stuff so my guy friend decided to just move on. The same happened to Bvlgari and Armani. We just passed them because they're intimidating. π
I didn't take a lot of photos on the 2nd day. Guess why? Well, because I was busy shopping! π
We went to a few stores we weren't able to go on the first day like Guess where I bought my small backpack (yes! I bought another LOL) for a cheap price, Ralph Lauren, Furla, Marc Jacobs and United Arrows.
We went back to Coach and this time, since I already accomplished buying the laptop bag, I was able to check other items. I bought a white sneakers from them while my other friend got herself a watch. My guy friends were about to buy something for themselves too, but in the end, nothing happened for them. Di nabudol in Filipino. π
We also went to stores selling luggages like Tumi, Ace Bags and Luggages and Samsonite. My friend got himself a larga suitcase in Samsonite for the almost the same price as the handcarry.
Our shopping ended here and my wallet had been complaining because of the things I bought. π It was really one of Japan's big outlet malls, and so close to Tokyo. I could imagine why many people would come here to shop. I mean, who doesn't love discounts, right?!
The next time you come to Tokyo, you might want to visit the popular summer destination of Japan, Karuizawa and before leaving, a shop til you drop experience in Karuizawa's Prince Shopping Mall.
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All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.