人気のスーパーマーケットの隣の和菓子屋さん : Okashi Dokoro Hanaoka Karuizawa Ten

Visited on May 4, 2020, for lunch.

This wagashi shop is conveniently located next to the popular supermarket, Tsuruya, in Karuizawa.
There’s ample parking available, so there's no need to worry about that even though it's only accessible by car.
Surprisingly, Tsuruya was not crowded for Golden Week, and neither was this shop, which still had some wagashi available.
I tried the broad bean daifuku, which uses yellow edamame—quite rare!
The yellow beans are visible through the exterior, and it tasted good enough. The price was quite reasonable, making this a shop I often stop by when visiting Tsuruya.

2018.9.23 Evening Visit

The Tsuruya in Karuizawa is always crowded, and on this day, I came with friends to stock up on ingredients for our hot pot dinner. After finishing our shopping, we decided to check out this Japanese confectionery shop and found some cute moon-viewing sweets on display.

The round sweets in white and yellow are made from wasanbon (a traditional Japanese sugar) and although they aren't real dango (rice dumplings) for moon-viewing, they last longer and can be enjoyed as they are, making them very convenient. Topped with a rabbit-shaped sweet, they were quite delicious, and before we knew it, we had finished them all together.

Visited in the evening on May 6, 2014.

Karuisawa Tsurya is extremely crowded during Golden Week, making it difficult to park as cars queue up on the narrow road, causing a traffic jam. Locals refer to this as the "Tsurya Traffic Jam" and plan their shopping accordingly. I hear that their daily sales during this period are impressive.

After purchasing the original Tsurya apple butter jam as a souvenir for Tokyo, I also picked up some Kanoko here. When I brought it back to the office, everyone loved it. This Kanoko is simply Suama (sweet rice dumpling). On that day, only the white ones were left, as they also make a light pink version. The texture of this Kanoko is very soft, and it retains its softness even the next day.

The main store of Hanaoka is located somewhere in Nagano, and this is a satellite branch. They sell a variety of Japanese sweets here, and the rice cake-based sweets are reasonably priced and delicious. Additionally, their walnut sweets are quite tasty, making them great as souvenirs.