Itinerary

Karumai itself and all sanctuaries can be comfortably covered within 1 to 1.5 days; speedy viewing possible in 0.5 day.

Taking 1.5 to 2 days will allow you to have a comfortably slow tempo while walking around, enjoying each sanctuary to the fullest with lots of photos. There is though a slight risk of getting bored as there’s not much directly nearby to do. It is possible to rush through most of the sanctuaries within some hours (0.5 day), but it would likely be rather stressful and degrade the fun.

Seasons in Karumai

There are some season-dependent scenery or time-dependent events which you can aim for.

• Spring:
  A corridor of blossoming sakura trees in the town forest.
• Summer:
  Large, lush fields of green trees in mountains, green rice fields, hydrangea, cicadas, eating Gari-gari popsicle like Nishinoya (and maybe win a second popsicle for free!), trying out Ennoshita’s favorite food hoya which is only available in Touhoku and only between end of July and beginning of August.
• Autumn:
  Golden tree leaves, golden rice fields.
• Winter, early spring:
  Large amount of snow!
  Cosplay at actual Haikyuu scenes in Karumai with snow in background will be possible!

The following events are a bit flexible on the dates and whether or not they take place. Email your Karumai hotel host like Mr./Ms. Ooshimizu or staff from Karumaikyuu to ask for the exact dates of these events.

• Beginning of August – Karumai Summer Festival (Natsu-matsuri)
  Summer festival with evening street food vendors and fireworks. Sometimes the town combines this with a Haikyuu event in the day for the fans.
• August 19th – Haikyuu Day Event
  As 819 (August 19th, “hachi”-“ichi”-“kyuu”) sounds like Haikyuu in Japanese, August 19th is usually seen as Haikyuu day for the fans. Sometimes the town organizes an event for the fans on this day.
• Beginning of October (Commonly 1st or 2nd weekend) – Karumai High School Festival
  Aim for this if you can. This is the ONLY day in the year that the Karumai High School, original for Karasuno school scenes, opens its door for visitors. Outside of this day, visitors can only see this school from the entrance and from a nearby hilltop to see the club rooms and gym. The exact date for festival that year usually comes out in the spring of the same year.
• Mid-September weekend – Karumai Autumn Festival (Aki-matsuri)
  Aside from the normal evening street food vendors and fireworks, the fans can also have a chance to help lifting the traditional religious carriage (called Dashi, see pictures on Wiki) across town!

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Important Things to Consider

It is strongly recommended to take these traits of Karumai into consideration when planning:

• Many shops in Karumai are closed on Sundays
• Bus to/from Karumai ends early = Staying overnight halfway possibly needed

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1. Many shops in Karumai are closed on Sundays

On normal weekends, almost all shops close on Sundays. This include most importantly Karumai Shokudou (Original of the Karasuno Shokudou, the restaurant in which Tanaka’s sister works at) and the original of Sakanoshita Store for the Haikyuu visitors. Some shops might see no customers and just decide to take the day off. The town is basically very quiet with not much to do on Sundays. An exception to this would be weekends with city-organized festival (Matsuri) events, then more shops would decide to open or remain open longer than half-day as they anticipate visitors.

Avoid normal Sundays in Karumai if you’re planning a trip there. We were there on a full weekend during Summer Festival, and on Sunday it was much more people on the streets, and Karumai Shokudou decided to open. Despite this, there were still many shops which were closed on that Sunday. That included the original of the Sakanoshita Store.

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2. Bus to/from Karumai Ends Early

Karumai is situated rather far away from its nearest Shinkansen (Highspeed bullet train) station called Ninohe (二戶). It is about one hour by bus to get to Karumai from Ninohe, and there are only 5 buses daily covering this route (Yes, really.), with the final bus departing at around 19:30.

Along the way we were always thinking: Is this why Hinata has to bike so long to school …

This does not affect you if you take the night bus from Tokyo, as it will bring you directly to Karumai town at 6 AM. This will only affect those taking bullet trains and transferring to bus at Ninohe station.

Therefore, you have the following possibilities to spend your night.

a. Stay in Ninohe at Ninohe City Hotel

Ninohe City Hotel is the only hotel nearby that allows you to check-in late, up to 00:00 AM. It is two bus stations away from Ninohe station, but you probably have missed the final one if you’re considering this option. There is a taxi station in front of Ninohe station, which brings you to the hotel within 5 minutes of driving (costing one way ca. 1100 yen = USD $10). A convenience store is within 3-minute walking distance, bus stop toward Karumai directly in front of their door for your following day.
If you have ladies in your group, try to aim to arrive before 21:00 because they close their ladies hot spring area at 21:45. You’ll still have a bathroom in your room to shower, but you’d miss out on the hot spring.

b. Choose a city to stay overnight along the bullet train line between Tokyo and Ninohe.

c. Stay in Kindaichi Onsen hotel “Obonai”

The Kindaichi hot spring hotel “Obonai” is situated about 1/3-way from Ninohe to Karumai. It has an AMAZING Haikyuu room FILLED with Haikyuu goods, AMAZING food, great hot spring, heartwarming service from staff who are also Haikyuu fans, and many small secret perks for Haikyuu and Kindaichi fans. Definitely don’t miss. (This will be detailed out in a separate post.) However, the final check-in time for this hotel is 20:00. The same final bus that takes you to Karumai is also the last bus leading to this hotel, which only brings you to the hotel around 20:10. If you can’t make it to the bus toward Karumai, you probably also cannot make it to the “Obonai” on time. But if time is not an issue, there’s no difference between staying at “Obonai” before or after Karumai.