This will be a short post but it definitely deserves its own section. One place none of us had been was to the Mount Fuji area. The best way is to spend a few nights in one of the towns, but we didn’t have enough time for that in the schedule. So we took a day trip, which has many options: train, bus, guided tour, private driver, private tour. We took a private driver with a van since there were enough of us to make it cost effective and hit a few more spots than we’d be able to with public transport, and less crowded than a group tour in a bus. We had two possible days to do the trip and by diligently checking the weather forecast, lucked out with an almost perfect day. We departed our accommodation at 0630 and headed west out of Tokyo – our goal in plain sight.
Our first stop was the town of Fujiyoshida. It’s one of the places in Japan that has symptoms of over tourism, which we were almost a bit guilty of today (stopping just at the same popular spots), but we were there early enough that it wasn’t a complete zoo. We stopped at Arakurayama Sengen Park, which hosts a Shinto shrine on a forested hillside.
And 398 steps up the hill from the shrine – the famous Chureito Pagoda. The cherry trees aren’t in bloom at this elevation yet, but look at that view!
It’s not empty on the viewing platform to take the famous photo, but it’s also not too busy either. A few weeks later there would be 2 hour long waits to get to this spot in mid-day. We just walked right up, waited a minute to get our pics right at the edge, and moved on.
Back down the steps we go.
Now that we’ve got what we came for, we stopped to visit the shrine at the base.
It’s really a gorgeous spot on a day like this, and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular.
We stopped at another place in town for an iconic photo of Fuji seemingly looming at the end of the street. One place we did not stop was the famous Lawson store with Fuji behind. We drove past it but didn’t feel the need to stop.
After a short drive, we stopped at Oshino Hakkai – a decidedly touristy pond area in the village of Oshino. There are traditional houses surrounding some cute little ponds.
Another postcard view.
We walked a bit further into the actual village and saw these cool pine trees in someone’s yard.
I’m so happy that we got to Chureito Pagoda ahead of the crowds as it was pretty busy here.
Another short drive brought us to Oishi Park on the north shore of Lake Kawaguchi. Also very busy, it’s almost noon now.
They have a renowned ice cream shop here, so we had to try it.
It’s always curious in Japan how there are very, very few public trash receptacles anywhere, yet it’s almost free of trash. Lots of shops have these sort of signs to avoid people filling up their bins.
To get right down to the lake shore we had to walk through these towering reeds.
We went for lunch at a Westernized Japanese place, where a lot of the dishes were Fuji themed, like the curry plate with Mount Fuji in rice and sauce form.
Or the volcano dessert.
I didn’t realize that Japan had Denny’s!! Apparently it’s quite popular here.
Our last stop for the day was the Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, which would bring us to the top of a hill with great views of the area, including the lake.
The Fuji-Q Highland amusement park.
And of course, Fuji itself, now starting to get a bit of cloud at the mid levels.
There were a few gimmicky photo ops at the top, like this heart bell; a swing, etc.
Back down to the van on the cable car, and into the 2.5 hour drive back to Tokyo.
Back “home” in Sangenjaya, we were all tired after being out for 13 hours, but this day was one of the top highlight of the entire trip. We really lucked out with that amazing spring weather!
Ellie's Adventures 