**TLDR; Don’t try to travel Kawaguchiko station to Narita Airport on the same day as your flight. It is very very stressful and a silly thing to do. Instead plan to spend the last day in Tokyo, or take the night bus back to Tokyo and lock up your luggage until your ready to head to the airport.**
Hi everybody, just got back from our holiday in Japan and I just want to say it was amazing despite the weather and a late blooming season. I will 1000% be going back sometime in the future, but I just wanted to put a warning to those who are planning a trip to the mount Fuji region at the END of their holiday. Our 9 day itinerary went like this:
**Day 1- 4 Tokyo**
Everything went pretty well actually, a couple of hiccups with the bad weather but we made the most of it by doing lots of indoor activities in Tokyo.
**Day 5 – Yokohama day trip**
Yokohama started out rough because of an accident on the express train but there were other routes to Yokohama and it ended up being super sunny and beautiful.
**Day 6 – Hakone / Gora**
Hakone was a bit gloomy but we went on a Thursday so it wasn’t too crowded. We completed the loop by 4pm (leaving Shinjuku station at 9am) and checked in to Suiun in Gora. I highly recommend them if you want a ryokan with a modern twist.
**Day 7-8 – Mt. Fuji / Lake Kawaguchiko.**
Mt. Fuji was the last stop and I gotta say we got super frickin’ lucky. Sun every single day. So much so that I got burned, but man, it was so beautiful with the view. I hope anyone going there gets to see it.
**Day 9 – Kawaguchiko to Narita Airport. (THIS WAS DUMB DON”T DO THIS)**
I planned to take the 11:20am bus to Shibuya Station – the NRT express from Shibuya to NRT – and check into our flights by 2:30, for a 5:30pm departure. I am an idiot.
I grossly underestimated the distance and overestimated the bus. It doesn’t look far, but the bus has to go through traffic, and it makes stops along the way. We also were about 20 mins late from our departure time, so it was already 11:40am when we left Kawaguchiko Station. It took about 2 hours and 20 minutes by bus. We arrived at Shibuya at roughly 2pm.
Now, when you take the bus destined for Shibuya, it drops you off in Shabuya Mark City on the 6th floor parking lot. You have to carry your baggage through the mall from the 6th floor to the ground level, and it’s still quite a walk to the JR line. Dragging 25kgs of luggage was stupid and I’m too old to be doing that. This was 2pm and the mall was packed on the weekend.
Getting the ticket for the Narrita Express wasn’t hard at all actually. There was no cue thank goodness and the machine isn’t that hard to purchase from in English. We got tickets for the next train at 2:14pm and hobbled into the station.
I discover it is slightly less than an hour and a half to Terminal 1 at NRT from Shibuya on the express. 3:30pm? Can we rely on good old Japanese efficiency and timing? Can I go back in time and drink a few less beers when I was 18 and be a little smarter this time around?
We arrived at Terminal 1 at precisely 3:30 and make a half-hearted sprint for our check in counter. Fortunately our airline gives up to an hour before our departure time to check in so we still had a little time but we were cutting it close and you never know with airlines these days.
My wife was an absolute trooper and handed all the documents and passports over.
“Hi, were here to check in” she said, while at the same time giving the stewardess a look along the lines of: *”Yes I know we are late and it is my husbands fault. He was born an idiot but he is kind and means well. Please help us get on the flight so I can remind him of this any time he plans a trip in the future?”*
And you could tell the stewardess was like… “Of course,” Which meant, *”Yes I understand this is your husband’s fault. This isn’t even the first time he has done something like this is it? The world is full of meatheads like him, and I understand just how many women have to put up with it. I know because I see it every… single… day”.*
I could read between the lines. And it was my fault so…
We were absolutely drained by the time we got on our flight and it was the first time I’ve ever been able to sleep on a plane. To this day I will be apologizing to my wife. I love her dearly but I have given her a solid piece of ammunition to use if we ever squabble. That and it was so exhausting it really really wasn’t worth the stress.
The moral of the story is this: DON’T DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE A STUPID STUPID MAN AND ENJOY BEING STRESSED OUT AND STRESSING THOSE AROUND YOU, EVEN IF YOU ARE A ZEN MASTER AND ARE AT ONE WITH THE UNIVERSE, BECAUSE IT IS DUMB THING TO DO.
If you ARE planning on doing this very silly journey, I might suggest the following:
Leave earlier. Like 8am or earlier than that.
Take the train. No traffic!
Take the overnight bus the day before back to Tokyo. Lock up your luggage and enjoy the day!
Just spend the last day of your trip in Tokyo so you don’t have to travel so far.
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Was it possible, yes… does that mean you should do it. HELL NO.
by punchy0011