Trip Report: Lake Kawaguchiko

Preface by saying this is just one part of my trip so far, so decided to just break it apart until I feel like typing the other places. Starting off with what was the biggest questions I had originally for Kawaguchiko, transportation.

**Getting There**

There’s two options I know of one is through the rail which does not directly reach the area you will need to transfer to a local train afterwards.

The one I used is through the **highway bus** which has express bus terminals in Shibuya, Shinjuku, and I think Chiyoda. I originally was going use the Shibuya one, but the bus there only departs every hour or so which I ended up calculating I would miss when commuting there. While Shinjuku, goes every 20-30 minutes and so I went there after reaching Shibuya, it’s not far anyways and is more of the major bus terminal. You can buy tickets at the website ([https://www.highwaybus.com/gp/inbound/index](https://www.highwaybus.com/gp/inbound/index)) which is in English or I simply just bought them there from the ticket machine which has an English option. There’s usually seats, but can sell out once the departure time comes up not a big deal though as you can just buy the next one coming up in a few minutes later unless this is during a major holiday.

The bus itself is nice two seats on each side and the one I went on had free wifi, bathroom, and a plug outlet which I used to charge my phone. They also have some space for your personal bags in the overhead and luggage can be put into the bus compartment.

Once arriving at Fuji-Q Highland which is where I wanted to arrive at. I didn’t realize the bus stops at other places and no one else got off, so originally thought they would were going to pull in more or something. Ended up at Kawaguchiko Station and decided to walk to my hotel which was about 30 minutes. I fortunately did TA-Q-BIN / luggage forwarding for my luggage to my hotel, so didn’t have to drag a huge suitcase with me during this trek which would not have been good. But will say if I had gotten off my stop like normal probably wouldn’t need to have forwarded my luggage overall. It was 2000 Yen so not too bad.

**Getting Around**

This was originally tricky for me as I’ve only used the rail so far which is way more straightforward. At the Kawaguchiko Station where most time I ended up. It is a major bus station terminal area which makes it pretty confusing trying to figure out which bus to get onto. Google Maps says to get onto this bus, but there’s 8 different bus platforms with a dozen of express buses coming in from Tokyo and other places along with other buses for many other things.

It took me awhile to realize that the bus Google Map was telling me to go on was one of the “**Sightseeing Buses**” which are buses that go along certain routes as Google Map does not say anything about that nor which platform it will be at. There’s three of them for the Green Line Bus, Blue Line Bus, and Red Line Bus ([http://bus-en.fujikyu.co.jp/pdf/heritagetour/routemap\_retro\_omni\_2021.pdf](http://bus-en.fujikyu.co.jp/pdf/heritagetour/routemap_retro_omni_2021.pdf)). This will be one of the ways you can get around locally. The other option is of course the rail, but can sometimes not be close to where you want to get to so expect to walk further to your destination still a good option regardless. Both the **Sightseeing buses and rail accept IC / Suica** from what I’ve seen along with of course actual money, so if you don’t already have that set up I would suggest you do so before arriving in the area.

In my opinion the area is not really the best for walking(not saying it’s not fine to do anyways) around as most things are far apart and many roads don’t have sidewalks, so you end up having to walk along the capped drainage pathway close to the road or on it. Not bad, but not great either. It also gets very cold closer to the night time that there are frost advisory when I was here way beyond what I experienced in Tokyo. Along with transit usually comes a longer intervals from say either 30 minutes, 1 hour, or longer, so if you miss them and are stuck in the cold somewhere it’s not great as walking back would not be ideal. Which is something I had to adjust to coming from Tokyo as if you miss your train it’s whatever since another one is coming in like 5 minutes, but here you might need to plan better.

Another option is **bike rental** which there are a couple places around Kawaguchiko Station. Not too expensive many quote 1500 Yen for a full day. The area is also from what I heard pretty flat, so not hard to bike around and when you get closer to the lake has better biking paths. I considered doing this, but was pretty tired and with there not being dedicated bike lanes you want to be alert of course near the road or sidewalk when riding a bike. The Red Line bus ended up going where I wanted to anyways alongside the lake. I found this recommended [biking course path](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.5056033,138.7265033,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!6m1!1s14NvWpxNclNC_KRjKJL-cW3GNEcYJKMbx) which is said to take 3 hours to bike all around the lake.

There’s also a [free shuttle bus](https://imgur.com/bG4EtpA) you will see it listed as such on Platform 4 of Kawaguchiko Sation, it goes around certain facilities supported by it such as my hotel and train stations. Google Map never mentions it and it comes by hour intervals to niche places, so might not be useful at times. I did see it advertised a couple times at stations, but can be easily missed among the many other fliers there.

**Weather**

This is a quick reminder to check the weather report for the area as the main attraction is of course seeing Mt Fuji and during cloudy or rainy days it is likely to be obstructed. I got lucky as most days were without clouds, so I got clear shots of Fuji most times even when arriving it stopped raining. I simply used the normal weather channel to check what it would be like on the days I would be there. There’s also this website([https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/japan/yamanashi-prefecture/fujikawaguchiko/mount-fuji.html](https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/japan/yamanashi-prefecture/fujikawaguchiko/mount-fuji.html)) that gives you a live view of what it currently looks like which is helpful if you’re planning on going the day of. That specific link is of Kawaguchiko Station too.

**Attractions**

I really only went to places to get pictures of Mt Fuji

1. **Mt. Fuji Panoramic Ropeway**
2. **Chureito Pagoda**
3. **Oishi Park**

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1.Even on a slightly cloudy day the **Ropeway** was rather crowded expect to wait 30 minutes or much longer on perfect sunny days to go up the ropeway as the crowds grow during then. On top of the Ropeway is a park which is nice with tons of views of Fuji and the city along with Lake Kawaguchiko and its surrounding areas. There’s also a souvenir shop and food place along with a vending machine for drinks.

You can go further up into the park where you can go on a swing-set looking at Fuji and the city where you [swing on it after they strap you in](https://imgur.com/EiaVHQV), but you need the purchase tickets for that ahead somewhere. Along with there is a separate small metal stair walkway up to a small platform to take pictures which is way less crowded. After that there is a shrine much further up the view isn’t that great as it’s obstructed by a few trees most of the time along with it is quite a hike on uneven terrain, so not for those that aren’t physically up for it. However, it is very much not crowded only few would bother going further up the path afterall.

2.It should be pointed out ahead that the **Chureito Pagoda** has quite a [ton of steps](https://imgur.com/vcHQisV) to reach the top. People on google reviews said about 500 steps and you can tell it hits pretty much everyone hard after the first flight of steps. Many young people were getting winded less than a quarter way up and so I would caution anyone with joint issues or elderly to consider skipping it or take it very slow going up. There’s also a longer flat pathway option, but to get there also requires going up a good distance.

I recommend buying a drink before climbing the pagoda as there are no vending machines at the top or water or shops, but there is a bathroom. Also it does get very crowded I would say around 11 AM, but there is a large multi-level deck to take pictures so should be okay if you get there a bit earlier. I took the rail there and the station you arrive at is some distance away, but it has a nice [brick pathway](https://imgur.com/HFKNxOg) to the pagoda for the most part along with a small ice cream stand you can look at Mt Fuji from.

3.I was originally going take it easy this day, but realized I didn’t have any pictures of [Mt Fuji and Lake Kawaguchiko from the top side](https://imgur.com/AZpNZo4). So decided to take the Sightseeing Bus Red Line which goes around half of the lake and the **Oishi Park** is actually the last stop. There’s not a ton to say about it besides it’s pretty popular for pictures as tons of people were there. Has a decent size souvenir shop and ice cream place. Usually people go when the flowers are blooming, but the day I went they were not so not much else there.

**Future Places to Visit**

There were other places I was planning on visiting, but decided to take it easy and didn’t.

\- **Fuji-Q Highland,** which is a theme park and actually is free to enter, but you pay for rides or you get a pass to go on multiple. Has good variety of food options if you choose to visit. There’s also this [Tower](https://imgur.com/UNG3MQ8) where you can walk up in the air attached to a harness and see the rollercoaster pass you by which I wanted to do, but it’s only open for 2 hours each day. Pretty good spot to go to for a group.

\- **Fuji-Subaru Line 5th Station**, I was going go to this but didn’t realize the train there has only like 3 departure times which I missed for the day. So if you plan on going make sure to verify which time the train leaves for it which are usually early in the morning. Will plan on doing this next time so I can climb Fuji a bit.

\- **Kawaguchiko Music Forest Museum and Kubota Itchiku Art Museum**, both seemed to be interesting tourist stuff to do and walk around but didn’t feel like checking them out on the specific day they were open. As I found out they’re closed on certain weekdays while open on the weekend.

\- **Fujisan Herb Garden and Deck** seemed like a good spot to visit too but wasn’t a good time to see much flowers in my opinion as not many were blooming.

**Closing Notes**

Will say maybe I would change for next time would be to get a hotel closer to Kawaguchiko Station instead of where mine being near Fuji-Q Highland. As I didn’t have much interest in the theme park while I ended up exploring other parts of the area which often led me to go to the station anyways. It also would’ve been nice to walk around the station area since it’s more of essentially the downtown of the city with things to do in walking distance. Not a big deal though since I just walked through Fuji-Q Highland theme park to the rail it has anyways to Kawaguchiko Station. Another thing I noticed is some restaurants would often open late in the day say 5pm or later, so if you want to experience certain restaurants a number might not be open until night time.

Ultimately, there’s not a ton of other things to do as everything in the area mostly revolves around the scenic views of Mt Fuji which is a gamble on the weather being cooperative and if it’s not then you kind of lose a lot of attractions to go to. That said i’m glad I went it was also a nice break from the chaos of the city.

[End it with a time lapse of Fuji from my hotel](https://imgur.com/8Tqqrvq) (has a bit of light reflection from the window)