Exploring Tokyo – Mt. Fuji

I think you can’t go to Tokyo and not visit Mt. Fuji one of the most iconic landmarks in Japan. And that what we had planned for day 2.

Mt Fuji

I’ll start by saying that we didn’t go to the mountain or hiked up the volcano, no. The common tourist attraction is actually in a town called Kawaguchiko where there has a mountain cable car ride that takes you up on top of a hill where you can have a panoramic view of Mt. Fuji. There is also the Kawaguchi Lake were you can also take a boat right and have a beautiful view on Mt. Fuji, both of those were on our list.

So we woke up a little early in the morning and took the bus to Shinjuku Bus Station.

There we bought our bus tickets (I admit if it wasn’t for my best friend taking care of everything I would still be there wondering what I need to do!) and hopped on the bus to Kawaguchiko.

The bus right was a little over 1.5 hours but it wasn’t long until we had in your view this majestic mountain.

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Kawaguchiko

We arrive at Kawaguchiko station and it was surprisingly calm. Maybe it was the time of the year or the fact that it was freezing cold.

We made our way down the street towards Lake Kawaguchi where the base of the cable car ride was. Unfortunately when we arrived at the ticket both the informed us that is had snowed so much the previous night that the cable car was close for the moment but that it could reopen a little later.

So we regroup to think about an alternative plan but, in a turn of luck, the lady at the both called us back and told as the cable car had just opened!

We bought our tickets for both the cable ride and the boat ride and hopped on our first ride.

A have to mention that because it was quite a cultural shock (in a good way) but as soon as the employees close the door to the cable car they bow and remain bowed until we are further up.

We started our ascension which of course was terrifying for me because I’m scared of heights but the view was very pretty (when I could open my eyes).

After a couple of minutes, we were on to of the hill with an amazing view over Mt. Fuji.

It was so windy on the top of Mt. Fuji that you could actually see the snow being blown off.

Time from some facts about Mt. Fuji:

Mt. Fuji with it’s 3776 metres of height is Japan’s highest mountain.

It is an active volcano and it’s most recent eruption bein in 1707.

It has an almost perfect conical shape that has become famous throughout the world and considered the sacred symbol of Japan. Among Japanese there is a sense of personal identification with the mountain, and each summer thousands of Japanese climb to the shrine on its peak.

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On top of the little hill where we were the is a place to get Mochi (rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain japonica glutinous rice)

And there was also a traditional game you could play where I don’t quite remember the goal of the game, to be honest.

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After spending some time admiring the view and taking some photos we made our way back down.

Little tip: When the weather conditions are better than the day we went there, there is a bath that you can take through the little forest to walk back down which looked lovely.

Also just next to the cable car ride there is a cookie factory that my mouth water through our journey down. We of course had to pop in a buy some Fuji shaped cookies!

We there went to the dock and took a boat that did a trip around Lake Kawaguchi where again you can have a beautiful view of Mt. Fuji but also the lake itself.

We also saw Rokkakudo temple. The original temple was built in 1274 by believers of the Nichiren saint, but in 1559 and has been submerged by the lake overflowing after heavy rain and snow-thawing in. The next year, it was reconstructed to current Myohoji Temple, so Rokkakudo was built to leave a reminder of the historic spot.

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It was now time to slowly make our way back to the bus station. On our way, we stumble upon the Hachioji Shrine and made a little stop to take some photos.

We arrived at the bus station where we had some food at the bus station cafeteria and we were on our way back.

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Back in Tokyo it was already night and we were quite exhausted and hungry again and my friend took us for some Japanese barbecue. It there a better way to end the day?

The concept is very simple, they bring you a small little barbecue that sits just under an extractor so you don’t choke on the smoke, and then you order side and the meat that you will be cooking to your liking.

Such a fun and tasty experience I highly recommend it!

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So here you have it. Our second day in Tokyo. Stay tuned for more!