For this post, I’ll just get straight to the summary: the day tour was a wasted trip. Because of persistent rain the entire day, Mt. Fuji never showed up at every spot we went to.
Still, I guess I can’t really complain too much. Besides this being the third time I’m visiting the Hakone-Kawaguchiko area to see Mt. Fuji – the last two times were in Dec 2019 as a day trip, and in Dec 2023 when we spent four days in the area – the price for this bus trip was relatively affordable at just SGD65. This day trip’s itinerary included six vantage points to see the mountain, three of which I’d already visited before. The six spots are, in the order we visited:
- Lake Yamanakako
- Oshino Hakkai
- Lawson Convenience Store Fujikawaguchiko Town Hall
- Oishi Park @ Lake Kawaguchiko
- Arakurayama Sengen Park
- Hikawa Clock Shop
Still, notes for future travellers who’re doing this circuit.
Seeing Mt. Fuji really isn’t a guaranteed thing. Ironically though, during the two earlier visits in 2019 and 2023, we had unobstructed views of the mountain at nearly every place we went to, which again proves the point: winter months generally provide the best opportunities to see the mountain. Every other season seems to be a crapshoot.
The Family Mart at Lake Yamanakako provided welcome relief from the rain and cold!
Oshino Hakkai village is lovely, and in better weather, offers a lovely view of the mountain with the village, water ponds and fixtures in the foreground. The village is a little touristy though, but there are a number of light snack stalls, a large souvenir shop, and also a few sit-down restaurants.
There are two Lawson stores in the area which offer that iconic view of the store with the mountain in the backdrop. The one we visited during the Dec 2023 trip was near Kawaguchiko Station, so naturally very crowded then, with many visitors obstructing vehicular traffic while trying to get their Instagram poses. The one that we visited this trip was the less busy one, which – for some visitors – offers an even better view, though it’s also less convenient to get to on your own. Not that it mattered this trip though, with the mountain completely hidden under cloud layers.
Oishi Park is a fairly small garden with lovely flora, but again, in rainy weather, there was no mountain in sight. There’s a famous ice-cream stall inside the shop where the park entrance is, with many flavours of ice cream on sale.
Arakurayama Sengen Park: I didn’t venture up this time, and was instead contented to stay at the park entrance. No point going up since there was no chance of seeing the mountain, and I don’t have fond memories of the 500 steps it takes to get up to the pagoda pavilion! The Hikawa Clock Shop is a short 5-minute walk from the park, but no one in the bus group wanted to make the walk there in the rain.
Arakurayama Sengen Park was basically our last stop on this day trip yesterday. It was about 3:15PM, and the trip leader decided to have us board the bus and make our way back to Tokyo, warning that it was likely that it’d take us 2.5 hours to return to Tokyo Station. That turned out to be exactly right, as we ran straight into peak-hour traffic.
I didn’t feel as bad since I’d already seen the mountain on the last two trips and taken a lot of great pictures, but there was a fair bit of disappointment obviously among the other guests. So, my last advice: if you can crystal-ball and look up the weather ahead, do choose the right date if you can to get on trips like these.
That’s a wrap for the two free days I had before the conference event. I’ll probably write an entry or two over the next several days to journal my observations about Kisarazu, so a bit more to come soon!