Mt. Fuji and the Five Lakes


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Asia » Japan » Yamanashi » Fuji Five Lakes
October 31st 2013
Published: October 31st 2013
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Due to a school festival, I ended up with a six day weekend on the last weekend in October. Since Rani normally has Mon-Tues off, she took Sat-Sun off and we got a four-night trip, Friday night through Tuesday afternoon, to do some exploring in this great country. This means we could go a little bit further than normal; it also meant that we were going to see the beginning of some fall colors at higher elevations. Clearly, this meant that we should take a four-day trip to the Fuji Five Lakes area, so we did!

Of course, we came in during typhoon rains, since it's typhoon season here. That was unfortunate, but the worst of it was Friday when we arrived anyway, and it was too late to be a night where we were actually going to try and do anything. We found our hostel and then spent 25 minutes tracking down the nearest 7-11 for some dinner, because we are so spoiled in the Tokyo region that we forget there are not convenience stores every 2 minutes in the countryside. Finally, we found our nirvana, but only because my conbini-sense led us in the right direction when we were lost.

Since it was still a bit rainy Saturday morning, we decided to go see Kawaguchiko, the biggest and most developed of the lakes, and then hit up a famous onsen/spa for some massages! What is a vacation if you aren't pampering yourself? We took some pictures, and then went to the tourist information center to get a bus schedule, because the buses in the area generally only run about 5 to 7 times a day. Yes, that's right, A DAY. Imagine our shock and horror at this discovery.

We found the bus alright, and then our onsen (Yurari), and everyone was VERY nice. The woman led us inside and they gave us blue shirts and shorts to change into for our massages, and then motioned us into the women's changing room. Since it was also an onsen, the changing rooms were where everyone stripped down. However, they hadn't given us keys for lockers, so we were looking pretty lost when another bather came over and asked us in English if we needed help. She was very nice, and we basically figured out that we just changed and took our stuff with us.

Our hour-long massages were EXCELLENT. My body was so happy. Afterwords, we went up into a small lounge area and just sat there basking for awhile with the other customers. We left feeling very refreshed and revived! We then got some local cuisine, called "houtou", for dinner, which was good and warm, added bonus since the temperature was quite a bit lower up in the mountains.

Sunday was beautiful clear skies, and we had an early morning full of stuff to do! We took the bus again out to the lava caves - the wind and ice caves - to walk through them. The ice cave receptionist was an old man who was extremely awesome, and let us wear hard hats when we walked through. OBVIOUSLY we were going to do that, since that's just rad. We walked through the caves, and then decided that we would head up towards Saiko, the lake nearest all that stuff. Due to the bus being inconvenient, we decided to just hoof it up through the trees.

There was obviously a trail there, but it led up to one corner, and we sort of wanted to hit the center. We, at one point, tried to piece together a broken guidepost to see where the other arrow was pointing, but eventually we just decided, screw it, we'll just walk through the trees anyway. It took us around 20 minutes to figure out that we WERE on a real trail after all. It was very peaceful all alone!

We came out at Saiko, a really unspoiled lake with little around it other than a great running trail, and some fishers on the water. We hung out and took some pictures, and then went up towards the traditional village near the banks, which had thatch roof houses, traditional crafts, and great views of Mt. Fuji, since we had such a clear day. We also got some great udon for lunch - mine was curry udon! Small family restaurants are the best, and this one was really cute and let us sit in the area where you kneel on cushions at the table.

After that, we got on the bus back to Kawaguchiko (the buses typically end around 5:30 pm, as well, which was irritating!) but since it was such a nice day we got off early and walked around the lake a bit. Then we decided to rent a swan boat, so we could get out on the water. A nice old man let us pick out which color we wanted (I CHOSE PINK) and we were off on our paddle boating adventure for 30 minutes. It was fun, except for the motorboats, when we hit the wake really bad and started rocking, haha.

We didn't really have a plan beyond that save for finding some fall colors, so we walked almost 4 km around the lake to the opposite side. It was so worth it - Fuji was great and it was right around sunset and we got some fantastic pictures!

Monday was our big hiking day. My hiking in Japan book had the plan for Mitsu-toge-yama, an 1800 meter hike that ended back at Kawaguchiko, at the ropeway down to the water's edge, and they estimated about 6-7 hours (we took 5.5). It was a SERIOUS work out to get up, because the hike starts with basically 2 hours of uphill, incline, sometimes rock climbing, and MAN it was a commitment. But it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen! The views were incredible. We spent most of the time just in awe of where we were - the colors were turning and the cliffsides were gorgeous and the forests spanned for what seemed like miles and we were really high up. It was so amazing! So, so breath-taking. The photos don't even do it justice, like at all. Doing this hike in autumn is now my NUMBER ONE recommendation for people visiting Japan, that's how fantastic it was.

By the time we got to Kawaguchiko Ropeway, we were REALLY tired, so we got yummy curry for lunch by the lakeshore and then went to catch our last bus out to the 3rd lake of our trip, Yamanakako. The lakeside area had a fall color illuminated tree light display, with a walking path, so we ambled through that and took some pictures, but we were moving pretty slow since it had been a very active, exhausting day.

Tuesday was raining again, which was okay since it was a short day so we could get back to Tokyo on our bus again. We hit the famous Arakura Sengen Shrine, which was all ours since no one else wanted to be there in the rain. We couldn't see Fuji due to the weather, but we decided that being at the shrine was probably enough. 😊 It was within walking distance from our hostel, which was near Gekkouji Station (it was called Michael's) and I really recommend that, too. All the staff was incredibly kind and helpful, and were generally just really great. Good location near the train station!

All in all, we had a super active and beautiful trip to the mountains. Sometimes it's nice just to get out of the city!


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