Kawaguchiko: The best Fuji-san view

Getting there#

In order to get to Lake Kawaguchiko area, the easiest route without a car is by bus. There are several departure places, but the one that we used was from Shinjuku station.

Once in Kawaguchiko station, there are several restaurants and cafes you can see around. In our itinerary we did a small stop for brunch at enrico, a cozy cafe, where we got some poached eggs and french toast.

When we got there the weather forecast was horrible—it was raining. We decided to visit around the lake, so we went to Oishi Park and Itchiku Kubota Museum.

Oishi Park#

This is a garden/park in the north/center part of the lake, where (with good weather) you can enjoy good views of the lake and surroundings and different kinds of flowers. One interesting thing to do in the park is to try the ice cream from the cafe as it is made with the flowers of the park.

Itchiku Kubota Museum#

This was one of the museums I enjoyed in a long time, though it’s a small one. At its core, it’s a kimono museum of a famous kimono maker (Itchiku Kubota) who tried to do a series of art pieces (the kimonos) with the theme of Mt. Fuji. Sadly he didn’t manage to make all of them, but the ones he finished are art pieces.

Night#

After the museum, there was not much more to do with our limited time, so we decided to grab some dinner at Hotou Fudo, where we got the local specialty of udon, perfect for the rainy day. For finishing the day, we went to our accommodation Michikusaya, where we had a very good night of sleep and the host was very kind—he even picked us up from the station.

Chureito Pagoda#

This is the most scenic view of the trip. If you want to actually see the pagoda without waiting 2h (what we would have needed to do, but we just didn’t bother to wait in line), you need to come really early. However, with a clear day and during sakura season, you can delight yourself with some Fuji-san with cherry blossoms view.

Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine#

After the pagoda, we visited this shrine, relatively close to the previous attraction. For me, as it was my second time in the area, I was surprised as even in such a tourist region where most of the attractions are filled with big crowds, this one was not. This was a big shrine in the middle of very tall cedar trees, which for me, made it one of the hidden gems of the area.

Oshino Hakkai#

The last stop for us was a traditional village where in my opinion there is not much to see, however it is a world heritage attraction. The village consists of some big deep ponds which are interconnected, some food places and omiyage (souvenir) stands. Also, one of the important things of this attraction is the water blessed fountain, which has a small queue.

Returning#

After all this, the last thing remaining was coming back to the station and returning to Tokyo, where we just followed the same route as for going there.