TRIP REPORT: Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain of Japan and one of it's most famous symbols; the Japanese people love it, and now so do I! After New Years in Tokyo, I went on a short trip to see Fuji-san and I thought it'd be nice to write a little report & review the things I've done there. I've added some practical information for people that would like to visit the area; as I know that is something I always like to read and sometimes it’s hard to find this information on the official, Japanese-only websites.
PS- every thing that is underlined links to some extra info!

Thursday 3^rd of January

If you want to come up close and personal with Mt. Fuji there are a lot of towns you can go to. Kind of randomly I chose Kawaguchiko. The climbing seasons is only in July and August, which was a good excuse for me not to have to go up there. 

Mt. Fuji lies about two hours south of Tokyo.

In the afternoon, I took a bus from Tokyo´s Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko station. My hostel, K’s House, provided a pick-up service, which is always nice. After some sensory overwhelming days in Tokyo I needed some rest so I just spent that night in my bed; looking up things to do. I got pretty lucky with the hostel. I booked a 6 person female only dorm, ended up in a four person one, and was just by myself the first night!

Access: Direct bus from Shinjuku Expressway Bus Terminal, leaving about once an hour. You can book online. Free pick-up by hostel or a 20 min walk from the station. 

Costs: 1700¥ for a one-way bus/ 3000¥ for one night at a female dorm

Chilling in the dormroom

Friday 4^th of January

The next day I slept in and then started the day with my usual on foot tour around the area, snapping away with my camera at every sight of Fuji I could get.  The hostel is very close to the lake which makes for picture perfect backgrounds and the weather was really nice too. I walked past the lake to the station to catch a train to Gekkoji.

Just a short walk from the hostel is the lake..

..and the first sight of Fuji!

The waiting room at Kawaguchiko station.

Prettyyyy ^__^

Gekkoji
After a short ride I arrived at Gekkoji, a small town described in the Lonely Planet as a cool town where time has stood still. I guess I was there on the wrong day, because about every store and restaurant was closed. It had a nice, typical, ‘little mountain village’ atmosphere going on though. It's small, so easily explored on foot. For lunch I ended up in Michael’s American pub & cafe; eating a not so American, but very nice, meal: fried rice.  After that I just walked around some more, stumbled upon a small shrine and headed back to catch the train.

Access: Train from Kawaguchiko station leaves twice an hour and takes about 13 mins.  
Costs: Train costs 290¥ for a one way. The meal was about 1000¥.

The trains were surprisingly full

Yummie lunch.

Forever randomly finding shrines.

Mt. Kachi Kachi Ropeway

After I got back to Kawaguchiko station I walked the 15 minute walk to the cable cars. With the discount coupon that you can get for almost every attraction, at almost every hostel and every tourist information booth, I paid 630¥ for a return ticket. You could also take a one way and then walk down but I felt like I had walked enough already (??). I tried to ask at the info booth what would be the best time to go up to take pictures, taking into account the sun, but they didn't understand my question. When I went up around 3pm on a bright sunny day, it wasn't the best as there was a lot of back light so I’d suggest going early in the morning, or later in the day. It was still an awesome view though! You can get your picture taken and get a free postcard with that picture on it, or buy the full size picture for 1000¥ (but seriously who does that?).

Access: It’s at the Kawaguchiko lake, on walking distance from both the hostel and the station and takes about 15 min.

Costs: With the discount a round trip costs 630¥

You can take your dog, as long as it fits in a bag haha.

New myspace profile photo.

After above lousy attempts to get a photo with myself & Fuji in it; a group of Taiwanese chicks asked if they should take one for me. Oh yes please! Only did I know that it was going to be an exchange, where they ended up all separately wanting to take a photo with me because of my hair or something. Joke’s on them as I will most likely have my eyes closes in about every one of those photos MUHAHA.

That back light..

Back at the hostel  I found I had gained two roommates. One older Asian woman who said very little and a German chick that had planned the same day trip for the next day. And so we decided to do that together. But first I went on a night stroll to get some snacks and even at night you can see the mountain!

Kawaguchiko at night.

Saturday 5^th of January

Windcave
I’m not the biggest fan of caves, unless they have bats (or batman) in them. It’s not that I have a general claustrophobia or something, but there is something about caves that I just don’t like. I mean, they're dark, wet, slippery and cold..can you blame me? Anyway, I still decided to go here but I wouldn't highly recommend it. It’s everything I mentioned before and also small.  Also, they store silk worms in this cave for god knows what reason.Access: The Retro bus, which stops both at the station and near the hostel, goes directly to the cave. It takes about 30 mins. 

Costs: I bought a two day pass for the bus for 1200¥. The cave itself was with discount 280¥. 

Entrance of the cave

Impressed yet? No? oh.

Worms o__o

Icecave
After a 20 minutes forest walk we found the Icecave which was a little better in my opinion. The 'path' gets really small at some places, to the point where I had to sit/slide on my butt to get through. It's also slippery as hellll. When you get out you are led through a gift shop full of everything you've ever wanted with an image of Fuji on it; but most of all: Fuji-foods. These you will find everywhere around this area. The Japanese love to give food as gifts, so here there are plenty of cookies and cakes and sweets in the shape of the mountain.

Access:  There is a direct path through the forest from the Windcave, that takes about 20 mins on foot. Costs: The discounted price for this cave was also 280¥.

"Watch your head while you fart?"

Another inviting entrance..

It was true to it's name; lotsa ice going on.

Fuji foodz!

Nature walk through Aokigahara forest

As if we hadn't had enough walking, we decided to this one hour nature walk from the Windcave to this Wild Bird Forest Park; through the Aokigahara forest. I've seen documentaries, and read articles, about the forest before, as it is known as the suicide forest; the number two most popular place in the world to commit suicide. An average of between 70 - 100 bodies are found there every year. It was good I wasn't alone, because I was super curious and had a hard time containing myself not to go off the path to look for stuff. To be fair, if I had be alone I’d probably be too scared. Besides going into the forest to kill themselves, people also die because they just get lost. It’s very dense and dark and deep and there is no cellphone reception. I had my GPS on my phone on all the time, just to be sure :D. But especially on a bright day, and when you stay on the path, there is nothing scary about it and it’s just an amazing beautiful and kind of dramatic forest. At the end we didn't find anything to do with birds but randomly made 'ice sculptures'. 

Access:  On the leftside of the crossing, coming from the windcave is a little path; the walk takes one hour.Costs: Freeeeeeeeee

No entry signs made me veryyy curious..

I found these dead flowers somewhere. 

More paths you're not supposed to take.

A sign that says something like "Your life is a precious gift from your parents.
Please think about your parents, siblings or children..etc" in an attempt to stop suicides.

Ice sculptures..where my birds at tho?

Onsenji Onsen
Communal bathing is a big thing in Japanese society. You can either visit a sento, which is just a public bathhouse, or an onsen, which is the same but then in the form of a natural hot spring. I didn't visit one before because the strict no tattoo-policy most of them have. The onsen I visited here was inside a ryokan and didn't have anything specifically stated about tattoos and according to my German friend there was nobody to check it, so I took the chance. Before entering the baths you’re supposed to sit down at one of the showers and wash yourself thoroughly. After that you can alternate between the different baths with different temperatures. They also had two baths outside and I can imagine how cool it would be if it was a clear starry night. No romance going on though if you’re straight as the sexes are almost always separated. I didn't take any photos of course but this one is on their website:

On the right is where you sit down to shower first, before you get in the tub

Access: It is very close to the hostel, about a 5 minute walk. Costs: 800¥ with the discount coupon. This does not include a towel; to rent a big one is 300¥ extra.

Sunday 6

^th 

of January

Fuji Subaru Land Doggy Park

“100,000 ㎡ doggy park is located at the north foot of Mt. Fuji. 230 beautiful dogs (70 different kinds) are lined up. “Dog Rental” and “Fureai (Petting) House” provide an opportunity to play with your favorite dogs."

Does that sounds like heaven or not? So obviously, I just had to go there.  When I got there, it was obvious that there were very few visitors and that the park has seen better days.   I was a bit disappointed by the appearance of both the dogs and the enclosures; they just didn’t look in the best of shape. I couldn’t find anywhere where they get these dogs so maybe they’re all shelter dogs or something which would explain why they often were old or looked scruffy.  And that would actually by amazing; but like I said: I don’t know.

It’s a little bit like a petting zoo, but then with dogs. There is a room where some dogs just walk around and you can sit around them and there are outdoor enclosures where bigger dogs are in. You also had the opportunity to rent a dog for 30 minutes to just walk it around. Most of the Japanese people tend to take the cute, small dogs so I set out to get a bigger one and ended up with Aroa, a big white dog with only one ear (aawwhh). It had a sign that said it was strong and shouldn't be taken off the leash but it ended up being a really nice dog. After that I had to get some much needed dachshund loving, and so I rented Suzu. She wore a sweater so was too hard to resist. She was a little too lazy with the walking so I had to pick her up and just walk and cuddle with her. No problem for me!

Access: free shuttle bus from Kawaguchiko station, takes about 20 mins & runs only once an hour

Costs: with the discount entrance fee was 1120¥. Renting a dog was 500¥ for 30 mins.

At the entrance.

Before you rent a dog you can check them out in the book. Lil Suzu in the bottom left!

Or just take a look at them in their kennels.

Awh good boy Aroa with his one ear

Lazy Suzu with her shirt on <3

Fuji-Q High Land 

Due to bad planning on my part (and the lady at the window only telling me after I bought the ticket...-__-),  I ended up with only 2 hours in this amusement park, known for its thrilling roller coasters.Going to an amusement park by yourself might be one of the highest forms of forever alone syndrome; but as a roller coaster lover I just couldn't let this opportunity pass. As soon as I got in I went into the Eejanaika. Wiki tells me “As a "4th dimension" roller coaster its seats can rotate 360 degrees forward or backward in a controlled spin. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Eejanaika is the roller coaster with the most inversions in the world.“ Ok, all I knew was that you have to take your shoes off and are strapped in very securely... And it was seriously the scariest ride I've ever been in; I literally thought I was dying and was close to crying at the end  :’).  I’ve never had that with any ride before! 

After that I needed some chilling so I went on a kiddy Hamtaro roller coaster and a ride in the Ferris wheel that offered brilliant views of the park and the Fuji. I proceeded on to some big Gundam store and after some food, I only had time left for one other big coaster. It was a hard decision to make but I chose Fujiyama, and I loved it! Such a shame I was short on time as they have a lot more other cool rides. 

Access: Train from Kawaguchiko to Fujikyu Highland takes less than 5 mins and goes twice an hour.
Costs: The trainride costs 160¥, freepass (entrance to the park + entrance to all rides) with discount was 4200¥

I wonder what ever happened that they had to put that sign up..

Hamtaro!

Forever alone.. but at least I got a pink cart

And a cool view!

Was a good girl and didn't splurge on new gundams to build.

So unfortunately the park was closed at 5pm and I still had about 4 hours left to spare. I didn't want to spend more money so I walked back to the hostel and they were friendly enough to let me hang around the living room, soaking up on their warmth and WiFi and drooling over Jack Sparrow on the tv. Around 8pm I walked back to the station to grab my bus back to Kyoto.

Nightbus to Kyoto

The cheapest way to get back to Kyoto was the nightbus; and from the nightbusses available I booked the cheapest one. I booked it at the station, it cost 6000¥ and took almost 9 hours. It leaves at 20.52 at Kawaguchiko station and it arrives in Kyoto around 6 am. After that it is still headed for Osaka. It’s basically like a seat on a plane. I mean, is it highly uncomfortable? Yes. Would I recommend it? Only if you’re short on money.