Talofa Fuji-san!

09 and 10 November 2019 - Weekend Trip to the Foot of Mount Fuji 富士山

With beautiful autumn weather, we set off again on Saturday morning - and into the clouds 😑 Cool, gray, cloudy - I almost felt at home, the closer I got to Fujikawaguchiko 😄

Kawaguchi Lake 河口湖 is one of the 5 lakes at the northern foot of Mount Fuji, which is 3776m high. The lake, which has many hotels and onsens, is located at an altitude of about 800m, so it's still a long way to the summit 😋 The starting point, however, is rarely the actual place itself, but usually the 5th station at 2,400m, from where a bus still goes further up. However, climbing Mount Fuji is only possible in the summer, from July to early September (and therefore not an option for me). As is often the case in Japan, people crowd up there to watch the sunrise... Long queues of people armed with headlamps, making their way to the summit in the middle of the night to see the sun rise between 4 and 5am in the morning... as clever as the Japanese are, the path is one-way - so, you do come down again (not a dead end), there is only one way up and another for the descent. In any case, a unique, breathtaking experience - as one of my colleagues who tackled the tour at the beginning of September told me. Only 6 hours of descent after hiking uphill for a few hours in the middle of the night can be quite exhausting 😉

To Mt. Tenjo 天上山

My first walk in Fujikawaguchiko wasn't that extreme, instead of 3,776m, it was only 1,104m to Mt. Tenjo. It took about 50 minutes uphill through a (no longer blooming) hydrangea park. With every bend, the veil of clouds became more transparent and step by step I caught glimpses of beautiful views of the lake, the surrounding mountains, and finally: Fuji-san himself. The summit of Mt. Tenjo was quite busy, but most people were lazier than me and took the cable car up 😉

At the northern shore of the lake, there was also the Momiji 紅葉 festival, a festival celebrating the autumn foliage in general and the red leaves of maple trees in particular. As you would expect for an autumn festival, it had many food and trinket stalls. While the cherry trees were almost bare, the ginkgo trees shone in bright yellow and the maple trees in signal red🍁, and every colorful tree was surrounded by Japanese women taking photos 😄

I then strolled along the shore in the twilight and watched the sunset behind the mountains and the lake before crossing the Ohashi Bridge to my accommodation.

Sleeping: Traditional and with Space(!)

My accommodation for the night turned out to be a large, quite aged house with a youth hostel feel and a portable gas heater in front of the reception. And space! Lots of space! I had a room of at least 16m² just for myself. For myself alone. 😍 Additionally, everything was traditionally Japanese and spotlessly clean, and relatively affordable - so who cares if everything is a bit worn and the tiles have cracks? My room was traditionally furnished with tatami mats and I slept on a futon bed - which got quite hard in the early morning hours. But for one night, it was totally fine.

When I arrived and wanted to charge my phone (12%), I realized that I was smart enough to pack the power bank and both charging cables, but unfortunately, I forgot the plug adapter 🤦‍♀️ Well, with a German plug, you won't get far here... my power bank still had 10% battery left, and I had already said goodbye to all the photos during the planned hike on Sunday... Buuut, I'm not completely stupid and after waking up on Sunday morning, I had a brainwave 🤓 Right across from the hotel was a Lawson (the less fancy convenience store chain), and convenience stores have EVERYTHING. So, I walked over and bought a (Japanese) plug-to-USB adapter. Even with 2 USB outputs 😉 Man, ultra practical, especially compared to my previous combination of plug adapter + (German) USB plug (with only one USB output). I actually could have gotten it earlier 🙈

As a nice side effect and maybe as a reward for leaving the hotel so early in the morning, Fuji-san showed up in all its glory right in front of the hotel entrance ⛰

Hiking to Mt. Mitsutoge 開運山

So, with a charged phone, I set off - first along the lakeshore, which was already populated with Fuji-autumn-photo-enthusiasts at an early hour, to the cable car and back up to Mt. Tenjo. At 9am in the morning, there weren't as many people as on Saturday afternoon, and I was able to take a few more Fuji photos before starting my 6-hour hike to Mt. Mitsutoge. It actually consists of 3 peaks, the highest of which is 1785m high and should thus become the highest point of my Japan trip. And as it turned out, it also became the most beautiful hike here 😊

I hiked along narrow paths along the mountain ridge with shorter ups and downs, getting higher step by step, and for the first 2.5 hours, I didn't meet a soul except for 3 other hikers. Peace, fresh autumn air, sun, and occasionally breathtaking views of Fuji-san or the lake... wonderful! 😊

I was quite surprised when it suddenly became loud and a group of mountain bikers came towards me. On the narrow path, with steps sometimes as high as 70cm (or stone steps and root steps), they were just hoisting their bikes over a fallen tree trunk... and as I later saw, they must have already passed the more challenging sections of the trail. Not something you usually do on a Sunday morning 😂

As I approached the summit, it became increasingly crowded and I had my lunch break at an altitude of 1785m with a panoramic view all the way to the Japanese Alps in the company of some hiking groups. Unfortunately, Fuji-san had hidden in the clouds and haze by that time, but still, the view... wow.

After a while, it did get a bit chilly and I started the descent. Almost 3 hours of going downhill. Phew. Luckily there was always something to see: climbers hanging on the rock wall of Mt. Kaiun, lots of small Buddha statues, remains of some building with a terrace and a toilet, and towards the end, a park-like area along the river with a waterfall. The last stretch to the train station then went through a cute little town, passing the baseball field where a youth team was playing a game (probably the equivalent of soccer on Sunday).

Japan Classics united: Fuji and Pagoda

Afterwards, I didn't go straight back to Tokyo by train, but in the other direction to one of the most famous Japanese motifs: the Chureito Pagoda 忠霊塔 with Fuji in the background. It was so kind and appeared again, and after climbing the 400 steps with increasingly tired legs and blisters on my feet (can happen after 15km and about 100 meters of altitude difference...), I was rewarded with some really beautiful photos of Fuji and the pagoda in the twilight. I could have done without the crowd behind the camera though 😅 So, I quickly walked back to the train station and headed back towards Tokyo.

PS: Unfortunately, there was no onsen visit after the hike, so I was really looking forward to trying out the bathtub in the apartment. But just then, the boiler broke and there was only cold water for a week until they installed a new one 😑