Jump ahead:
Day 1 | Arakurayama Sengen Park, Kawaguchiko Herb Festival at Yagizaki Park, Fujisan World Heritage Center, Kawaguchiko eastern shore, Hotel Regina Kawaguchiko, Kawaguchiko Shopping Center Bell
Day 2 | Shiraito Falls, Tanukiko, Fuji Kachoen Garden Park, Motosuko, Shojiko, Saiko Iyashi no Satoneba
Final Day 3 | Fuji-Q Highlands
Wanting to explore more of the area surrounding Mt. Fuji, we decided to take a short 3-day trip by car just to slow everything down and spend some quality time there. We didn’t make a very tight schedule or anything, we just knew of some iconic places we thought we should visit while making our way to each of the five largest lakes surrounding Mt. Fuji. On our final day, we also threw in a full day at Fuji-Q Highlands Amusement park… it’s like a Disneyland for adults! I guess one could title this post, things to do around Mt. Fuji that aren’t Mt. Fuji.
Day 1
Our first stop of the trip was at Arakurayama Sengen Park. We decided to stop here because there is a very famous photo spot and view of Mt. Fuji from here. If you’ve been on any travel websites or tourism websites for Japan, you’ve probably come across this picture because it is wildly overused (but understandingly so). Since it fit the mood for this kind of trip, we decided to check it out for ourselves in person!
Arakurayama Sengen Park:
https://www.arakurayama-sakura.com/
Next stop on our tour was the annual Kawaguchiko Herb Festival. I personally wasn’t expecting too much from this as it was just a bunch of flowers in a park but it was relaxing at least and something tour groups make a point to see. We decided to park for free at the big lot near the bridge and walked along the shoreline to Yagizaki Park (the bigger of the two venues for this event).
Some event info:
https://www.yamanashi-kankou.jp/foreign/english/english077.html
At one end of the park is Kawaguchiko Muse Museum. We took a quick peek inside just to see the gift shop but didn’t feel like seeing much else in there.
Kawaguchiko Muse Museum:
http://www.fkchannel.jp/muse/
After the herb festival, we made a stop at the Fujisan World Heritage Center. I always saw this on the map and thought it would be worthwhile to check out but it just never fit into any other organized trips to Mt. Fuji so this was the perfect opportunity to go. Their new building just opened in 2016 so it still felt very fresh.
Fujisan World Heritage Center:
http://www.fujisan-whc.jp/index.html
The center was actually really close to our hotel but it was still too early to check-in and we wanted to get lunch somewhere so we ended up driving back to Kawaguchiko, specifically the eastern most shore next to the ropeway. We didn’t go up the ropeway but we did see some restaurants in this area on the map, plus there was easy and free parking here and it was a side I didn’t get to see before.
For our hotel this trip, we went with the Hotel Regina Kawaguchiko. The price was right, breakfast was included (makes things so much easier in the morning), and the location was a good hub to everything we were doing that weekend. It was especially close to Fuji-Q so we could get an early start on our last day and make the most of the amusement park. It’s an older holder but it did have a sort of resort feel to it… we really just needed a room though. An added bonus was that it had plenty of parking and was near a shopping mall where we could easily get dinner and snacks.
Hotel Regina Kawaguchiko:
https://kawaguchiko.regina-resorts.com/
After resting for a little while, we decided to walk to the nearby mall to get some dinner and see what else was there. It was in walking distance and the rain had let up so it was no problem at all.
Day 2
Our rough plan for day 2 was to explore the western and northwestern areas surrounding Mt. Fuji. First things first though, we had to eat breakfast!
Our first destination for day 2 was the famous Shiraito Falls on the western side of Mt. Fuji. Many tour groups include this spot on their itineraries for its very photogenic (and panoramic) waterfalls. It is also included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For parking, we used a smaller lot a little further west on highway 414 since there was a 50% discount there and then walked to Shiraito Falls from that side rather than the main side (really didn’t matter in the end). This would be our starting point for the day and from here we would work our way back north and around Mt. Fuji until eventually making it back to our hotel again.
Shiraito Falls:
http://www.city.fujinomiya.lg.jp/kankou/llti2b00000018ez.html
Before you go to Shiraito Falls, there’s a short detour to the left that will take you to some springs where they say Minamoto no Yoritomo (founder and first Shogun of Kamakura Shogunate) rested. It’s not advertised much as an attraction, but it was there, and we were there, so why not? It wasn’t far and didn’t take long to see either…
Minamoto no Yoritomo Springs:
http://www.city.fujinomiya.lg.jp/citizen/llti2b0000002q0l.html
On this side where the gift shops line the road leading to the main parking lot (I guess this would be the main side), there is a slightly larger (but not as famous) waterfall called Otodome Falls. It’s hard to get a good angle to view it as you can only see it from behind the shops on the side but it’s just another thing to enjoy while you’re here.
Otodome Falls:
http://shizuoka-guide.com/english//detail/page/detail/3675
Moving right along, our next stop was at Tanukiko, our first lake of the day. This was probably my favorite lake of them all even though we didn’t get to see much of it and it was my one and only time visiting it so far. There seemed to be good campgrounds, nice facilities, and lots of fishing here. One a nice day you can also get a great view of Mt. Fuji as well. When visiting the lakes, we were only trying to get a sense of what each one was like and how they all differed from each other… I think we accomplished that by the end of the day.
More info:
http://www.city.fujinomiya.lg.jp/kankou/llti2b00000018ga.html
https://tanukiko.com/en/tanukiko/
Making our way back up towards our next lake, Motosuko, we made a stop at Fuji Kachoen Garden Park. This is a large flower and bird garden and since Marie enjoys both we thought it worthwhile to take some time here. They really highlight the owls and flowers here but there’s a little more than that and overall it was actually better than I expected. I would also recommend taking some time here if you enjoy these sort of things.
Fuji Kachoen Garden Park:
http://kamoltd.co.jp/fuji_en/
Our next lake was one that I’ve researched before, specifically for camping, but we never did make it out there. Lake Motosu is on the northwestern side of Mt. Fuji… just far enough from home where it never seems worth the drive to camp for just a night or two. There’s not a whole lot to see around the lake, which I kind of like, and for camping there are some good facilities and services such as kayaking and fishing that are available. We always considered camping at the northern part of the lake but after driving around it on this trip, the southern part doesn’t look too bad either. This is also the lake where you can recapture the image on the back of the ¥1000 bill… the lookout being closer to the northern shore (we didn’t bother stopping for this picture though, too crowded).
Right next to Motosuko is Lake Shoji. This one was really tiny so there wasn’t much to see and it didn’t take long at all to drive around. We got out just to stretch our legs and take a picture. There were a lot of paddlers in the water training for some kind of race it seemed. I also remember seeing a lot of fishermen here tucked away along the shore as we drove. I was always under the impression you need permits to fish in the lakes but it doesn’t seem like anyone would enforce that anyway.
Before hitting our next lake, we made a pit stop at another old village attraction called Saiko Iyashi no Satoneba, also known as the healing village. We had some lunch here and then paid to walk around the village and look at old fashioned homes. There were a few gift shops (where we also bought some unnatural used tableware hehe) as well as food shops scattered throughout the village too. We didn’t have high expectations going into it… just something to see while we were there but it ended up being a pretty nice experience, even comparable to Shirakawago but a little more touristy and slightly different style.
Saiko Iyashi no Satoneba:
http://www.fujisan.ne.jp/iyashi/
After the village, we drove around Lake Saiko and Kawaguchiko along highway 21 and then a loop around Yamanakako. We didn’t notice anything that seemed really worth stopping for so we were satisfied with just driving around the lakes without stopping to take pictures really. Along the way we stopped at a Starbucks in Fuji Yoshida to look at their cups but ended up just getting another affogato frappuccino hehe.
We were pretty satisfied with our day by this point and it was getting to be late afternoon so we went back to our hotel to relax before going out for dinner. Somehow the Sushiro was so good the night before I wanted it again so we ended up going back for dinner again hehe. We also stopped into the mall again for some other items before finally calling it a night.
Final Day 3 - Fuji-Q Highlands Amusement Park
Our final day was all about Fuji-Q. I’ve been wanting to go here especially because it seemed more fun than Disneyland and they actually have adult rides. Since we went on a Monday, it wasn’t as crowded as usual and although some lines were still long, we got to ride everything that we wanted to. I think longer lines have the added effect of leaving you to think longer about your impending doom haha… I was actually getting scared of some rides here! That, and each of the rides have their own little theme songs playing on loop so it’s added torture (in a good way though haha). Having nice weather was also a plus since we were kind of worried about the rain before the weekend. My body is definitely not what it used to be because by the end of the day I was actually feeling a little sick from all the rides haha… That being said, this was probably still the best amusement park I’ve been to in my adult life and it is definitely world class.
Fuji-Q Website:
https://www.fujiq.jp/en/
Overall, a very complete, nice, relaxing, and fun getaway for the weekend. I would definitely recommend people spending more than a day in the area just getting to see the sights around Mt. Fuji and what they have to offer (if they can afford the time).
The next trip planned will be back in Fuji Yoshida for the annual fire festival so stay tuned!