Japan 2/10 - Kawaguchiko : Mt. Fuji (Lake Kawaguchiko) for Day Trip

May 06, 2016

Japan 2/10 - Kawaguchiko : Mt. Fuji (Lake Kawaguchiko) for Day Trip

Is it possible to go to Mountain Fuji for Day Trip only? Yes ;)

Day 2 - Sunday, 17 April 2016

Woke up around 4 AM and go to the nearest toilet and get ready, if you want to take shower, the airport has shower room and you need to pay around ¥1,000 which is too expensive for me :p Bought our correct Discount Ticket : One-Way Monorail and JR Yamanote Line, ¥500, in the vending machine. The monorail station open at 5 AM and it's so punctual, me love it! when it's open we could feel the breeze already, I just knew it if Spring will be this cold, actually like you are in the room with aircon, since it's 16~17 degree celcius. I thought from the gate to take monorail, you need to climb up or down the stairs which is quite far but it turns out really near haha. Took the monorail from Haneda Airport according the schedule that we saw at Hyperdia which is 5.17 AM and it's really came and left at 5.17 AM, we transferred to JR Yamanote Line at Hamamatsucho.

the right Discount Ticket. ¥500 for that day, 17th of April

at Hamamatsucho, transferred, waiting for our JR

at JR Train to Shibuya

Arrived at Shibuya around 6 AM and tried to look for coin locker to put our luggage there, our plan for today is going to Kawaguchiko to see Mountain Fuji. We decided to take the large one, ¥600 to put our 3 luggage and yeay, it's fit! :) You need to have coin ¥100, since the coin locker only accept ¥100 coin. From there we looked for Shibuya Mark City 5th floor where the Bus Terminal heading to Kawaguchiko Station like stated in our booking confirmation, anyway we already booked before our departure. We took the one and only elevator that opened earlier, after we asked some people how to go to the bus in the 5th floor, because the shopping mall is still not open yet.

We made it to 5th floor and saw the waiting room but there is no officer, we asked someone but he couldn't understand english, we saw the bus coming which we think it's the bus to Kawaguchiko Station, so we asked the Bus driver and he said the counter of ticket opened in 6.30 AM, haha ok..and it's punctual as usual then we exchange our ticket and get on the bus, the trip took about 2,5 hours, make sure to stop at the final station which is Kawaguchiko Station :) Bus ticket for one way is ¥1,800 so round trip is ¥3,600.

Ticket to Kawaguchiko St, ¥1,800

inside the Highway Bus to Kawaguchiko St.

Along the way we saw nice view on the right and left side, and of course we got a chance to sleep again in the bus, due to sleepyhead. The driver was very nice and actually mostly Japanese people are very kind and helpful. It was raining so hard, but we keep going on, we bought train ticket to Shimo-Yoshida Station for ¥300, 10 minutes from Kawaguchiko Station.

Kawaguchiko Station, act took this pic when I went home so it's kinda sunny

Our Bus arrived at Kawaguchiko Station

Inside Kawaguchiko Station, waiting for time to aboard to Shimo-Yoshida St.

train ticket to Shimo-Yoshida St,bought at vending machine

inside the train to Shimo-Yoshida St.

We passed Fuji-Q Highland Theme Park on the train

Our first destination is Chureito Pagoda that located inside Arakurayama Sengen Shrine, FREE :) we got a cool map at Kawaguchiko Station, so we just followed the direction, from Shimo-Yoshida Station, walk about 10-15 minutes and get ready to walk up the hill by climbing 397 stairs to reach Chureito Pagoda accompanied by pretty cherry blossoms surrounding you. There are also some stalls selling some snack at the some point before you are ready to climb again hihi ;p

Are you ready for 397 stairs?

so pretty cherry blossoms <333

keep going up!

some stalls that selling street food or snacks

Exercise in the morning and rainy day was soooo tiring, haha but once you reach the top, you will feel amazed with the view and too bad clouds were covering Mountain Fuji so something missing in the picture but still it looks nice especially cherry blossoms are everywhere and we feel very excited and take dozens pictures. It looks so beautiful and I feel like I can stare it in a long time, rain's keep coming and thankfully it stopped even for a while. Well. don't forget to bring your umbrella if you are planning to go in spring season.

little more to get to the top!

View from the top, too bad the weather ;(

sooo lovely, isn't it, Mt. Fuji supposed to be on the back

heading down

yeayy start Sunny for a while ;), Chureito Pagoda surrounded by Cherry Blossoms

going down with another route haha

From Chureito Pagoda, we decided to go back to the station, another 300¥ for the ticket and the rain is getting harder, downpour. We are starving, so we went to Lawson to buy our lunch, I bought 2 Onigiri, veggies salad and milk coffee :). While waiting our train at Shimo-Yoshida Station, we ate our lunch there, pretty fulled with 2 onigiri and I keep veggies salad for dinner. Back to Kawaguchiko Station, waited for a while and continue to Lake Kawaguchiko by walking, it takes around 15-20 minutes to Lake Kawaguchi. Kachi Kachi Ropeway was not operating due to bad weather, and yep, Kachi Kachi located near the Lake Kawaguchi. just follow the sign since it's really easy to find Lake Kawaguchi. We also stopped by at Souvenirs Shop to warmed ourselves while waiting the rain to stop.

Yeayy Coffee <333

Shimo-Yoshida Station

inside the Station

happy luncheon! nyammm...the price is the second line :)

back to Kawaguchiko Station

looks oishii!

Lake Kawaguchiko

Exploring Lake Kawaguchiko yet we found nice spot, there are bridge with some rocks, that place named Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park which turned out very nice. We were sitting there, under the tree and relax while enjoying nice view before continuing our journey, we stopped by at Lawson, I bought C1000 (Vitamin C) because I think my body will need that due to bad weather. Along our way back to Kawaguchiko Station, we found a very nice spot on our right side, we don't know the name but it looks like an old temple and traditional house or even old cemetary but it looks very pretty, sooo pretty. Back to station, waiting for our bus left for Shibuya at 4 PM, and we got to see Mt. Fuji even just little bit, since the cloud covered the top which was too bad but seeing Mt. Fuji even just half of it were really amusing. The Bus came on time and we are heading to Shibuya and sleeping along the way since we are so tired on that day.