18th – 20th – Fuji and return to Tokyo

It was – to me – surprisingly cumbersome getting to Kawaguchiko near Fuji; an early departure from the hotel at 0745, subway to the shinkansen station, shinkansen to Tokyo, train to Shinjuku (the station in Tokyo right outside our hotel there), and then two other local trains to get to our destination where we were picked up by a hotel bus for another 10 minutes before we could finally check in at around 1630.

The weather was clear and you could see Fuji in all its glory undisturbed by clouds. When leaving for an orientation walk at around 1650 several of us asked to do the trip up to the observation point now instead of tomorrow when the weather according to the forecast wouldn’t be as optimal (overcast and snow on the summit meaning that the chance of a clear view was slim at best). We received a clear no – the cable car was closed for the day and the walk up would take an hour. People seemed to settle for this answer, albeit slightly disappointed.

Well, except me, obviously. I didn’t want the opportunity to go to waste so after a bit of back and forth with our guide, who showed very little understanding of why somebody would want to walk all the way up just for a photo of Fuji, I was off, racing against time and impeding sundown. Strangely enough I didn’t manage to convince anyone else to join. Weirdos.

It took only a few minutes to get to the bottom of the cable car, and as the guide stated it took an hour to get to the top from there. Too bad it took 40 minutes to actually find the start of the path up to the top. There were no clear indicators or signs, stairs from the road that could have led to a path through the forest just led to the forest undergrowth despite eager searching. Two roads – left and right – both seemed to go up but the left ended in nothing but stairs going down and the right went downhill after a short optimistic uphill bit. It wasn’t until I saw a not very detailed tourist map returning defeated to the hotel, I realized the right road was the right (!) way to; returning to the road, ascending and then descending followed by turning a few corners I found the path going up. I raced upwards – my calves absolutely hated the sudden action – and at around the half-way point I took a short break at a viewpoint with a nice view of the mountain, slightly pink from the sunset. But it wasn’t the top so I raced on and 10 minutes later I reacted the end, completely devoid of other people, having the views all for myself. While it would have been better to have arrived 10-20 minutes earlier to see more colors, I still had a beautiful view of Fuji and an aura of reds and oranges behind the Japanese Alps on the far side of the town. 

With the sun disappearing behind the mountains the darkness crept in fast and the winds picked up significantly. So I packed up and started heading back down. Walking among the trees I could mostly navigate by the light from the moon though I was very happy I had taken the same route up so I knew it was safe despite it sometimes didn’t look like that in the shadows. I had another stop at the midway point but the winds were getting through there, too, so it didn’t take long before I continued down the remaining bit of the path. Coming down I quickly returned to the hotel and joined the rest of the group for dinner.

The following morning we checked out at 0830 and went to the cable car to go to the observation point when it opened at 0900, and it was a good thing we arrived when we did as the queue quickly grew. But we were quickly through and three minutes with the cable car later we had arrived at the top and I was back to where I had spent half an hour last night. The forecasts had been pretty spot on as there were clouds on and around Fuji giving off a much different – and more restricted – view than we had seen previously. But these conditions are also much more common than yesterday’s weather. All that made me feel that yesterday’s climb had not been a completely waste of time. 

I did notice the forecast for the following day was optimistic and considered staying an extra day before returning to Tokyo and rejoining the group. I ended up deciding against it and would instead look into returning on a day trip when the cherry trees were blooming, hoping there would be a clear day during that period before returning home. Unfortunately I found out that due to the increased altitude they wouldn’t be blooming until weeks into April, meaning I kicked that plan to the curb, too.

A group of us decided walking down instead of taking the cable car again (I received a few well-deserving comments on how brave/dumb I had been doing it in the darkness) before walking along the shoreline of Kawaguchiko lake, getting some other views of Fuji in the distance before turning back, reaching the hotel and leaving for Tokyo at 1400 where we arrived in the early evening. Shortly after our guide took us to Shibuya crossing, the largest pedestrian crossing in the world. It was as expected chaotic but being Japan it was mostly ordered chaos which made navigation easier as long as you kept your wits about you. We went up in one of the nearby highrises to look down and from there it seemed much more orderly when standing at street level. After a delicious bowl of ramen we all returned to the hotel. 

 

Shibuya crossing can be seen on the left side of the photo.

We met with our guide in the morning and we headed off to the government buildings across the street from the hotel (and I suddenly realized that was also the starting area for the marathon!) and went up to the observation deck. While the weather was not crystal clear we were still able to see far and get a good view of Tokyo. On clear days it’s apparently possible to see Fuji but the horizon in that direction was obscured by clouds. 

From there we continued on to get a tour of the imperial gardens – a large park-like area inside the old walls of the palace right next to Tokyo station (and one of the few open public spaces in the city). From here the rest continued to the Ginza district and were introduced to the old fish market, but as I had already been there I got onto the train, half an hour north, to visit the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum. Bonsai is pretty much defined as “A normal tall tree, but small”. There were some absolutely beautiful creations with ages ranging from 40 to estimated 1000 years. I do believe, though, that in a few months it will be much nicer when all the trees have grown full of leaves. On the way back to the station I walked through the Bonsai Village where I found a gardener with a huge collection of bonsais for sale, some of them looking much more interesting than some of those I saw in the museum (unfortunately photography was forbidden), though I doubt that any of them reached the same age as some of the oldest found at the museum. With the train back to Tokyo I met up with the rest of the group for our final dinner together. 

 

The base of the main tower, the only remains as the rest was made of wood. 

The size of the base indicates how tall the tower would have been.

Looking back this was quite an interesting tour, and quite different than I am used to. I usually go with a specific purpose; safari, a climb run or see something specific, whereas this was a more generalized tour to see as much as possible in two weeks. I went on it as it was well timed relative to when I ran the marathon, and to save myself trying to figure out how to get around and what to see while figuring out the ins and outs of a country and culture I had absolutely no experience with, so finding a tour that covered what seemed to be all the main spots made it easy to convince myself to sign up. The tour ended up giving a great insight into the country, culture and people, and I am certain I would not have been able to have an as rewarding trip if I had done all the planning and traveling by myself.

Big thanks to our guide Kozo for being excellent and helpful whenever we had questions or needed help, while leading an absolutely amazing tour. And big thanks to Lilith & Peter, Alex & Lesley, Martina, Sue, Jeff & Celina, Danny & Maureen, Jim & Lorna and Beata & Ric for being such awesome people and making the trip what it was. I hope we get to meet again some time!