Japan Day 12: 富士山 Mount Fuji, 河口湖Kawaguchiko and the return to Tokyo 東京

We woke up really early in our Ryokan, and I walked to the curtains to draw them back and get some light into the room.

There was Mount Fuji.

Mount Fuji San had been right outside out window all night, but we had arrived too late and it had been to dark to see him! What a surprise, and what an amazing view from our room at the hotel!

We decided to bundle up (it was beginning to feel like autumn) and go in search of coffee. The only coffee we found in the immediate area was from a vending machine, but it was hot and caffeinated, and hit the spot. We wandered through the side streets towards lake Kawaguchiko, and then wandered along the shore, sipping our coffees. You can rent a bicycle and cycle around lake kawaguchiko. We both wished that we had time to cycle the lake, and see more of the surrounding area.

We decided to take the cable car up to Mt Tenjo to catch a better view of Mount Fuji. The Kachi Kachi Ropeway will take you to the top of the hill, and costs roughly 720 Yen return. The journey took only a few minutes, and the line was hardly a hassle. The ropeway has two mascots, (as does almost every company in Japan) a raccoon and rabbit, and we both thought that the characters were ridiculous and perfectly tacky!

At the top of the ropeway, there is a souvenir shop, a restaurant and an incredible view of Mount Fuji. We were travelling in October, so the leaves had just begun to change colours, and the hydrangea bushes were just at the end of their blooms.We arrived around 9 am, so there were very few people to share the space with.

There is also a hiking pathway that begins at the mount top station and leads to a temple, but we were tight on time and had to make our decent back to lake Kawaguchiko pretty immediately.

We walked leisurely back to our hostel and checked out. The nice owner offered us a ride to the train station, and we took him up on his offer. We arrived at the train station a bit early, so we had time for a quick lunch of Japanese style curry in the shape of Mount Fuji.

The trip back to Tokyo was a quick one! It took about two hours, and required three transfers. First we took the special Fuji train back to Otsuki then from Otsuki we took the JR Chou line back into Tokyo. Our hostel in Tokyo was just off of the Chou line, so it was very quick and we didn’t need to transfer with in Tokyo itself. (To Book Train Travel in Japan Click Here)

We got off at Akihabara Station and walked to our hostel from there. We stayed at a place called ANNE hostel Tokyo, (in Asakusabashi) which was located pretty close to Akihabara for my Otaku husband!

Akihabara, for those not in the know, is an area of Tokyo famous for electronics shops and (more importantly the nerdy side of Tokyo) maid cafes, gachapon shops, manga shops, figurine shops, game shops, cosplay shops etc. etc.!  We spent a lot of our time in Tokyo wandering the lanes of Akihabara in search of the best gachapon! Jives went home with a bag full of plastic capsule balls, filled with various gacha to give to friends and family! ガシャポン

I’m not sure what we did for dinner that night, but my bet would be that we raided a kombini (Japanese convenience store) and gorged ourselves on tasty sushi, onigiri, snacks and Japanese Kirin beers! mmmm Our hostel did not allow eating in your room, but it had a great communal eating area to make up for it. We met a lot of great travellers, and drank beers until they closed the space!