Planning a trip to Fuji can be a great challange and a big consumer of time, pacience and eat out the enjoyment of visiting the place. Most people come either as a day trip from Tōkyo or using the fixes tourist bus routes, but this is one of those areas where I really wanted to avoid the crowds by arriving at specific times to certain locations, in orther to outpace the tours and train timetables and have a peaceful time to appreciate the scenery in silence.
The processes of choosing a rental car company was itself a pain in the ***, but I ended up picking Nippon because they offered the best rates and had more conveniente locations for my plan. As I hwas going to be around the area exactly in the middle of Golden Week, I had to book the car months in advance, and even so the stations if Kakaguchiko, Fujiyoshida and Fuji were booked back in March. So i resorted to a little further option in Kōfu, which turned out to the the most convenient of them all, as it´s right in the Shinkansen train track between Matsumoto (from where I came) and Tōkyo (where I was going next).
By around 1pm on the first day we arrived in Kōfu station coming from Matsumoto, and had a quick lunch around the station square before taking the rental car at the Nippon Rent-a-car aggency conveniently located a few steps away.
The process of taking the car out was a bit confusing as none of the workers spoke English, but we managed to work it out using Google Translate. Nonetheless, the quality of the translation between Japanese and other languages is cleraly lower than usual, as I believe some of the translations were either strange or nonsensical because even with the translator some steps had to be repeated several times. Despite all this, all the staff was very nice and heplful as they could.
I was quite anxious for the next 2 and a half days. Social media is what it is and I have been spooked with the videos about the Golden Week, the traffic around Kawaguchiko and the imprevisibility of Mount Fuji visibility. Well, it really is unpredctable, as we had forecats of rain showers for the whole duration and turned out as two beuatifully sunny and clear skys and a cloudy afternoon - nonetehless with the base of the mountain easily visible. As we had a car, we decided to stay farther from the center area of Kawaguchiko, and ended up in a new Airbnb taht I booked quite reluctantly as the offer appeared to good to be true: quite "cheap" (200€ por 3 nights for 3 people in the middle of Golden Week), 5min by car from supermarket, park, lake, etc. and a unobstructed view of Fuji from the kitchen window in a full house for ourselves.
Everything turned out better than I have ever dreamt, and all the efforts I had in palanning this trip were rewarded with two days that I will never forget. Fuji is "just" a mountain, for sure, but it´s embeded deeply in out collective imagination due to movies, social media, photographs of fellow friends and travellers. After being there, it is no longer "just" a mountain. Bonus: I never woke up before 8am :)
Day 1
- Lake Saiko (Fujikawaguchiko)
- Tatego-Hama Beach (Fujikawaguchiko)
- Aokigahara Forest (Fujikawaguchiko)
Day 2
- Oshino Hakkai
- Tōenji Temple - Oshino
- Yamanakako Myojinyama Panorama-dai (Hirano)
- Onshirin Garden
- Hirano beach
- Lake Yamanaka
- Fujimibashi Mount Fuji Viewing Platform (Fujikawaguchiko)
- Kawaguchi Asama Shrine (Fujikawaguchiko)
- LAWSON Kawaguchiko Station
- Kawaguchiko Station
- 7-ELEVEN Kawaguchiko Station East Store (Fujikawaguchiko)
- Arayayama Shrine (Fujiyoshida)
- Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine (Fujiyoshida)
- Honmachidori Street (Fujiyoshida)
- Nishiura Street (Fujiyoshida)
- Fujikyu Line (Fujiyoshida)
- Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine (Fujiyoshida)
Day 3
- Nagasaki Park (Fujikawaguchiko)
- Oishi Park (Fujilawaguchiko)
- OGINO Kawaguchiko Store
- Shiraito Falls (Fujinomiya)
- Obuchi Sasaba (Obushi)
- Sengen Taisha Shrine (Fujinomiya)
- Jinba Falls (Fujonomiya)
Midway to Fuji City, Fujisan went totally covered and we decided to get back to Kōfu for a calmer return of the rental car, a shilled coffee and some rest time before going to Tōkyo as I believe nothing intereting was worth it in Fuji City without the mountain in the backdrop.