Fuji Kawaguchiko, Japan - Days 1 & 2

What we did:
Day 1:
- Woke up around 7am to head to Fuji! Made sure to actually give ourselves some buffer which was very much needed in the chaotic Kyoto train station. Made it to our Shinkansen in time (i.e bullet train, which has a new meaning after Brad Pitts movie). Half way through our journey they paused service due to heavy rains… so much for high speed tech. Fortunately our 2 hour train was only 3.5 hours and we got into Mishima with time to connect to a bus to Kawaguchiko (we missed our original one but it was an easy swap out). A 1.5hr bus later we were in the mountain town at the base of Mt. Fuji! With the heavy rain and thick fog though, we could have been convinced it was Des Moines, Iowa. Accuweather predicting the rain won’t let up until after we would leave so that dampened the spirits a bit….
- Not to be deterred through, we grabbed some quick snacks and signed up for a private onsen at the hotel! Onsens are traditional bath houses that use the famous Fuji hot springs and are key aspects of Japanese culture. The Japanese (like Europeans) don’t have the same hangups on nudity as America, so all of the public onsens require full nudity (separated by gender, of course). Being Americans with naturally ingrained hangups on nudity, we opted for the private onsen since the giant room full of old naked Japanese folks hanging out out felt a bit intimidating. Very much enjoyed our private relaxing onsen session as the hot waters helped soothe our sore legs/feet.
- Sufficiently relaxed, we grabbed a taxi and had another incredible sushi experience! Massive servings of mouth watering salmon and tuna sashimi with a variety of small bite sides, some wine and highballs. The odds of us canceling our return flight home are increasing by the day. Our apartment is already packed up so should make it pretty easy for the family to auction things off.

Day 2:
- It’s a great day to be alive and a Hoosier!! Woke up in time to catch the 2nd half trouncing of Michigan state. 9-0!!! This may not age well, but Hoosier nation is convinced a playoff bid and run is imminent.
- Even better, we opened our blinds to beautiful blue skies - not a cloud to be seen! We rushed up to the hotel observation deck to see Fuji before the forecasted rain came in. Absolutely gorgeous - amazing to see Fuji but also the ring of surrounding mountains and “5 lakes” at the base. Turns out our American accuweather app sucks and it was always predicted to be a perfect sunny day! At least our worrying on the rains made it that much sweeter to see.
- Grabbed breakfast at the hotel and then rented e-bikes for what was an amazing day (10am-5pm exploring the town and scenery). Weather was incredible - a crisp 60 degree, bluebird, fall day in nature was just what the doctor ordered. We rode around the entirety of Lake Kawaguchiko first, stopping to enjoy the view many times along the way. We had another great noodle lunch, where we did opt to avoid the “horse meat sashimi”…..
- After lunch, we biked over to the quintessential postcard view at Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine! We really enjoyed the hike around as it has an incredible view of Fuji as a backdrop. Stephs attentive bug eyes identified the hundreds of MASSIVE, colorful and highly poisonous spiders that made webs along many of the roads/bushes we passed. Ignorance is bliss Steph, come on now.
- After we returned our bikes, we grabbed some canned highballs (suntory whiskey sodas) and candy from the nearest mart. We enjoyed our haul waterside at a picnic table in Oike park, with stunning golden hour views of Fuji and the mountains over the lake.
- Juiced by the highballs, we decided we had to give the “public” onsens at our hotel a try. We put on our robes, bid each other goodluck and went our separate ways. While wildly intimidated originally, it was actually super relaxing as the onsen had a perfect view of the sun setting over Fuji and everyone keeps to themselves.
- Conquering both our fears of spiders and public shame, we headed out for a chill dinner of local counterserve fare. Exhausted from the day we headed to bed shortly after.

Day 3 - Morning
- Woke up around 8am to another embarrassing Bears loss. No further comment at this time.
- Grabbed a hotel breakfast and walked over to take a cable car up to a scenic overlook. Early birds get the worm because there were hundreds of folks lined up for this thing. With a 12pm bus, we couldn’t wait so grabbed some matcha latte’s at a lakeside cafe and enjoyed the last scenic views. Grabbed our 1.5hr bus to Tokyo, enjoying the last vestiges of Fuji in the distance the whole way. The mountain actually seemed to get bigger the farther away we went.
- Kawaguchiko and Fuji you were good to us! Great decision to stay further into the mountain towns than the usual, more accessible tourist town of Hakone.

What we ate:
- Breakfast: More hotel baked goods before heading to the train station.
- Convenience store: After a longer day of travel, we got into the hotel around 3:30 and needed some sustenance before our first onsen experience! Most places we closed before opening for dinner at this point so we headed over to the local convenience store (very popular in Japan to grab food here) and got some snacks. Trent got some beef jerky and peanuts. Steph tried one of the noodles in cup (they have about 50 different varieties here) and a rice ball. We will be searching for more authentic noodles in a cup at home because they were sooo good!
- Shaws Sushi Bar: only open for dinner for an hour and a half every night, we got in at the last minute. We ordered the tuna bowl and salmon bowls and it came with a bunch of different sides like miso soup, salad, and a gelatin dessert. Steph tried some Fuji wine (the first area in both Japan and South Korea where there seemed to be a wine presence) and decided that she did not need to have anymore wine while we were here! Sushi was so fresh and so good - another great sushi experience!
- Breakfast at the hotel: weird mix of Japanese food (fish, meat, noodles) and some scrambled eggs and pastries at the buffet.
- Hoto Tempura Wakana: Fuji has a specific type of hot pot noodle dish that they are known for called hoto noodles. Found a popular spot where we could try this dish and it was delicious! The noodles are massive and the serving size was huge. We determined it was comparable to a homemade chicken soup - except way more vegetables, flavors, and pork belly instead of chicken. We each got the traditional pork hoto noodle bowl with squash. Perfect for a crisp fall day!
- Tetsuyaki: Kawaguchiko, much like many other mountain towns, have few dining establishments outside of the hotels. We found this quick dinner spot that specialized in Teppanyaki, which we haven’t tried yet since landing in Japan. We ordered some teriyaki chicken, okonomiyaki, and yakisoba. The best way to describe okonomiyaki is like a big savory, multilayer pancake. Here’s the wiki definition for you - Okonomiyaki is a Japanese teppanyaki, savory pancake dish consisting of wheat flour batter and other ingredients (mixed, or as toppings) cooked on a teppan (flat griddle). Common additions include cabbage, meat, and seafood, and toppings include okonomiyaki sauce (made with Worcestershire sauce), aonori (dried seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled ginger. Everything was quick, hot, and delicious! Trent got a whiskey highball to cap the night

Fun fact:
- Tattoos are banned in onsens as they represent the “Japanese gangsters”. So only tourists with small tattoos that can be taped over are allowed in.
- Sadly, this was the 1st october in the 130 years of recorded history where Fuji did not have a snow cap. On average, October 3rd is the 1st big snow of the year. Global warming is increasingly scary and real
- there were MASSIVE spiders (the size of the palm of our hands) all around Kawaguchiko and the paths of Mt Fuji (I guess not all that surprising considering we were in the mountains). Upon further research, the two spiders that we were seeing all over were the redback spider and the joro spider - both venomous and very dangerous. We’re so glad they decided to keep to their webs! 😅
- There are two types of bears in Japan’s. In the Fuji area it’s the Asciatic black bear and up north, on a different island, there is a cousin of the brown bear, Ussuri brown bear.
- For you bass fisherman out there, the world record largemouth bass was caught here at over 22lbs! The lake was full of fisherman and bass boats. Bass were introduced by sportsman and are harmful and invasive so the Japanese government has a program to try and eradicate them, despite the sport fishing industry that’s popped up. Seems like there’s an unofficial uno reverse card played here after all the Asian carp issues we’re having.Read more