Mount Fuji

This past weekend was a 3 day weekend for Japan, so we booked an Airbnb at Kawaguchi-ko. Its one of the 5 lakes surrounding Mount Fuji and its on the north side. It only took 2 hours and 30 minutes to get there. Why didn’t we do this sooner!?

We left Friday night. I was planning on getting off work at 5pm so we could get down to Fuji around 7:30pm. But its Japan and its Honda, so I worked until 9pm and we didn’t make it to our Airbnb until midnight. The kids were asleep in the car and we put them straight to bed when we walked in. So they couldn’t really tell that Fuji was right out our window. If we looked hard in the dark, we could see a massive landform shadow.

The next morning we woke up at 6:15am, because kids, and we told the kids to look out the window. They were blown away by what they saw.

They have talked about Mount Fuji since we arrived in Japan and finally they were able to see it up close. Heather and I were pretty blown away too. Its just more powerful up close for some reason. Caroline asked immediately if the lava and ash would hit us if it were to erupt. She is super concerned about volcanoes.

That morning we were out of the house by 8:15am and went for a walk around the lake. We didn’t do much. Just stayed out and enjoyed walking in the nice weather. Earlier in the week it was 90% rain all weekend and cloudy. So we were disappointed. But we didn’t see clouds until Sunday evening before we left. It was amazing weather.

Also there a bunch of weeping willow type trees (I’m not a botanist) around the lake as well. The kids loved running through the dangling branches. They kept asking me to take their pictures.

After our morning walk we drove to the Ice Caves under Mount Fuji. I didn’t know that you had to be 4 years old and 100cm tall to enter the caves. So when they asked me how old Nathan was, I told them 3. They said, “oh sorry, he can’t go in”. I was thinking, “crap, how I am going to argue this? It’s Japan, they don’t bend the rules”. I told them he will be 4 next week and that he’s over 100cm tall. They made him stand next to a measuring stick and he just eeked over 100cm. Everyone in line was cheering for him to be able to enter. I don’t know if they wanted a victory for the little guy or just for us to be out of their way. In any case, Nathan was allowed to enter! And I was glad because he had a great time down in the cave. Caroline’s claustrophobia got to her, but Nathan was as happy as a bat. We got down to the ice part…

I think someone went to 7-Eleven that morning and bought a bag of ice and just dumped it on the ground in the cave. We chuckled at it. So the ice wasn’t so impressive this time of year, but the cave was still really cool even without the ice.

We went to get some lunch after that. We found a super gangster burger joint near our apartment called Sugees. It was decorated with rappers from the 90’s and they played gangster rap the whole time. I hope the kids didn’t listen to any of the lyrics in there. The burgers were really good though and it felt a bit like America, so that was nice.

After that we went back to the apartment for a short rest before we headed up the mountain. You can drive up to the 5th station of Mount Fuji, which is 7500 feet above sea level. The top of Fuji is 12,388 feet above sea level. So you can drive more than half way up it. At 7500 feet, we were above the clouds and we could see the top super clearly. So it felt a lot closer than the numbers indicate. We saw a great sunset from up there. And we stayed a little too long and got chased down the mountain by the security guards. Who closes a mountain at 6pm? Honestly.

We grabbed some dinner from 7-Eleven and ate it back at the apartment and went to sleep.

Sunday, we woke up at 6:15am again, because kids. We were still pretty pooped from the previous day, so we didn’t end up getting out of the apartment until about 10am. We went to a famous “Momiji” Corridor to see the pretty Japanese maple trees in their red color. I think the peak was the previous weekend, but they were still pretty full by the time we got there.

We stopped at a little festival food stand for some snacks and ice cream. Ice Cream at 11am. But we had to try the “American Long Potato”. It was not so delicious at all. But still fun to try.

After that, we made a 30 minute walk to Oishi Park on the north side of the lake. And we found a playground! You can go to one of the most famous mountains in the world, but kids love swings and slides the same as they do in your own back yard.

Nathan loved the fact that we got to walk through a tunnel instead of drive through it. It was super windy through there though.

Then we went to a restaurant near the park called “Brand New Day Coffee and Pizzeria”. No Donatos, but acceptable pizza.

Next, we decided to go back up to the 5th Station on Fuji. It was a little earlier in the day than the last time we went up, so we thought we could catch the sunset earlier.

So we didn’t get to see a sunset from the 5th Station on the 2nd day. It was so cold up there and windy. Once we got back down to near sea level, it was a beautiful day again. We had dinner at a really delicious italian restaurant then headed back to the apartment for the night.

We woke up the next morning, cleaned up, and said good-bye to our Airbnb.

Then we got in the car and drove home!