We left our cozy shipping container just after 5:30am in order to drive back up the mountain to the same spot as yesterday, Tenka Chaya. This morning we were in luck, Fuji was completely clear, and got to experience some red (pink perhaps) Fuji as well!

After watching the sunrise we decided to explore and take the mountain path that we had abandoned in 2019 along to the ridge line to see if there were any openings in the trees to get any views of Fuji. It is quite a steep climb up to the ridgeline, but it only takes about 30 minutes until you are on (relatively) flat ridge line. We decided to turn left at the top, and didn’t get to hike for too long until we found a break in the trees with a beautiful view! The trees nicely framed Fuji and Kawaguchiko, although it was a little hazy.

After finding the view we continued across the ridge line for a while longer, but were stuck deep in the trees and didn’t get to see Fuji again up there, so turned around and came back down. It was time to head down the mountain, on the road down there is a great Fuji viewing lay-by that I’d definitely recommend which gives a great view of the landscape.

We thoughts heading to Chureito Pagoda would be nice as Fuji was clear and so drove over to Shimoyoshida. After climbing the 398 steps we were greeted by a work crew, with multiple trucks, and cherry pickers. The sakura were being pruned, which is great, except it sort of spoiled the view a bit. What spoiled the view more with the throng of people on the new viewing platforms, especially as the people were quite rude. We had arrived before 10am, but it was packed, I’d suggest only visiting early or late in the day to avoid the awful crowds.

We quickly left the pagoda to get away from the crowds and chose to head to a new Michi no eki that popped up in northern Fujikawaguchiko called Kawaguchiko Base. If you have driven around Japan, especially on smaller roads, you’ll have come across Michi no eki, roadside stations, which are usually filled with omiyage, restaurants, and local produce. Kawaguchiko Base was different to other Michi no eki, it was fancy, too fancy! The omiyage were very upper class, with lots of local foods and sweets, but nothing took our fancy so we headed back to our container to make lunch.

While it was clear for the afternoon I wanted to try and get some drone shots of Fuji. We drove around the lake to find somewhere unpopulated so I wouldn’t bother anyone with the drone. We found a very quiet part of the lake and walked to the shore to set off. Some clouds were coming in, but it was great (and nerve-wracking) to fly over the lake, a great start to flying near Fuji.

On thing we wanted to achieve on this trip was climbing Fuji from station 0 to station 5, the usual starting point of climbs to the summit. Fuji is open for climbing from June to the end of August, without extensive winter climbing experience and gear it isn’t safe to climb outside of that time. The snow cap of Fuji doesn’t tend to come below the 5th station, and so it should be a safe climb. It was late in the day so we didn’t want to do the climb that day, instead we were scoping out the starting point: Naka no Chaya.

The teahouse itself it closed in the off season, but we were able to park and get the drone up to explore the surroundings, it was beautiful! From the drone we could see Fuji, Kawaguchiko, Yamanakako, and the Japanese southern alps.

We had a brief look up the hiking path, which used to be the pilgrimage path for climbing Fuji, the road/path was covered in ice and so we knew crampons would be needed to make an attempt. At the path entrance, there was a very cute little shrine, it was clear others were coming and providing fresh drinks.

We headed back home for an early dinner, as I had a Japanese lesson booked for 6pm, so quickly ate and headed back to Oishi Park to watch the sunset, I made it back in time for my lesson!

I was so happy to have a whole day with Mount Fuji clear, here’s to a few more (fingers crossed).