It was a rather underwhelming sunrise and so we didn’t venture out of the house until after the sun rose, quite unusual for our time in Kawaguchiko historically. Once Fuji was clear and the sun was up the sky was very interesting, with lenticular clouds having been swept from Fuji to the east. It was a grey and unsettled day, but the peak was clear so it was time to get back in the mountains.

The weather can change around Mount Fuji so quickly and by the time we walked back to our cottage and drove up to Tenka Chaya the sky was blue, but Fuji was making another lenticular cloud. It is such an intriguing area, to have opposing weather everywhere but the summit of Mount Fuji!

The wind was low and the sky was clear so after hiking up to our newly discovered secret spot, we sent the drone up to explore the area (there was no one else around so we weren’t worried about annoying anyone). The image above is taken from the ground, the one below is from the air, I didn’t realise the terrain was so mountainous between Tenka Chaya and Kawaguchiko!

We had time for a little mountain top selfie haha. The wind did pick up at that point and it was a difficult job landing on the uneven ground, but luckily the drone made it back!

On our way down we saw this little dog, Koume (small plum) who always seemed to be across the road from Tenka Chaya (we assume she belongs to the tea shop owners). The sign says “Please do not touch Koume”.

As the clouds had covered Fuji we headed home for some lunch. We decided to head into town, and isntead of taking the car we wanted to walk around the lake, which ended up being a 9.5 mile round-trip, but it was worth it. We walked into town and visited some of our favourite shops, the best shop being Sora no Shita who make original Mount Fuji themed T-shirts and rent out hiking gear, I’d highly recommend a visit.

On the way back Mount Fuji came back out, and we had a wonderful show with lots of different clouds, and the setting sun lit them beautifully. The bridge across the lake always gives such a stunning view.

After some disappointed evenings we didn’t bother to pop out for sunset in full, as we had evening plans. Throughout winter on weekends, and on Mount Fuji day, there are free fireworks. This time I wanted to try out doing some firework photography, which was really fun. The fireworks go on for quite a while, and so the sky was filled with smoke, which meant Fuji was just peaking out, making some moody photos.