It was a sad day, the day we left Kawaguchiko. We woke up to a white sky and no Mount Fuji in sight, but checking the webcams from higher altitudes showed Fuji wasn’t completely covered. We rushed to the car and drove straight up the nearby mountain. Just in case the clouds changed their minds and took Fuji completely, we stopped again at the Mount Fuji viewing platform on the 137, there was a lovely band of clouds, and Mount Fuji in the golden morning light. There were several photographers with tripods set up as it was a Saturday, so we didn’t stay long before driving down to the secret spot.

Once we got to where we had parked the day before, there were already a number of cars there. We parked up, got the camera and rushed to the view point. From our higher vantage point you can see the sea of clouds that has covered the entirety of Kawaguchiko.

The area was packed with photographers! There must have been at least 15 people at the secret spot with some very expensive camera gear. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming, and I recognised a number of the photographers from following them on Instagram!

The views yesterday had been picture-perfect, but the sea of clouds blocking almost all of human civilization gave the morning some extra magic. We watched as the sunlight slowly lit the entire sea of clouds and started creeping over nearby mountains. At this point, some of the photographers started packing up, and we realised we needed to head off too, as we had to check out this morning from our home.

As we were sorting the last of our packing Fuji was still clear, and so we decided to try to get to Fuji Twin Terrace on the ridgeline above Kawaguchiko for some more photos. We have been to Twin Terrace twice before, once in autumn before the terrace was build, and in winter, and were excited for summer view.

We said goodbye to our lovely house with the lovely view and set off with a car full of luggage. Although quite close as the crow flies, the ridgeline isn’t the easiest to access (obviously it is a mountain!) and so it took over 30 minutes to get to the Shindotogerokata Parking Lot where you must park to make the ascent or to catch the bus.

We had our fingers crossed that we would beat the first bus of the morning up to the viewpoint so we would have the space to ourselves, but the walk was much longer from the car park than we anticipated. On our way up the road, the bus passed us. It was a lovely morning, we saw several deer in the forest, and a large number of beautiful butterflies.

Sadly, as you may have expected, Fuji was long gone by the time we made it up there at around 9:30am. It is still a really beautiful spot to see Kawaguchiko from, even if Fuji isn’t towering over the town. The mountains all looked so beautiful in their summer greens. We wandered between the two decks (it is the twin terrace) before making our way back to the car. Then it was time to get back to Tokyo.

We’ve driven between Kawaguchiko and Tokyo and always had a quick and easy time of it. For some reason this day we were blessed not only by bad traffic, but by an epic thunder storm! The journey should take around two hours, but took over 4 in the end. We did stop off at a few service stations, and found our new favourite stop: Dangozaka SA which has, as the name suggests, a great selection of dango. Even better, they display the allergens for each type so I was able to safety select a few.

We finally made it back to Ota-ku to return the car, which was our worst experience with any car rentals in Japan so far. A member of staff came out to the car when we arrived, and wordlessly flapped at us to hurry and empty the car. He didn’t speak to us at all, and as soon as I’d picked the last bag from the car he jumped in and drove it off. No word as to what to do next, or how to pay for the ETC fares we had accrued. After waiting around for a while I decided to go into the office to ask, and they were waiting with my charges! A heads-up would have been useful.

We got checked in to our hotel, ordered some Uber eats for a quick dinner, and spent hours catching up with friends and chatting the night away.