Exploring Mt Fuji with the Fuji-Hakone Pass
- Lucy and the lens
- May 5, 2019
- 7 min read
The Fuji-Hakone Pass is a two or three day pass aimed at encouraging people to overnight in the Hakone/Fuji area, rather than simply day tripping it from Tokyo. We thought it would be a perfect deal for us, because we wanted to start our exploring early each day so staying locally made sense.
With the pass, you have free movement (with a few limitations, such as express trains) in the Hakone/Odawara area and the Fujikawaguchiko area (a popular town to view Mt Fuji). You also get free transport from Hakone to Fuji (and vice versa). There's even an option that includes a round trip from Tokyo on the bus or train.
The pass also offers discounts on a range of attractions in both areas. We didn't really have a chance to use these, but it was worth the price alone to not have to worry about buying individual tickets for public transport, especially since the Hakone tourist loop will see you using a bare minimum of five different modes of transport, including buses, trains, ropeways, tramways and boats!
All of the transport I mention taking in this post was including in our Fuji-Hakone pass, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
What to do in Fujikawaguchiko
We actually stayed about a 10 minute train ride from Fujikawaguchiko town, just a couple of minutes' walk from Fuji Station. This actually worked out perfectly for us, because we found Fujikawaguchiko kind of lacking in charm, whereas the area we stayed was more historic, our hostel being right by a giant stone torii gate that perfectly frames Mt Fuji on a clear day. We stayed at Hostel Fujisan You, found on Air BnB, and I would totally recommend it for its location - we even had a view of Fuji from our window!
Following a run of very clear days, the clouds had begun to creep in, so we pushed forward our plan to visit Chureito Pagoda. This iconic view of Mt Fuji with a traditional five-storey pagoda in the foreground is impossible to avoid if you're researching a trip to Japan! And it's as breathtaking in person as it looks in the pictures.
We wanted to catch the sun setting over Fuji, so we caught the train from Fuji Station and then walked the 20 minutes through a quiet residential area followed by many, many lamp-lined stairs. So many stairs. There's a less direct winding forest path you can take if you hate stairs as much as I do, but either way is tough going!
The view from the top was worth it, though. What we didn't expect was for the place to be so busy that a typically efficient system had been set up to avoid arguments over the best viewing spots. The most popular spot, the one that gives you that perfect sightline of Fuji and the pagoda side by side, was completely fenced off and guarded by attendants. You join a queue to get access to this area, and when it's your turn you get five full minutes to snap away to your heart's content. We were initially annoyed at having to queue for a view, but we only had to wait about ten minutes before our turn, and it was actually nice not to have to jostle for position!
The sun set soon enough and treated us to some stunning views as we returned down the stairs. The sky was pink and Fuji was as iconic as ever.
The following day we headed to Fujikawaguchiko itself. As I said, we found the town a little charmless compared to some of the places we'd seen. It was almost as though its view of Fuji was enough of a selling point for it not to invest much into its maintenance. The riverside walk, which offers views of Fuji reflected on the water on a clear day, was nice, but the banks could have been a little more maintained, maybe with benches and grassy areas rather than concrete.
My favourite thing to see in Fujikawaguchiko was Fuji Omuro Sengen Shrine. This is the oldest shrine in the Fuji area, and despite being quite large with many little shrines and sculptures dotted about, it was virtually free of tourists. We got to witness a ritual taking place in the main shrine, which added to the atmosphere.
Next to the shrine is a beautiful cemetery featuring the most spectacular weeping cherry blossom we saw during our whole trip, and a beautiful traditional garden and pagoda.
What to do in Hakone
A bus service connects Fujikawaguchiko and Hakone. You have to make a connection at the Gotemba Premium Outlet, but we just used it as a chance to grab lunch before continuing our journey! If you're into shopping on holiday, the selection of designer stores on offer was pretty impressive.
We actually stayed in Odawara, a short train ride from popular Hakone, as a much cheaper option. This worked out extremely well, as we got to enjoy the evening at Odawara Castle. This tiered castle on a hill was surrounded by cherry blossoms that were illuminated by a light show as the sun set. There was a great atmosphere as locals picnicked under the blossoms.
Hakone can comfortably be seen in a day, as all the activities on offer fit into a perfectly planned loop around the area. You can either take the loop clockwise or anti-clockwise: going clockwise takes you first to Hakone Shrine, followed by a boat ride on Lake Ashi and a ropeway up into the mountains. We chose to go anti-clockwise, as Hakone Shrine was under construction when we were there. We were quite intimidated at the prospect of finding our way around, but we shouldn't have been: every leg of the journey is so clearly marked, with the transfers between different modes of transport being looked after by helpful attendants, that it was pretty much impossible to get lost. This is a very popular tourist spot, after all. So here's what our day looked like...
Leg 1: Take the Hakone Tozan Railway to Hakone Open Air Museum
We had to get a standard train from Odawara to the 'starting point' of the Hakone loop, a station called Hakone-Yumoto. We then found ourselves on the Tozan Train, a scenic train that creeps up the mountain with the help of a few switchbacks. It's not the speediest process, as the train has to reverse direction at every switchback, but it was fun nonetheless.
We got off the train at the Hakone Open Air Museum, a big sculpture park home to many famous Japanese and international artists' work. A Picasso exhibit was closed when we were there, but we particularly enjoyed the Symphonic Sculpture by Gabriel Loire, a French artist who specialised in stained glass. Inside, you find yourself in a chimney made of glass. You can climb a spiral staircase to the top, which helpfully gives you an overview of the whole museum from the viewing platform. Having arrived early, we had this sculpture mostly to ourselves and it was fantastic.
You can easily spend a couple of hours here, as the park is large and there is plenty of art to contemplate and often interact with. I'd probably recommend a visit here earlier in the day, as it was already verging on too crowded when we left the museum at around 10:30am.
Leg 2: Cablecar from Gora to Sounzan
We had to hop back on the Tozan Train to travel one more stop to the end of the line in Gora. We took a quick look around Gora, which was full of shops selling souvenir treats and gifts, then joined the line for the Sounzan Cablecar. This train takes you up the mountain at quite a steep incline! The Japanese tourists were loving the novelty of this - I guess its unique to this area!
Leg 3: Ropeway from Gora to Owakudani
This ropeway, which takes you over an active volcanic area, was probably the most dramatic we've ever taken for three reasons. First, you get to float over the apocalyptic scene of a smoking valley of volcanic gases escaping from the earth. Second, as you crest the top of a mountain you will join in the collective gasp as Mount Fuji looms dramatically ahead of you. Thirdly, the strong winds up here will make you feel entirely vulnerable as the cablecar is tossed from side to side.
In high-elevation Owakudani, you disembark the cable car and have the chance to try the local specialty, eggs boiled in sulphuric hot springs! The sulphur in the water reacts with the eggs to turn the shells black. They taste just like normal eggs, but the novelty factor is strong! You can buy a bag of five eggs for just a couple of dollars.
There's also a pretty mean view of Mt Fuji from this spot, too...if only it wasn't too windy to really take it in!
Leg 4: Ropeway from Owakudani to Lake Ashi
Unfortunately, it was so windy that our time in Owakudani was cut short: all cable car services were being suspended as we stood there with our hot volcano eggs. Luckily, the cable cars taking visitors down the mountain were still in service for now, but there were a lot of disappointed tourists at the bottom, their day of exploring brought to an end before it had really began. Thank goodness for our early start!
Leg 5: Scenic boat trip on Lake Ashi
We couldn't believe that this boat ride, on board an old-school pirate ship, was included in our Fuji-Hakone Pass, but it was! This ride takes you across Lake Ashi: on a clear day there are several spots where Mt Fuji is visible from the boat, and when it's not under construction you can see the iconic red torii gate of Hakone Shrine on the banks of the lake.
Leg 6: home again!
From Hakone-machi, where the boat lets you off, you need to take a bus ride to your final destination. Luckily, we found a bus heading directly to Odawara - so convenient, as always! We had a little time left to explore Odawara, its hidden shrines and hole-in-the-wall ramen joints!
We were so impressed by how smoothly our time in Hakone ran. As I said earlier, they make it very difficult to get lost, and all the transport links ran like clockwork. Until the wind shut them down, anyway! Although most visit for a day trip, I really would recommend staying the night and getting an early start as it got outrageously busy later in the day! Also be prepared for significantly lower temperatures in the Hakone/Fuji area than in Tokyo. We were enjoying warm spring temperatures in Tokyo and preparing ourselves for nights dropping below freezing in Hakone. A few days after our visit, they had snow! We also hadn't expected the cherry blossoms in Fuji to be so far behind Tokyo (by almost two weeks!), so it was a shame not to get to enjoy them at their best while we were there.
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