Not the best day of the holiday. It started well with a good breakfast at the Associa Hotel, and then a ride on the Shinkansen to Mishima, and the driver was waiting efficiently for me as organised! A scenic drive to the Fuji Lake Hotel. This hotel has a great location, right by Lake Kawaguchi and with good views of Mount Fuji. My room even had a private onsen!

For lunch went to Cooliya the guy on the desk recommended which seemed like a mistake. I was the only one eating there, no queue, the ramen I had disagreed with me. Before I checked into the room at 2pm I went and got a R coupon at the railway station. Confused queueing in backpackerland, it felt rather shambolic.

I made another mistake by deciding to try the Ropeway as I had now a ticket for that. Underwhelming. Not so bad a queue to go up but looked like an hour plus to go down. So I walked down which took 15 minutes or so. A little sweaty.

Then came an unsuccessful attempt to find somewhere to eat an evening meal. The hotel buffer dinner I felt was too expensive so I tried outside. The centre of Kawaguchiko has few restaurants open in the evening, and those all seem over-subscribed. I had to settle for odds and sods from a Seven Eleven. I think if one has a car there are plenty of options but on foot it seemed one was restricted.

Kawaguchiko also has a shortage of streetlights. It was an uneasy return to the hotel as Google Maps took me through unlit graveyards. Not the holiday I had in mind. I tried the en-suite onsen to relax, was a little worried by the onsen water seeping over the edge of the bath to the wooden floor below. Hope the room below didn’t have an internal waterfall!

Shinkansen train

View of Mount Fuji from the hotel

Hotel lounge

Private onsen

Cooliya izakaya

Lunch there