6TH - 8TH JANUARY

We were up and out early from our Tokyo hostel, as we wanted to make the most of our time at Mount Fuji. We had pre-booked our train and although we (especially Rob) would have loved to have blasted past on the bullet train we thought we’d make better use of our time by staying over. We had booked into The Station Hotel which was supposed to have great views of Fuji and Japanese style rooms.

We had to get two trains to reach Kawaguchi-ko, the village nearest to Mount Fuji. The train line to the village we were staying wasn’t included in our Japanese Rail Pass which meant we had to pay for the second train. When the first train pulled into the station we could see the Mount Fuji train and it looked a proper touristy thing. We found out that we had two options we could pay extra to go on the plush touristy train or pay the minimum amount and go on the normal

commuter train, we opted for the cheaper option! As the train pulled out of the station the sun really started to shine but it was so warm on the train it was difficult to stay awake, I’m not sure how far into the journey I fell asleep but I don’t think it was too long! I woke up to find Rob clicking away and pointing out to me Mount Fuji which was more or less straight in-front of us. It was an incredible sight, just like all the famous photographs you have seen of it, it had also just started to snow which was very fitting. The train journey was great, it was only a really small line and snaking its way past peoples houses with what seemed like inches to spare. We arrived at our destination and saw our guest house and to our relief it had an incredible view over Mount Fuji, infact the mountain was right in front of it! We’d been keeping our fingers crossed that we’d get a Fuji side view! We weren’t disappointed, we got into our room, which was very elegant and Japanese, it was a bit chilly but it