Mt Fuji, Hakone, Lake Ashi and a Bullet Train

Whilst in Tokyo we took a full day trip out to Mt Fuji and the surrounding area. This really was a full day trip that started at 7.30am. The journey time to Mt Fuji is around 2.5 hours by coach with a short stop at some motorway services for a restroom break.

The first stop took us to Mt Fuji. The weather was on our side, so it seemed. I was expecting to see some snow on the tip of Fuji especially as the weather forecast before I left home showed some snowfall. In all the literature you see of Mt Fuji there always looks to be snow on top. Our guide confirmed that snow is often only seen between late November through to early April so please remember this when you visit.

This photo was taken about 5 minutes from the 5th Station and the difference in the weather was amazing. We went from clear blue skies to grey, damp clouds. Here I am eating Mt Fuji! There are lots of souvenir shops up at the 5th station and they really love their Melon Bread.

From here we headed to Hakone for lunch. We then took the Hakone Ropeway (Cable Car) up to Owakudani Hot springs. These really were something else. The views were fantastic but its a shame I cant say the same about the smell! The sulpher smell was so strong. They also like to boil eggs in the sulpher that gives the shell a disitingtive black colour. The locals were going mad to try these eggs. The smell up here really resembled rotton eggs and I couldnt bring myself to try one.

The coach then met us and took us back down to Lake Ashi where we had a 30 minute boat ride. The timing for this was excellent the Japanese maple trees looked amazing in the evening sunshine. I think it would give New England in the Fall a run for its money.

Finally once off Lake Ashi we took a short coach journey to the local train station for the Bullet train back to Tokyo. This for me was the highlight of the day. The journey was so smooth and took just half an hour to get back.

Take a look here at the Bullet Train

Once in Tokyo station we were to make our own way back to the hotel. This was easy from Tokyo station as we could jump on the JR line straight to Ikebukuro.

We were not finished here though. We wanted to to see the lights of Tokyo and there was one place we needed to go. We took the metro up to Oshiage for the SkyTree. This is officially the worlds tallest tower standing at 634 meters. We arrived at about 8.30pm and expected queues but there were none. We walked straight in and purchased our ticket (approx £20 each) Once at the top we could see the Tokyo tower, Rainbow bridge and the lights right across the city. They had a great interactive viewing screen that could pinpoint exact buildings. I really enjoyed my time visiting the Tokyo SkyTree but if you dont have time to make it there you will also get great night views from Sunshine City Sky Circus and its half the price!