Day 56 – Kawaguchicko
Today we woke up in the shadow of the famous Mount Fuji (apparently). We had travelled to Kawaguchicko, as it has a Lake which is part of the Fuji 5 Lakes. They are called this, as they are wonderful viewing spots of the mountain (apparently). As the name suggests, our accommodation K’s House Fuji View was meant to have views of Fuji (apparently), but due to the fog cover, it could not be seen =(
We walked to the Kawaguchicko Bus/Train Station and bought a 2 Day Sight Seeing Bus Pass from Fujikyuko. The pass, just like the Nikko Pass, would save us money on using the bus around the town.
Fugaku Fuketsu (Wind Cave)
Various seeds that were stored to increase yield.
We caught the bus towards the Aokigahara Forest and got of at the Fugaku Fuketsu (Wind Cave) stop. Here we bought a combined ticket for both the Wind Cave and the Narusawa Hyoketsu (Ice Cave).
The Wind Cave was actually one of 80 caves to be created by Lava flow from Mount Fuji. After you descend some steps, the temperature plummets down and the last thing we were expecting was ice. The ice was actually used as a natural refrigerator for the storage of silkworm eggs and tree seeds in the 1950s – 1960s.
Narusawa Hyoketsu (Ice Cave)
The Narusawa Hyoketsu (Ice Cave) is around a 30 minute walk through the Aokigahara Forest. For the Ice Cave, you are provided helmets, which could have been useful in the Wind Cave to be honest.
Once again you must descend some steps, but in the Ice Cave, the openings are a lot smaller. At times I had to crawl as it was down to a height of 91cm.
The cave, also has a “pond of ice” which is 3m deep and is permanently frozen all year round!
Aokigahara Forest
Next we went to the infamous Aokigahara Forest, which is also known as the Suicide Forest. We first found out about it from a close friend in Melbourne and the Netflix show Dark Tourist. The forest is a location that lots of people go when they have basically had enough. From the signs scatted in the forest, most of the time its financial issues (according to Google Translate, which at times says weird things).
Sombre signs Signs like this, didn’t translate at all.
The Forest’s name translates to ‘a sea of trees’, and while walking the paths it is easy to see why its called this. In every direction, all you can see is trees. It would be super easy to get lost here, and the paths in certain spots blend in with the forest floor. I went all boy scouts, leaving clues for us to follow back in case we got lost. Mainly because Google Translate App was failing to translate some signs and we had to guess the direction to travel.
From the Ice Caves the direction signs are present and then disappears. As we got closer to the end of the track the English signage reappeared and we finally saw other people too, even a school excursion. From our experience, the forest didn’t feel haunted but who knows.
Lake Kawaguchiko
After we finally escaped from the forest we caught the bus towards the starting bus station again. From here we caught a different bus (red line), which took us to the other side of the Lake.
Unfortunately, Mount Fuji was still shy so we just walked around the lake towards our accommodation. We had to made do with the flowers on the path instead of the iconic mountain.
Mount Fuji hidden by clouds Mount Fuji hidden by clouds Mount Fuji hidden by clouds Mount Fuji hidden by clouds Some unimportant mountains
Thanks for reading our adventures around Kawaguchicko 🙂