Travel Tuesdays #10: Fujikawaguchiko 富士河口湖町

Fujikawaguchiko

Apologies this is coming a week late. I was on vacation and traveling so getting my posts out is sometimes challenging.

Fujikawaguchiko is a resort area at the northern base of Mt. Fuji in Yamanashi prefecture. It's only about 1hr from our house on the toll roads so it's a nice, close escape from the rat race.

The first time I visited Fujikawaguchiko I was pretty excited, but I really had no idea of what to expect. The reason we were going there was to visit the Yamanshi Gem Museum, but we were in for a surprise.

One thing you have to remember when driving in Japan, it is a very old country, with very old roads. Sometimes Google maps isn't the best voice to listen to, as my wife constantly reminds me when driving in Japan. This was the case the first time we drove out to Fujikawaguchiko. We avoided the toll roads and took what we thought was a normal, scenic route. About halfway there though the road turned into a one lane winding, death wish up a mountain with almost blind curves. In Japan the roads have mirrors in blindspots so you can see around the curve. This helped and we made it through without a head on collision, but that portion was not a fun drive. 

Arriving at Fujikawaguchiko we were blown away at Mt. Fuji. Fujikawaguchiko is actually on the bottom slope of the volcano. It's pretty incredible as you realize you are driving on a portion of the volcano. When we arrived at our first location, the gem museum, we noticed some flows of volcanic rock which we would later explore, but are shown in the first photo.

The Yamanashi Gem Museum is a world class museum with one of the most well thought out displays of gems and minerals I've seen. Each rare gem has it's own case with both cut and rough specimens beautifully displayed in glass cases. In addition to that they have an awesome, large map of Japan with minerals set on top of it from each location throughout Japan showcasing it's mineral treasures.

The gem museum also has lots of rough and cut stones for sale in their shop, which is part of the reason we always stop by when we visit Fujikawaguchiko. We stock up on some fairly priced minerals which end up paying for part of our trip.

After the museum we were hungry, all that walking around and looking at gems can build up an appetite. While we were driving away we spotted a small food stall called "Kawaguchi Dog".

I immediately pulled over to see if they had anything interesting to eat. They did, but there was no one there! The place was open, but no one around! We called out several times until a passer by said the owner was across the street at the lake doing something. Bummer because we wanted to try some of their hot dogs. Instead we just stopped at the Family Mart and picked up some snacks to get us through until dinner.

From there it was across the street to Lake Kawaguchiko to get some photos and just take in the nice weather and views. Lake Kawaguchiko is one of the Fuji 5 lakes at the base of Mt. Fuji. It's the second biggest just behind Lake Yamanaka. Kawaguchi-ko offers fantastic views of Mt. Fuji as well as water sports, hot springs, hotels and beaches to swim at.

All of the rocks you see in the photos are volcanic rock.

After having a look around and taking some pictures, we drove around the lake to explore some more. There is a small main street that is lined with souvenir shops and eateries and a tram that takes you up a mountain for what I'm not sure. We plan on going up it the next time we are out there. Beyond that point there are several hotels, but no more shopping. As the road winds around the lake there are a few beach spots to stop off at enjoy the lake. Then you wrap back around into the city.

There are many more things to do in Kawaguchiko, like Fuji Q Highland amusement park, more rock shops! and many more resort town activities, but I'll save some of those stories for another time. If you are interested in getting outside of Tokyo Fujikawaguchiko and the surrounding lakes/cities are only 1 - 1.5 hours away. You can reach it by train or car and it's a common destination for Tokyoites. During the summer there are quite a few foreign tourists so hotels may be a bit harder to get into. I'll close with a few more photos.

---

Next Travel Tuesdays #11: ??

---

• Follow me for stories on Japan, Gems & Minerals, Crypto, DnB, Cali & living life!
• Follow my wonderful wife for her adventures! @tokyowomanslife

Thanks for reading!

Our Steemit Blogger Central Discord community is here:

Discord:
https://discord.gg/e5XFZKa