Welcome to my next post in this #ExploreJapan series. If you missed the first post, you can check it out here. In this post, I will briefly cover 1 of the 5 areas that I managed to visit whilst in Japan where I hope to describe the differences in size and atmosphere as well as the places that I managed to visit. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section below!
This was my very first visit to Japan 
so I used the internet and Google Maps to figure out, as much as possible, the beautiful and foreign (to me) country that is Japan! Thereās certainly a lot that you can read up on online and thereās no shortage of folks like myself whoās fascinated by Japan!
And luckily, I had this bunch of passionate folks called Connect Moderators 
who were also doing their own research and sharing their findings amongst the group so there was certainly a never ending stream of Japan related information to go through!
So, right off the bat, one of the early challenges that I came across when researching Japan is understanding the way the areas are divided and structured. If you are curious, you can check out this Wikipedia pageto learn more about how Japan is divided into prefectures, sub-prefectures, districts, cities, towns, villages and wards. Iām no expert and it still confuses me when I look at Maps to understand whether Iām referring to a district, ward or city or something else! Oh, and I apologise in advance if my information is incorrect! 
Anyway, Iāll start off with the āsmallestā city/town/area and make my way up to the largest one in subsequent posts!
[ FUJIKAWAGUCHIKO ]
Mount Fuji is 3776 metres tall and covers quite a large area. There are four small cities around it; Fujiyoshida to the north, Gotemba to the east, Fuji to the south and Fujinomiya to the southwest. I felt that I couldnāt miss the chance to see Mount Fuji so I started looking for a reasonable place to visit.
You could obviously try going up as close/high to the top but that wasnāt really for me. I was chasing that classic āpostcardā view of something traditional (a shrine, a pagoda etc) with Mount Fuji in the background. So I started looking around the area that seemed interesting enough.
And that place is Fujikawaguchiko, a resort town on the north side of Mount Fuji. It is next to Lake Kawaguchiko, is quite touristy and also the āleast commercialisedā compared to Kyoto, Osaka or Tokyo. There are no subways or trams to get around. Instead they rely on buses and a simple train network.
Itās got a very laid back feel to it and most of the areas I explored were immediately surrounded by a suburban landscape (residential neighbourhood dotted with small shops and convenience stores). And in some sections, I could see small farming lands.
Where I stayed:
Kasuitei Ooya Hotel - Itās quite expensive but itās right next to Lake Kawaguchiko. Itās a 11 minutes walk to the nearest train station (Kawaguchiko station), has a few shops/eating places around it and has an onsen on the rooftop!
How I got here:
Kawaguchiko train station - This is the nearest station to the hotel. I was travelling from Kyoto on the shinkansen (bullet train) and stopped at Mishima station, where I boarded a Sekitori liner bus to Kawaguchiko train station. This bus is clean, comfortable and allowed me to see the surrounding areas as it made its way up north.
Places I visited:
- Chureito Pagoda - Remember that āpostcardā view that I wanted? This is definitely one place that offers that! Took a train from Kawaguchiko station to Shimoyoshida station, and then a simple walk towards the Arakurayama Sengen Park where the pagoda is located.
- Kawaguchiko Tenjozan Park - To get to this park, I took a cable car ride from here. Besides the cable car ride which was quite fun, this place has a few observation areas to get even more photos of Mount Fuji. There is a single story building here (a souvenir shop and ticket shop) that you can go onto the flat roof to take photos. You can also take a short walk to a swing set to take more photos (you will need to buy tickets for this). And from there, you can walk even further out to another observation deck forā¦you guessed itā¦even more photos!
Observations/Musings:
- Kawaguchiko train station was very busy and filled with tourists. And you could see groups of tourists everywhere (unsurprisingly). But despite the large number of tourists, Fujikawaguchiko still manages to retain that small city/town feel.
- I got to try out the onsen at the hotel. They have two; a large one in the basement with a cold pool too, and a medium sized one at the rooftop on the 7th floor thatās split between an indoor and an outdoor area. The outdoor section has a small bath area that can possibly fit 1-2 people but it has a really lovely view of the lake.
- Some places that I researched that I would have liked to visit if I had more time: Oishi Park, Kawaguchiko Music Forest Museum, Saiko Iyashi-no-Sato Nenba, Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine and Oshino Hakkai. And I also wanted to cycle around and found this bicycle rental place.
Finally, here are some videos that you might find interesting:
In my next post Iāll be covering the lovely city of Kyoto! It is a very charming city and I took tons and tons of photos and videos here!! Thanks for checking out this post but do stay tuned for the next one too!
The #ExploreJapan series:
This series is based on my 11 days exploring Osaka, Kyoto, Fujikawaguchiko (Mt Fuji area) and Tokyo. It is my very first visit to Japan and I hope to share the experiences that I had with all of you!
- First introduction post
- Fujikawaguchiko (this post)
- Kyoto
