January 27, 1971: The Golden Course
	January 25, 1971: A Day Trip to Nikko and Lake Chuzenji
	Return to the Index for the Japan Trip

For Tuesday, the 26th, we decided to attempt to get some pictures of Mt. Fuji. There are two ways to do this. The first is to take a scenic tour route, called the Golden Course, which goes in front of the mountain ("front" referring to the south side of the mountain facing the resort area of Hakone), and the other is to take the route that climbers take, going around the side, through the small town of Kawaguchiko.

Each of these approaches offer very different views, but going around the side, which is the route most climbers take, was shown in the guidebook to be quicker and more straightforward. We thought that since we had just today and tomorrow as our last two full days in Japan (we depart for Korea on the 28th), we would do this trip today and then find some other interesting day trip to make from Tokyo tomorrow. Like many plans, however, this one ended up changing.

We weren't actually going to climb Mt. Fuji. While this can be done in a long, relatively exhausting single-day trip from Tokyo, this was not something either of us wanted to attempt. Looking back from 2021, I am a bit surprised that I didn't want to make the attempt, since in the last thirty years of hiking and camping with Fred I have become quite the overachiever, usually wanting to get to the tops and bottoms (as appropriate) of the places we have visited. I am usually quite disappointed when weather or some other obstacle prevents us from getting to a highest or lowest point, but perhaps this has been an acquired taste.

In any event, what Dan and I wanted to do, at a minimum, was to get our own classic pictures of Mt. Fuji. Climbing it wasn't really on our radar. So we picked a trip outlined in the guidebook that would get us to the town of Kawaguchiko, which is where the routes up the mountain mostly begin, and we thought that we would be able to get good pictures from there, in addition to enjoying the day trip out and back, having lunch somewhere, and doing a bit of exploring.

From the Shinjuku station in Tokyo, we caught a train to Otsuki, which is about 50 miles from Tokyo and 20 miles from Mt. Fuji ("Fuji-san") itself. The railroad line passed through about 30 short tunnels on the way, and opportunities for picture taking were limited- also because the train was moving quite rapidly. A modern highway is paralleling the rail line.

This area seems to be quite modernized, and could be anywhere in the Western United States, except for the fact that we rarely travel by train here. I did try to get a number of pictures, and a few of them did turn out well. If you would like to see some of the scenery between Tokyo and Otsuki, just click on the thumbnails below:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

Our trip to the small town of Otsuki took about 90 minutes. It would have been a bit shorter, but at Shinjuku Station we made an error and got on a local train instead of the much quicker express. We realized this after a few stops, so we consulted our transit map and found a station where we could switch.

This is the main street of Otsuki, Japan, right in front of the railway station.

Ōtsuki is a small town located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. When we visited, Otsuki had perhaps 8,000 residents. Located in the headwaters of the Sagami River, the area around present-day Ōtsuki has a history that goes back much, much further than anything in America- or anything in Europe, for that matter. The first settlers were in the area by 5000 BCE; the area was heavily settled in the Jōmon period (14,000 BCE-300 BCE), and over 80 Jōmon sites have been found within city limits. During the Nara period (710-794) the entire province was organized politically, and the area came under Tsuru County. From the middle of the Kamakura period (which began in 1192), much of the province came under the control of the Takeda clan. This period began with Japan's first shogunate, and it was during this time that the samurai arose.

During the Edo period (1603-1867), all of Kai Province was under the direct control of the Tokugawa shogunate, although the portion around modern day Ōtsuki was part of the short-lived Tamimura Domain, which was suppressed in 1704. Also during the Edo period, the Kōshū Kaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes, passed through Ōtsuki, which with 12 of the 45 post stations has more post stations than any other municipality in Japan.

During the reforms of the early Meiji period on July 1, 1889, the village of Hirosato was created within Kitatsuru District, Yamanashi Prefecture. On April 1, 1933 the village was raised to town status, and renamed Ōtsuki. The town was bombed by the United States on August 13, 1945, only two days before the end of World War II. The town was elevated to city status on August 8, 1954 by merging with six neighboring towns and villages.

Here are two more pictures we took in Otsuki; we actually had relatively little time here before we caught our train to Kamaguchiko:

Part of the town of Otsuki, Japan, and the mountains surrounding it.

Some industrial buildings near the Otsuki railway station.

One of the interesting things about the Japanese transportation system is how well-coordinated everything seems to be. Perhaps if I lived in a big city, like New York, I might be impressed with how common connections seem to be relatively short, with all the trains and buses timed to minimize wait time. We hardly had time to walk around a bit before we had to head back into the station.

The train station in Otsuki

Ōtsuki Station is on the Chūō Main Line in the city of Ōtsuki, Yamanashi, Japan, jointly operated by the East Japan Railway Company and Fuji Kyuko. The Chūō Main Line begins in Tokyo at the Tokyo Station on the Chūō Main Line. This station is also the terminus of the privately operated 15-mile Fujikyuko Line to Kawaguchiko.

This is a fairly busy station for out in the hinterlands, and there are both local and express trains that stop here. Not having much experience with train travel, I was interested in how local and express trains can operate on the same track, but I suppose there are double tracks in places to allow one train to pass another.

The layout of this station was fairly typical. There were two side platforms and an island platform, so each line had its own pair of platforms. At stations like this, there is usually either a tunnel from one platform to the center or, in the case of this station, a flyover footbridge to get out into the middle.

At the Otsuki station, we changed for the Fuji Sanroku Electric Railway to Kawaguchiko. The railway was an old one, really rather decrepit. Here in 2021, when I went online to find out a little more about the railway (not having recorded much about it in 1971, I found that the railway was just now in the news, and I read an article about it on japanstation.com. You might be interested in what I found.

The article, dated May, 2021, began:

"The Fuji Kyuko company which operates the Fujikyuko Railway in Yamanashi Prefecture has announced that it is splitting its railway division off into a separate company this month. To mark the railway’s newfound independence, the railway will also be renamed Fuji Electric Railway (Fuji Sanroku Denki Tetsudo) a historic name it last held 51 years ago."

I found it interesting that 51 years earlier than 2021 puts the date of the previous name change to either 1971, the year we visited here, or perhaps 1970. I got the name of the railway from Japan on $10 a Day, so maybe the name change had already happened before the guidebook was printed, perhaps not.

The article continued:

"The Fujikyuko Line connects Otsuki Station in Otsuki City and Kawaguchiko Station in the town of Fujikawaguchiko. It is the only railway service to access the northern Yamanashi side of Mount Fuji and the Fuji Five Lakes area, and it is renowned for the scenic views along its route. However, in recent years fast and convenient highway bus services from Tokyo have proven more popular with tourists and the global pandemic has also exacerbated a local economic decline. By splitting the railway off into a separate company, Fuji Kyuko believes it will be better able to respond to local conditions.

I found all this kind of interesting and very coincidental. The picture was also pretty neat, although as you would expect the train we took to Kawaguchiko was not the 2021 train that you can see in the picture. (Nor was the day so clear that we could see Mt. Fuji itself yet.)

Scenery along the railway to Kawaguchiko, Japan, from Otsuki

On the way up to Kawaguchiko, there was precious little opportunity to take pictures, both because the train jerked and swayed so, and also because I was busy trying to catch the first glimpse of Fuji-san. That little castle way up on the hill faces in the direction of Fuji, and may well be used as some sort of religious edifice, since Fuji means a great deal in a religious sense, to the Japanese. Up on the terraced hillside is another building apparently of the same type, this one modeled after a pagoda.

Arriving in Kawaguchiko, we came out of the station expecting to see Mt. Fuji off in the distance, but we saw nothing but clouds. Thinking that we might be looking in the wrong direction, we consulted the big tourist map outside the train station to try to get our bearings. You can see that map at left.

Dan and I thought the map was kind of interesting, and I have cropped out a small section of it to show you what I mean. That section is at right. You can see the black line representing the Fuji Sanroku Electric Railway coming down towards Fuji from the northeast, and I have put a little star where the town of Kawaguchiko is (since, like me, you probably can't read Japanese).

Fuji, it seemed, was behind us as we were facing the map. I know it looks like a beautiful day, and it was- in every direction, it seemed, except for the one that mattered. When we turned around, all we could see were white clouds and Mt. Fuji seemed to be covered in them.

The mountain was inside the cloud bank. Reading the guidebook, we found that this is fairly common, even on nice days. Fuji being so high any clouds that are moving along tend to get "caught" by the peak and, until they move along of their own accord, we would not be able to see much. We could actually see the very lowest slopes of the extinct volcano, but certainly there was no iconic view (like the one in the train picture above).

One of the streets near the railway station in Kawaguchiko

Since we were here, and it was only noontime, we decided to wait in Kawaguchiko until at least mid-afternoon, when we hoped that the expected warming of the day might either burn the clouds off or they might move away for some other reason and the weather around the mountain clear enough for us to get some pictures.

Leaving the station, this sign oriented us, if we could have read Japanese; it is used to tell bus travelers which bus they need to get to a certain point. One of those bus routes, according to the guidebook, takes climbers a couple of miles away to where the main trail up and down the mountain can be found. The guidebook had a lot of interesting information about how to climb the mountain, the various "stations" on the trail where climbers can get food an drink (and even stay overnight), and so on. But since we weren't climbing the mountain (something I would definitely want to do if I were visiting there today), I won't bother copying a lot of that information into this narrative.

Suffice it to say that motivated hikers can actually leave Tokyo early in the morning, get to Kawaguchiko, climb Fuji, and return to Tokyo all in one long, exhausting day. But we hadn't planned on getting more than some photographs, so we are going to bum around Kawaguchiko for a while to see what the weather gods have in store for us.

We began to explore the town, and here are a couple of pictures that we took walking around. Kawaguchiko is situated just next to the slope of Fuji, and it seemed to be like small mountain towns everywhere, with most stores selling such equipment as could be used for mountain climbing, skiing, etc., and the people were very warmly dressed.

This is one of Kawaguchiko's main streets; it runs right by the railroad station and was one of the first streets we walked along.

On the right, a little way up this typical street in Kawaguchiko, is an excellent small restaurant that serves a kind of burrito, but with a thin slice of meat taking the place of the tortilla. These are deep-fried with vegetables inside.

For lunch, we stopped in a typical Japanese restaurant, and had one of the best meals yet. I had sweet/sour pork, with all sorts of exotic vegetables in it, and Dan had chicken and almonds. Those, incidentally, were the only two tables in the restaurant, along with five small stools at a counter. The place, though small, was immaculate, and the food was delicious. The wall heading unit kept us warm, though it was quite cold out.

Shopping in one of the many open-air markets is a frequent affair for Japanese, as most houses don't have large kitchens where much food can be stored.

Here I am having lunch in a restaurant in Kawaguchiko, Japan. Dan got up from the table to take one of the few actual pictures I have of myself. ("Selfie-sticks" are still more than a quarter of a century in the future!)

We had a really good lunch in the little restaurant, where we ordered, incidentally, by pointing at the plastic replica of the dishes we wanted- those replicas being in a display case near the front of the little restaurant. Then we left the restaurant and made a big circle, walking through the town.

This is what appeared to be a very nice residence in the town. I have been reading about traditional Japanese inns- ryokans- and maybe if I get back here again I will try one.

This view looks towards Mt. Fuji from near the Kawaguchiko railway station. Still the clouds have not cleared appreciably, and Fuji is still concealed under them.

We are beginning to get the feeling that the main purpose of today's out-of-Tokyo trip, seeing Mt. Fuji, is not going to be achieved. Sometimes the sun comes out and there is blue sky, but just a few minutes later clouds roll by and it gets grey and cold. So far, there hasn't been a lot to see of the mountain. But there has been a lot to see of typical Japanese life outsie the big city- including how shopping is done.

The variety of food available in some of the sidewalk supermarkets. I was not able to identify all the different items, although some of them are familiar.

A display of fish and fish products outside a grocery store in Kawaguchiko, Japan

Some of the items for sale at the grocery in Kawaguchiko, Japan

As you know, the Japanese have a high proportion of fish in their diets; I suppose that it better for you than beef, at least that's what I've heard.

In the background of this picture, you can see the mountains in the distance beyond Kawaguchiko, Japan.

I know there is not a lot to recommend this shot, but I took it because of the Shell station. Japan is very much modernized compared to Korea. It just doesn't seem as if Korea has been assimilated into world markets like Japan has, because in Korea one would rarely see Western trade names or Western products. Koreans seem to do everything just a bit differently.

The weather was just plain wierd today; one minute it would seem as if the sun were coming out and the weather clearning, but just a few minutes later the clouds would lower, the sun dim, and the day seem to turn even colder. Here we see another Japanese residence, but it looks cold and forbidding- because the weather was cold and forbidding.

In the two pictures below, we are looking directly at Mt. Fuji- or where Mt. Fuji is hidden beneath the clouds. The street has another Torii gate, and it would have made a good foreground anchor if I could have seen Fuji itself. It was getting darker, but we decided to walk up the hill and back before our train left.

A scene in Kawaguchiko along a street that should be looking at Mt. Fuji

Looking towards Mt. Fuji from a vantage point near the railway station in Kawaguchiko, Japan

Fuji should be right in the center of both pictures, but you can just barely see its base. We stopped for a cup of coffee in a small roadside restaurant (the main highway runs by here) to warm up and pass some more time waiting for nature to cooperate.

In the picture at right, you can see some of the mountains surrounding Kawaguchiko, Japan. At least as far as the topography is concerned, this area reminds me of Colorado, through which I drove two years ago on my way back from California to enter the Army at Fort Harrison, Indiana.

We have walked back towards the train station, as our train will be leaving in another forty minutes or so. We have just about run out of time. I wasn't sure if this might be my last attempt to get a picture of Mt. Fuji, but I thought I would give it a try. You should be seeing Fuji right in the center of the picture, although about all you can see are the lower slopes on either side.

I suppose you have heard of the reverence that the Japanese display for Fuji. During his lifetime, each Japanese tries to climb the mountain to see the sunrise from the top, and those who can't at least try to get there and visit one of the Shinto temples in the area. Most people, of course, come in the summer, the only time the mountain can be climbed, but there are always people there. Oddly, there is also a Japanese saying: "He who climbs Mt. Fuji once is a wise man; he who climbs Mt. Fuji twice is a fool."

Finally, and very late, a ray of hope. It seems that Fuji is clearing up- but from the bottom. The questions: Would Fuji clear up enough for a picture before the light deteriorated to the point that a picture could not be taken? And, if so, would Fuji clear up in time to allow picture-taking before the train left? Full of apprehension, we continued walking back to the train station, almost not daring to look behind us.

As you can see, I was able to end our stay in Kawaguchiko with two good pictures of Fuji- both actually taken from the train station platform as our train back to Tokyo was just minutes from arriving. The clouds have risen, and now there is snow blowing from the top of the mountain.

Our trip back to Tokyo was pleasant. After eating dinner, we went to Shinjuku, and visited some of the coffeehouses and such in the district. As lively an areas as we saw, it was crowded with people. There were restaurants, clubs, bars, baths, Patchinko parlors, game rooms, and bowling alleys. The area was like a giant carnival, people thronging the streets like midways, patronizing the extensive entertainment activities in the area.

One of the Japanese national pastimes seems to be bowling, and the alleys are as modern as any in the States. There is one difference, though. It is disconcerting to see a 72-lane bowling alley in the first place; in the States that would cover a good many acres of land, what with parking and all.

The Japanese have solved that problem. This particular 72-lane establishment was located in the top six stories of a seven-story building, 12 lanes to a floor. You check in on the ground floor and obtain your shoes. Then you take your ticket and head over to the elevator. In the car, you press the number of your alley, and the elevator takes you to the correct floor! Here in Tokyo, anyway, it is common to construct bowling emporia this way, as land is too valuable to spread out all the lanes on one floor.

We tried two games, and found we were both way out of practice. Interestingly, none of the attendants spoke English, but then how much do you really have to say? The only thing I needed to do was to write down the shoe size I wanted, as I did not know the Japanese term for 9 1/2. It did take a moment to figure out how much each game cost though. Turned out the amount was posted behind the counter (about $1 per game for both players).

After bowling and walking around Shinjuku for a while, we went to one of the off-beat coffeehouses, which had your typical "beat" patrons and incessant jazz music.

	January 27, 1971: The Golden Course
	January 25, 1971: A Day Trip to Nikko and Lake Chuzenji
	Return to the Index for the Japan Trip