Fuji Misadventures: Spontaneous Bus Tour Around Mt. Fuji

Over my spring break I learned several lessons, the most important being that there are two Fuji stations on opposite sides of the mountain, and they are very much not the same.

I was so caught up planning my trip to Hong Kong that I probably spent a total of an hour preparing for my trip to the Fuji area after. With only one day to rest in between my four days abroad and four days around Mt. Fuji, I was already exhausted and not thinking as clearly as one traveler should.

I figured I’d lived in Japan at that point for nearly a year and a half; planning for Hong Kong was much more crucial as I’d never been there before. I can do any place in Japan easily, I naively thought.

Well, after attempting to reach Fuji Station in Shizuoka prefecture by bus (please don’t ask why, it was all a horrible mistake and one of many to come on this trip), I ended up at Fuji-san Station in Yamanashi prefecture, which is way out on the other side of the mountain.

My friend and I were confused as to where we were and the station attendants kept bouncing us back and forth between the same two staff members who acted like it was the end of the world and it’d be impossible to get to the opposite side of the mountain in this lifetime. Turns out it was just an additional two hour bus ride– an average commute for a Californian, but apparently a mission and a half for locals.

The bus ride around and back down the mountain wasn’t bad at all, especially compared to what we’d encounter later that trip.

That day I spent almost nine total hours on a bus, but now I can say that I’ve circled Mt. Fuji in its entirety– plus some– in a single day. The unexpected bus trip passed by Lake Motosu, the most beautiful lake I’ve seen in a long while with the best view of Mt. Fuji I’d see all weekend. No complaints here.

Sometimes misadventures are the best adventures, amiright?