Lake Kawaguchi is the second largest lake of the Fuji five lakes. It is a beautiful medium size lake, ~ 15 km in perimeter, about 16 km north to Mt Fuj, nested in the mountains of Mitsutoge Peak and Kurodake from east and north/northwest, and mt Fuji from south.
It was a great place to view mt Fuji on a good weather day. The lake is beautiful in its own right as well. The lake could be as flat as a mirror at its southwest corner, reflecting the mountain to the north. The come and go clouds accentuate its beauty.
The rough ridge on left of the photo, with white color patches, is the Yoshida Trail
This beautiful lake should be a paradise for birds, but I did not see many birds. As always I heard more chirps than I saw the birds. I did spot at least two pairs of swans in the lake, one pair close by at south shore, another pair far way on the north shore. One morning, a blue heron was fishing from a rock formation in the water while fishermen fishing in the lake. One hawk, a black kite, flew by when I enjoyed the grand view of mount fuji from the great bridge of lake Kawaguchi. On the last morning at Lake Kawaguchi, I spotted a black hawk again on top of a roof.
A Black Kite ( a hawk)
a magpie
a black kite
The town by the lake, Fujikawaguchiko, is a neat, quiet place for vacation, many small hotels, small restaurants.
shortcut from kawaguchiko station to the kawaguchiko park hotel
view from our hotel room
sculpture of the goddess of the lake
a small museum by the lake
Lake Kawaguchi, a gateway to mt Fuji, a great place for walking, hiking, biking, paddling and cruising on the lake. It is a great place for both outdoor adventurers and leisure vacationers.
Kayaking and hiking are two of my favorite outdoor activities. Occasionally some equipment broke. I usually try to fix them myself first. Here are two case histories and lessons learned
Fixing stuck paddle
After our exploration to the mangrove forest at Sungei Khatib Bongsu via kayaking, we found out that one paddle got stuck, we could not disassemble it for storage.Soaking the paddle in the water, shaking it, twisting it, pouring oil and even heating the stuck junction, nothing worked. I also tried brute force, tried to use nails to expand the outer tube. It did not work either. I did some online search, and no solutions applied to my case. In the end, I poured vinegar into the the junction, and the reaction between the calcium containing sand and the vinegar loosened the junction, and the stuck paddle was disassembled.
This is the first time my paddles got stuck. Why did it happen? How can I prevent it from happening again? Thinking about it, the mostly likely reason for the stuck was sand got into the tubes of the paddle. Two potential causes for this to happen:
1. I placed paddle components on the beach before assembling them, Sand could get into the tube during assembly; 2. Sand residual at the inside surface of the tube after cleaning.
To prevent a stuck paddle, clean the inside surface of paddle tubes after cleaning, and not placing the tubes on beaches, and assemble them from the paddle bag.
attempt to open up the connection failed
sand grains inside the surface a tube after cleaning and drying
Broken Hiking Pole
In preparing to climb Mt Fuji, I checked my hiking poles, during the examination, I accidently disconnected my retractable hiking pole's lower segment connection, and had a hard time to put the segments back into one piece. My first attempt was to force the smaller segment into the larger one by hammering at one end. After quite a few gentle impacts, the connection was reestablished, and the connection could be locked or loosened by twisting the segments.
But my twist lock hiking pole has three segments, two connections. After the hammer impact repair of the lower connection, the upper connection could not be self locked by twisting. Hammer impact does not apply any more, I had no idea how to fix the not-locking issue because I had no idea about the twist lock mechanism.
I searched internet, especially content related to the twist lock trekking poles. Fortunately I found a solution on YouTube, which also explained the locking mechanism.
The lock mechanism include a spring, a expander, and a solid cone. Adjust the solid cone position can adjust the expander outside diameter. When a twist lock won't lock, one needs to twist the cone clockwise into the expander a little bit, to make its diameter larger, this will make it lock. If the smaller section can not insert into the larger section, one needs twist the cone counter clockwise to reduce its diameter.
For the loose connection, I twisted the cone clockwise to increase expander diameter, and the twist lock was fixed on first try!
Hindsight, my disconnected connection could be easily fix by twist the cone counter clockwise slightly to reduce its diameter. Without knowing it, I spent more than half hour to hammer them together.
Nothing wrong to try my own ideas first.
The main issue I had was I tried on my own idea for too long even when my idea seemed to be not working well or not working.
My lessons learnt, if my idea seems to be not good, I should look for solutions on internet as soon as possible.
On the way to Mt Fuji, we stopped by Tokyo for a couple days, stayed in a hotel at Shinjuku.
The first impression of Tokyo was that most buildings show their ages.
crowded old buildings view from the train sky liner from Narita to Jinshuku
Public transportations have good coverage of the city. But there are multiple companies run the railways, buses. The subway stations are like a maze, for visitors, it is not easy to find the right exits, or transits. Most annoying part is that most buses, trains don't accept foreign credit cards. Metro cards, such as Suica when used through Apple wallet, can be tied to US cards. Not all metro lines accept the metro card. Visitors need sufficient amount of cash to use public transportation.
The buses, subways are quiet, even with the presence of middle school students
Cartoons are everywhere. In one of the subway stations, there was a mural on the wall advertising new cartoons. Many Japanese stopped to take pictures.
When walking in the busy district like Shinjuku, few were out and about during the day. A whole lot more people at nights. The streets were quiet almost all the time, even at nights, even at the famous Shibuya scramble crossing, when hundreds of people crossing the intersections at the same time!
Shibuya Crossings
There are many small restaurants at Shinjuku. Most restaurants accept foreign credit cards. Most common food include sushi, grilled beef and raman.
A ramen restaurant, which is quite popular
The Japanese seemed to only wear black and white cloths. Most man wore white shirts, black pants to go to work, walking quietly.
Most shrines in the communities are cemeteries.
The national gardens are elegant, and big. We only went to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
There are many museums. We visited Tokyo National Museum, which focuses on Japan and Asian art.
Meiji Jingu is a shrine honor Emperor Meji and Empress Shoken. We were at Meiji Jingu on a weekend. There were many Japanese visiting the Jingu, some wore formal traditional costumes. It was so quiet from Japanese, all the noise came from tourists - mostly westerners. In addition to torii, temples, another eye-catching landmarks are the barrels of Sake
torii at Meiji Jingu
the road inside Meiji Jingu
temples are closed to visitor - tourists can only view inside from the doors
Barrels of Sake
Barrels of Sake
The sign by the Japanese barrels of Sake read "These sake barrels are offered every year to the enshrined deities by members of the Meiji Jingu Zenkoku Shuzo Keishinkai (Meiji Jingu Nationwide Sake Brewers Association) including the Kotokai, which has made offerings of sake for generations, as well as other sake brewers around Japan wishing to show their deep respect for the souls of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. "
Mt Fuji, an icon of Japan, is an active volcano, has an exceptional symmetric cone. The highest mountain in Japan with summit elevation of 3776 meters (12388 feet), is about 100 km southwest of Tokyo. It is a very popular destination for mountain climbing.
Nicholas and I climbed Mt Fuji on July 3rd, 2024. We started climbing around 3:30am in the morning from the mountain hut, Satomidaira Seikan-so, where we stayed overnight. It took me 5 hours 40 minutes to cover the 6km long trail to reach the summit of Mt Fuji.
my trail on Mt Fuji
Arriving at Lake Kawaguchi - a gateway to Mt Fuji
Lake Kawaguchi is a beautiful medium size lake, ~ 15 km in perimeter, about 16 km north to Mt Fuji. It is a popular place for biking around the lake, paddling and cruising on the lake. It is a gateway to Mt Fuji. We took a 2-hour long-distance bus from Shinjuku, Tokyo to Lake Kawaguchi in the afternoon of July 1.
Lake Kawaguchi under a cloudy sky
Lake Kawaguchi is a great place to see Mt Fuji as well, and I got lucky and see a few variations of its image under different conditions. Clouds could block the view of the summit, but also could accentuate its beauty.
Due to schedule limitations, we only walked around lake shore for a bit, and rode the ropeway cable cart to a hill top near the lake to see the lake from above, and Mt Fuji - unfortunately the Mt Fuji was behind clouds when we got to the hill top.
Lake Kawaguchi - viewed from Kawaguchiko Tenjoyama Park
Going to the mountain Hut Satomidaira Seikan-so
There are 4 trails to climb Mt Fuji; the most popular one is Yoshida trail. There are mainly two ways to climb Mt Fuji: 1) Start from the foothill at the base of the mountain, e.g. Yoshida trailhead. The hiking distance is about 20 km, typically a two day hike. 2) start from 5th station of a trail, e.g. Mt Fuji 5th station at Sky palace.
To watch sunrise at Mt Fuji, it is best to stay in a mountain hut at 6th or 7th stations. One can start climbing the previous night to submit before sunrise (4:34am July 3rd), or get up 3:30 am or so to reach 6th station or above. One can see sunrise on the Yoshida trail anywhere above 6th station.
We took an one hour bus from Kawaguchiko station to the Fuji Subaru Line 5th Station, arriving there around 2pm, July 2. We instantly felt the cool temperature when getting off the bus, and quickly put on long sleeve sweater or jacket.
The 5th station elevation is 2300 meters, and the 3776 meter summit is about 1500 meters above us. The view of the Summit was somewhat underwhelming.
Mt Fuji summit - viewed from Fuji Subaru line 5th station
trail to Yoshida trail 6th station
on the trail to Yoshida trail 6th station
Upon checking in at the 5th station trail entrance, we hiked to Yoshida trail 6th station. It turned out that our hut, Satomidaira Seikan-so, is actually 0.8 km downhill from the 6th station!
The hut clerks were young Japanese who spoke excellent English. The hut itself was apparently recently renovated, the sleeping area and the dinning area looked new. Our reservation included two wood screen divided sleeping spots on a wood floor, two dinners and two bento breakfast to go for next morning. We had dinner in a tatami dinning room before 5pm local time.
It was windy and cold outside, so we went to rest early, before 6pm, for a very early morning get-up.
There were about 12 hikers stayed at the hut that night, two of them left around 9pm when the breakfast bento was ready. They planned to summit before sunrise, and watch sunrise from the summit. Others left between 12am and 3am. It was somewhat noisy in the hut, despite everyone's effort to be as quiet as possible. We were woke up by a group leaving around 3am, and decided to get up. We started hiking ~ 3:25am from the hut on July 3, 2023.
the mountain hut
tatami dinning room at the hut
Climbing Mt Fuji
We got up at 3:15am on July 3rd, and left the hut around 3:25am.
It was partly cloudy, with mild wind, a bit chilly. With long pants, jackets, we turned on our headlights and marched toward 6th station, and the summit.
We could see many climbers on the trail already, as indicated by the line of lights on the mountain slope.
dawn at Mt Fuji at 3:30am
The lights on the slope were the headlights of climbers
We got above the 6th station before 4:34am, the time of sunrise. There were clouds on the eastern horizon, we did not see the real sunrise. But the clouds provided a different vista. The clouds came and went on the mountain, and in the lower altitudes.
The lit-up slope between 6th and 7th station
smaller mountains became islands in the sea of clouds
There were about 983 climbers for the day according to a sign at the Kawaguchiko station, which was about a quarter of the max number (4000) allowed in the mountain. So the trail was not crowded at all. The climb was more like what we had at Colorado 14ers, Quandary Peak and Mt Elbert.
The initial portion was on loose gravels between 6th station and 7th station. The trail becomes much steeper from 7th to 8th station, and most part was more like rock climbing!
8th station, elevation 3250m
As it got higher, wind was stronger and it was getting colder as well. In the process, my cadence became lower, I had to pause frequently to catch my breath or to let heartbeat slow down. Nicholas was at least twice as fast as I was. He paused his ascend regularly, each after a few switch-backs, to let me catch up. Waiting made him cold. We had to put on more clothes, I changed into a winter coat, he added a heavier jacket.
I put on GoPro from 8th station onwards, recorded a few times before taking it down due to strong wind.
changed into winter coat, and put on gopro
on the loose gravel portion of the Yoshida trail
there were some snow remnants on the slope
The last torii before the summit
The last stretch to the summit of mt Fuji
The last 400 meters of the trail was the hardest for me, due to the steepness, the elevation and exhaustion. It took me about 40 minutes to finish this last stretch, and I summited Mt Fuji at 9:30am, about 5 hour 40 minutes after I started tracking at 6th station. I hiked 6 km, with 1500 meter elevation gain. Nicholas had been there 20 ~ 30 minutes ago.
The summit was cold, very windy and very cloudy, we could not even see the crater.
We decided to have the packed bento first, but sands in the wind got into food. We gave up eating, just then cloud passed, the crater appeared!
The crater loop trail was however closed due to weather condition, we only walked less than one fifth of the crater rim.
The snow covered crater
we hiked to the highest point accessible to us
Climbing mt Fuji was the hardest mountain climb for me, even when compared to climbing 14ers* in US, Mt Whitney (7 years ago) , Quandary Peak (5 years ago) and Mt Elbert (4 years ago). A constant changing vista, a fast evolving weather, and a challenge to my physical strength, I experienced Mt Fuji to its fullest.
Notes
1. bring water and snacks - like protein bars not regular food. sip water, not gulp
2. Hiking sticks helped me a lot
3. Need heavy jacket or winter coat, long pants
4. Climb at smaller strides, steady (and slow) pace
5. rest/pause regularly and when feel breathless or fast heart beats
6. need to purchase permit (2000 yen) ahead of time. there is a 4000 quota per day
7. night climbing requires hut reservation
*14ers - mountains that are 14,000 feet (4267 meters) or taller
