Best places to see Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms

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Mount Fuji （富士山） and “sakura” cherry blossoms are two of the most important symbols of Japan. Two hours by train or car from Tokyo, there are great places to admire both together.

This is Shimoyoshida （下吉田駅） station, Fujisan Tokkyu fast trains from Otsuki （大月） arrive here. (To get to Otsuki from Tokyo, you have to take the JR Chuo Line). The train is painted with cartoon style drawings of Mount Fuji!

treno-veloce-fujisan — fast-train-fujisan

Near Shimoyoshida station, there is a path that takes you up the hill, from which you can see the beautiful Mount Fuji with snow.

Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja shrine and cherry blossoms

Here the steps begin to get to Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja Shrine （新倉富士浅間神社） where there is also a viewpoint to admire Mount Fuji. Normally there is a lot of people in the cherry blossom season (Photo is from 2019).

On the hill there is also the pagoda of the Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja shrine, the view is truly splendid, not to be missed!

Kawaguchi-ko lake and cherry blossoms

Lake Kawaguchi-ko （河口湖） is one of the largest lakes at the foot of Mount Fuji. Here the contrast between Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms and the lake is very interesting.

Oshino Hakkai

Oshino Hakkai (忍野八海) is a small village near Mount Fuji, there are small lakes of the springs of Mount Fuji. It is part of the Unesco heritage together with Mount Fuji. The waters are very clean and transparent. There are also traditional Japanese houses, some of which we can enter.

Finally, don’t forget to try an excellent Yamanashi prefecture dish （山梨）. Hoto (ほうとう) is a kind of noodle and pumpkin soup. The pasta is similar to Udon but the shape is almost like tagliatelle or mafaldine. As ingredients in addition to pumpkin and pasta, there are spinach, negi leeks, fried tofu, enoki mushrooms and shimeji (pictured).