Diamond Fuji
Unfortunately there are no actual diamonds to be found near Mt Fuji. Nevertheless, Fuji itself is quite the gem to behold! Diamond Fuji (ダイアモンド富士) is the phenomenon where the sun rises or sets behind the peak of Mt Fuji.
Lake Yamanaka is the closest of the Fuji lakes to Mt Fuji, so is a choice spot for those Fuji Instagram photos. It’s location north east from Mt Fuji means it’s in the perfect spot for the diamond Fuji shot at sunset (not sunrise here)! If you’re lucky, you even have a chance to see the rare double diamond, where diamond Fuji is reflected in Lake Yamanaka. I take your double rainbow and raise you double diamond!
Fuji Lakes 2.5 day itinerary
We made a semi long weekend out of this trip – I had to work half a day on Friday, but we managed to get on the 12:15pm highway bus from Busta Shinjuku (not to be confused with Busta Rhymes) bound for Yamanakako Asahigoaka. This trip takes 2 hours 15 min so we arrived at Lake Yamanaka at 2:30pm. The trip costs 2300 yen ($16) one way. We returned to Tokyo on Sunday evening.
Day 1 (half day) – Diamond Fuji
To catch the magical Diamond Fuji, you need to have your shot lined up at sunset. To get both Mt Fuji and Lake Yamanaka in the shot, you need to take your photo from the north side of the lake. And because the height of the sun changes with the seasons, this works best from late October to late November, and then again over January and February. Check out the exact sunset times at Lake Yamanaka per month. We went in November so sunset was at 4:45pm.
Arrive at Lake Yamanaka at 2:30pm. Specifically, get off the bus at Fujisan-yamanakako (Hotel-Mount-Fuji-iriguchi) bus stop. The highway bus booking page doesn’t mention that the bus stops here, but the local busses and highway busses do stop here. Keep google maps open as you get near and listen for the announcement on the bus.
Accommodation
2:30pm to 3pm. Drop bags off at hotel. We stayed at Sun Plaza Hotel Fuji Lake Yamanaka, which was 11,500 yen ($80) for 1 room (2 people) for 1 night. This was a 5 minute walk from the bus stop.
Cycling around Lake Yamanaka
3pm to 4:45pm. Rented bikes and very leisurely biked around the lake. There are dozens of bike rental places around the lake. In the 5-10 minute walk from the bus stop to the hotel, we walked past 3 or 4 rental places. Some have tandem bikes, some are open later than others.
Lake Yamanaka is the largest Fuji lake and takes about 1.5 hours to bike around, or 3.5 hours to walk (14km). There is a dedicated cycle path around approx. 80% of the lake. You don’t have the bike all the way around though!
4:00pm to 4:45pm. Be along the north side of the lake for diamond Fuji. You don’t need to be along this side of the lake to see diamond Mt Fuji, but this is the spot you want to be to have Lake Yamanaka in the foreground of diamond Fuji, and possibly get a double diamond. Check out the brochure below for some recommended viewing spots and best times.
Along the north side there is also a spot where swans gather.
5pm to 6pm. Bikes needed to be returned before 5pm, and then we checked into the hotel.
Dinner
6pm to 7:30pm. Dinner at Nagomi Yamanakako. This restaurant is 4.6 stars on google and is absolutely incredible. They offer shabu-shabu (Japanese soup hot pot) or sukiyaki (Japanese sauce hot pot). My favourite Japanese food is sukiyaki so that’s what we went for!
8pm onwards. Onsen at the hotel. The onsen facilities at Sun Plaza Hotel Fuji Lake Yamanaka were fantastic, two big indoor baths, one big outdoor bath, and two one-person outdoor baths. There were two massage chairs in the common space too.
Day 2 – Fuji Q Highland Theme park
Diamond Fuji is at sunset, so make the most of the day and go to Fuji Q! Unfortunately the forecast was looking cloudy for this evening for us, but we would have another chance the following night.
Fuji Q Highland Themepark
Getting to Fuji Q by local bus, arriving by 9am (park opens at 9am). Walk back to the bus stop where you arrived at Lake Yamanaka, but this time you are going back the other way so need to wait at the bus stop on the other side of the road. Here’s the Google maps route Fujisan-yamanakako (Hotel-Mount-Fuji-iriguchi). If you want to search it yourself, for some reason you need to put the destination as Fuji Q Highland Station, not Fuji Q Highland.
Fuji Q closes at 7pm, but because of the smaller queues, we had done every ride we wanted to and some of the big rollercoasters twice. It was a little cold the day we went so we didn’t do any of the water rides. So we actually ended up leaving at 6pm.
Accommodation
Our accommodation from the first night was booked out so we could only book the one night there. We booked this nights accommodation near Fuji Q, booking villas with private onsen at Bself Fuji Onsen Villa, which was 15,000 yen ($100) for 1 villa (2 people). This was a 15 minute walk from Fuji Q Highland, we checked in before dinner.
Dinner – Robots?!
7pm-8:30pm Dinner at SYABU-YO Fujiyoshida. At this restaurant, the waitstaff are autonomous ROBOTS! This restaurant is all you can eat shabu-shabu (Japanese hot pot) – lucky we had sukiyaki the night before! So you order from an iPad at your table and this super cute robot brings it out to you!
There are a few different courses, with different cuts and grades of meat. We went for the mid-tier beef, pork and chicken course which was 2500 yen ($18) including tax. For reference, the top-tier, which includes Japanese beef and premium pork is 3500 yen ($25). It’s all you can eat for 90 minutes, last order usually 15-20 minutes before time up. Note that all courses also include all you can eat dessert, ice cream, fruit, Japanese sweets, and make-your-own waffles.
Something you won’t see in the West, for an extra 1300 yen ($9) you can get 80 minutes all-you-can-drink alcohol. This includes whiskey, vodka, and other basic spirits (with a soft drink bar for mixers), but excludes beer and wine. For 1500 yen ($11) you get beer, wine, and spirits.
9pm to 1030pm. Private onsen inside our accommodation at Bself Fuji Onsen Villa.
Day 3 – Things to do around Lake Yamanaka
Morning Onsen
930am-1030am. There are a few famous place in the area to choose from, depending where specifically you stayed.
- Near Lake Yamanaka, west side of lake: Yamanakako Onsen Benifuji no Yu Hot Spring
- Near Lake Yamanaka, east side of lake: Yamanakako Hirano Onsen Ishiwari no Yu
- Near Fuji Q: Fujiyama Onsen
Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja – the classic postcard shot
1030am make your way to Arakura Fuji Sengen Jinja. The bus is very infrequent, only comes a few times a day, so if you miss it then you should catch a taxi. This is the route we took from the area we stayed – this is close to the Fuji Q area Fujiyama Onsen.
11am-12pm. The signs say its a 5 to 10 minute walk up the stairs to the famous lookout. Not sure exactly how many stairs there are, but I reckon there’s about 500 stairs. Took us about 15-20 minutes at a leisurely pace and stopping for plenty of photos. The autumn leaves here were absolutely incredible.
12:10pm started the journey down heading to Shimoyoshida Station to go to the next place on the list, Oshino Hakkai. Google maps route. This takes about 40 minutes so you will arrive by 1pm.
Oshino Hakkai
Oshino Hakkai is a small old village in the Fuji Five Lakes region world heritage site. It’s a picturesque and super relaxing village, with the main attraction being the eight crystal clear ponds that are fed with Mt Fuji snow and ice melt. Water run off from Mt Fuji is always incredibly clean and crystal clear. A local here told us it takes 60 to100 years for Mt Fuji water to make its way through the volcanic rock filtration and into Oshino Hakkai!
1pm-2pm. Lunch at Hannoki. Oshino Hakkai is famous for Hoto (flat udon noodle soup stew), and soba (buckwheat noodles), but they have a large menu. If you can, get the Hoto, its difficult to find in other parts of Japan. Unfortunately for us, it was sold out. But our meals were delicious anyway.
2pm-3:30pm. Explore Oshino Hakkai. Grab some street food snacks, and visit the main attraction – the crystal clear ponds fed by Mt Fuji snow and ice melt.
3:30pm. We missed Diamond Fuji on the Friday night as it was cloudy. So we decided to head back to Lake Yamanaka for another shot at it. It’s an 8 minute bus ride from Oshino Hakkai.
3:50pm-4:30pm. Rent a bike or walk around to the north side of Lake Yamanaka for a shot at Diamond Fuji! Unfortunately for us, it was cloudy again 🙁 .
Kitaguchi Hongu Fuji Sengen Shrine
Note that I didn’t do this on this trip, but this is absolutely in my top 10 favourite temples and shrines in Japan. There are some big trees. And when I say big trees, I mean BIG trees! If you can fit it in, I highly recommend a stop here. It’s quite small so you’ll probably only spend 20-30 minutes here, but it’s an incredible spot in rain or shine.
Return to Tokyo
The cheapest way to return to Tokyo (Busta Shinjuku) is via the highway bus. Depending where you end up, you can buy a ticket from any of the following departure points. The highway bus costs between 2000 and 2300 yen depending which departure point you choose. Buy highway bus tickets.
- Yamanakako Hirano
- Yamanakako Asahigaoka
- Oshino Hakkai
- Fujisan Station
- Kawaguchiko Station
- Fuji-Q Highland
- Chuo EXPWY Shimoyoshida
- Chuo EXPWY Saruhashi
Note, you can cancel the tickets or change the departure time up to 20 minutes before departure (for free). So I recommend buying some tickets so that you have them, and you can always change them if your schedule changes.
4:45pm. Be at the bus stop 10 minutes early, highway bus back to Tokyo departs at 4:54pm. Even if you have a reservation, they will not wait for you, it’s Japan, they will leave at 4:54pm. The trip takes 2 hours 15 min, so you’ll arrive about 7pm. Note, the last highway bus back to Tokyo from Lake Yamanaka is much earlier than the last bus back from Kawaguchiko Station. So if you wanted to leave later, you will need to take a local bus back to Kawaguchiko Station, and then get a highway bus to Tokyo.
This itinerary can easily be modified to fit into a standard 2 day weekend, or spread over a full 3 days!
