First Time in Yamanashi, Japan? 16 Things To Do (It’s More Than Mount Fuji)

First Time in Yamanashi, Japan? 16 Things To Do (It’s More Than Mount Fuji)

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Fuji-Q Highland Admission Ticket: https://klook.tpo.lv/dw1yEBSb

Kawaguchiko Music and Forest Museum Admission: https://klook.tpo.lv/2RiGQBTg

Arakurayama Sengen Park, Hikawa Clock Shop & Oshino Ninja Village Day Tour: https://klook.tpo.lv/uwqMqNrk

Aokigahara Forest Lava Cave One-Day Tour: https://klook.tpo.lv/YQVZJXOg
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Everything in this Yamanashi guide is something I would actually do again, ranked, with the crowds flagged and the one photo stop I would skip.

Most first-timers treat Yamanashi as a single afternoon in front of Mount Fuji and then leave. That is a waste, because the prefecture is also a wine region, a fruit country, a granite gorge, and a hot-spring valley, and almost none of that sits in the crowded strip around Kawaguchiko. My favorite thing here is a pre-dawn soak at Hottarakashi Onsen, sitting in the water while the sun comes up over the Kofu valley with Fuji across the basin. From there the list runs through the famous Chureito Pagoda, plus the quiet viewpoint an hour’s hike above it that the tour groups never reach, the record-breaking coasters at Fuji-Q Highland, the best lake reflection at Oishi Park, and the honest truth about climbing Fuji and how often the mountain simply hides.

Then it heads inland, where the real finds are. The Katsunuma wineries make up the oldest wine region in Japan. Lake Motosu is the exact Mount Fuji view printed on the thousand-yen note. Shosenkyo, the gorge north of Kofu, I would put against any scenery in the country. There is the glass-clear spring water of Oshino Hakkai, a bowl of hoto noodles, the Narusawa Ice Cave, pick-your-own fruit, the Kachi Kachi ropeway, Diamond Fuji at Hana no Miyako Park, the thatched village on Lake Saiko, and the mountain temple of Kuon-ji down in the far south.

A lot of this is free or close to it, and the smart move is to base a night in Kofu rather than only at the lakes. Give Yamanashi two days and it stops being a photo stop and starts being a trip. If you have been, tell me what you would add.