This holiday season, we took a family self-drive trip to Central Japan to view Mt. Fuji. For most people, Mt. Fuji would have been at the top of the list for a Japan trip especially as a side trip out of Tokyo. For our family, we had been having fun free and easy up north in Hokkaido. So, this was the first family trip to this scenic spot.

Overall itinerary

• Day 1: Arrival into Japan / Haneda / Shinagawa
• Day 2: Drive from Shinagawa to Nagoya
• Day 3: Exploring Nagoya and shopping
• Day 4: Drive to Shirakawa-go, UNESCO World Heritage Site
• Day 5: Snow wall Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route
• Day 6: Drive from Nagano to Mt. Fuji area
• Day 7: Mt. Fuji Subaru Line 5^th Station and Mt. Fuji area
• Day 8: Mitsui Outlet shopping and departure from Narita/Chiba

Day 1: Arrival into Japan / Haneda / Shinagawa

Day 1 was pretty much taken up by day travel into Haneda. I had chosen Haneda as this is much closer to the city and a short direct train ride, about 30 mins, from Haneda to Shinagawa. (Much cheaper and faster than Narita express from Narita airport to the city.) But you need to catch the correct express train into Shinagawa instead of the regular train that stops at every station.

Shinagawa is less touristy, more of a business district. I reckoned that that is great from a time and cost perspective. Shinagawa station is the probably the third busiest station after Tokyo and Shinjuku, but the nearest to Haneda. The plan was to find a hotel near the Shinagawa station, stay here for the night, then pick up the rental car in the morning

Day 2: Drive from Shinagawa to Nagoya

Day 2 was the start of the first driving leg, one of the longest, around 350 km from Shinagawa to Nagoya, which should have taken around 5 hours…

Today’s plan was picking up the rental car, shopping for snacks at Aeon and stopping at attractions along the way at Shizuoka and Hamamatsu like the Hamamatsu Fruit Park Tokinosumika, はままつ フルーツパーク時之栖（ときのすみか）. However, we woke up late, spent too much time at the Aeon mall and took quite a few rest stops including lunch stop. That it was too near to closing time when we were reaching Shizuoka/ Hamamatsu. So, we had to go all the way to Nagoya for dinner – Yes, Gyūtan (牛タン) for dinner at Aeon Mall Atsuta!

Day 3: Exploring Nagoya and shopping

It’s shopping day! We went to the outlet mall – Mitsui Outlet Park Jazz Dream Nagashima.

We had also planned to go for the Toyota plant tour but there were not slots available despite being on the waiting list for 2 weeks. So, the afternoon was spent in the outlet mall. This was followed by a short train ride in the evening to Nagoya station area for dinner and visit the places around the station.

Day 4: Drive from Nagoya to Shirakawa-go, UNESCO World Heritage Site with traditional thatched roof houses

I have been fortunate to visit a few of the UNESCO sites in Japan during my earlier visits. Shirakawa-go (白川郷), a mountain village, located in the north-western part of Gifu Prefecture, is another UNESCO site.

This is one of the tourist spots and there were many people and tour buses here. Walking through the road with thatched roof houses on the sides seems to bring you back to another era in time. Some of these houses might have been around from the 1800’s.

Day 5: Day trip to snow wall at Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is another popular tourist destination. But one that I was still excited to go visit – the snow wall. I have seen it quite a few times in travel brochures but now I will get to see and touch the real thing. While looking for info on the snow wall, I realized that the travel was going to be complicated, expensive and time consuming if one is planning to complete the entire route.

If you are visiting just the snow wall, it would be a lot simpler. The snow wall is located at Murodo along the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. If you are driving, you can park around Tateyama station. No, you cannot drive up to Murodo. From Tateyama, you would take a cable car to Bijodaira followed by a bus to Murodo. From Murodo station, you would be able to see and walk to the snow wall.

I will cover this in more detail in my next post. Do note that the Alpine route is only opened on a seasonal basis. So, do check before making your trip there.

Day 6: Drive from Nagano to Mt. Fuji area

We spent most of the day driving from Nagano down to Mt. Fuji area. The one highlight for the day was the side trip to Daio Wasabi Farm (大王わさび農場), one of Japan’s largest wasabi farms. It is located in rural Azumino City near Matsumoto.

This is a huge farm, with rows and rows of Wasabi plants getting clear flowing water from the Northern Alps.

We reached Mt. Fuji area towards the evening and made our way to a popular noodle joint for dinner – Hoto Noodle Restaurant (甲州ほうとう 小作 河口湖店).

Day 7: Mt. Fuji Subaru Line 5^th Station and Mt. Fuji area

Finally, we were at the biggest attraction for this trip – Mt. Fuji. This was going to be our first time getting up close to Mt. Fuji and I was excited. We were lucky and got a hotel room with a view of Mt. Fuji through the window.

Right after breakfast at a Japanese chain, we drove to the Mt. Fuji Subaru Line 5^th Station. It was rather crowded as this is a very popular tourist spot. As we were there early enough, we had no trouble finding a parking lot. This is probably the highest spot to Mt. Fuji that you can reach with a car. With kids in tow, we did not do any hiking but just toured the station and enjoyed the majestic view of Mt. Fuji.

Day 8: Shopping and departure out of Narita

We managed to squeeze some time for a quick shopping trip and lunch at Mitsui Outlet Park Makuhari, before making our way to Narita airport our flight. It is also located in Chiba prefecture, on the way to the airport.