Mt Fuji Was Stunning… But Our Private Tour? Not So Much

[Music] [Music] I think we want to go up back up to the main strip here and hang out. So, this morning, Taylor and I made our way to a cafe, one of the very few that were actually open to grab something to eat and something to drink. And what’s actually really nice of where we’re staying at is really, really close to the Yokohama Cruiseport. So, after that, we walked over just so that we could walk around and check it out a little bit, which is really cool. I mean, the last we did. Now, from here, we went back to the hotel so that we could get ready for our tour today because this is something that we’ve really been looking forward to. And we knew that it was going to be busy, so we decided we should just book a private tour to go out and see Mount Fuji. I would not do that. Okay, Taylor and I are kicking off the first part of our uh tour here going out to Mount Fuji, which we’re what we’re not at right now, is doing a the roadway. Yeah, it’s like a cable car. It’s like a cable car. Yeah, it seems like it might be a little bit busy, but the line’s moving like pretty quickly, I would say. What’s really kind of interesting, though, is that our tour guide did not come with us, which I was kind of wondering if they would. I kind of wish that they would have just because like maybe they might know some of this stuff a little bit easier than we do. uh try to navigate the area. But nonetheless, it was pretty easy getting up in here and getting our tickets. Yeah, we got them. So, Taylor reads the signs. Easy enough. Thank you. Do you want to see this? Well, I’m just kind of like really frustrated cuz I just don’t really know like what we’re supposed to be doing. Like I’m like really nervous because like this is going to eat up kind of time. Like I don’t know what to do. Do you just want to go back down? I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. Like I’m now I’m like because I would rather spend more time closer down to where Mount Fuji is. Well, it’s just like frustrating cuz it’s like a total waste. I just want to chime in here real quick to give you a little bit of background information for why we chose this tour. First off, we knew that it’s cherry blossom season. It’s going to be super super busy. We didn’t want to try to navigate the trains, which is what a lot of people do. They will train in from Tokyo, uh which you can do over to Mount Fuji and then kind of explore a little bit on your own as much as you can. So, we wanted to be able to take a tour guide that would take us to a couple of different places and explain some stuff. That is not at all what we got. What we got instead was basically a private driver who took us to different places. Um, he wasn’t Japanese, not that he needs to be, but you know, he didn’t give us any information on where we were going or any history or background or anything like that. And then on top of that, this whole kind of thing where he took us to this crater, which is kind of cool, that wasn’t part of our original itinerary, which we did confirm with the tour company. uh the day before that they came to pick us up. So, uh we were I was in constant like contact with them and just making sure like things were okay, but the itinerary was not the same as what this guy was taking us to do, which was really frustrating. Um and that is miscommunication a little bit on our part, but also on their part. And so, yeah, it was it was um it was a little rough and I was definitely rzzled here when we got up there, especially because there was just so many people. Um, and we we knew that it was going to be busy, but we were planning to have that busyness at the places that were designated on the on the tour. So, um, with that being said, I think I rec I I recovered uh quite effectively. That’s just to give you some background. During cherry blossom season, Mount Fuji is going to be super super busy in multiple places. There are dozens of tour buses going out there every single day. Try to get a guide. try to get some type of tour guide that can take you out there and give you the information. But all in all, that’s a little quick rundown background. I would not recommend this tour uh company. I’m not even going to mention the tour company, but that’s what happened. So, did the day get better? It did. All right. So, everybody, right out there is a crater, I think, that formed in like 2015ish. We’re skipping it. We’re actually going to go back down the gondola system already. After leaving the ropeway, we made our way to probably the most iconic photo spot of Mount Fuji, the Arakura Yyama Senin Shrine Pag. Now, what was really interesting about this is that our driver was supposed to accompany us to the top, which was really strange cuz he didn’t go with us before and I’m not sure why, but I’m pretty sure he would have just slowed us down, but it was very, very busy. Uh, okay. Okay. So, it’s been wild already so far for this uh little tour today, but we have made it to pretty much like our number one point of interest. Uh yes, definitely for me. Yeah. So, let’s let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s not waste any more time. Here we go. Also, it’s not 300 stairs. It’s almost 400 stairs. [Music] Yep. [Music] Yeah, heat. [Music] Oh, we might not be getting up there. I mean, like that’s like probably 2 hours at least. What do you think? I mean, we can’t I don’t think it’s even worth Okay. Well, can we at least go out here so we can get pictures? Yeah, sure. 45 minutes from here. So, It says it has a 5m minute rotation. So I don’t know what that means. How how long? Uh 25 minutes. 20 25 from here. That’s not bad. Uh Instagram versus reality. How about it? Took us like 10 minutes to get up to the top and then we just have to do this little switch back. But we did get here like midafter afternoon. So, if you get here maybe earlier in the morning, it wouldn’t be so bad. And we are almost there. Okay, so this is really challenging. You only have 5 minutes to take as many photos as you possibly can. And you know, obviously with a group of people that are coming up, you want to try and get as many of these photos without other people in them. So, this was really challenging. We got super lucky to be the first people in this group to come up here. So, we kind of got to get a few photos without anybody else in them. Uh, but my little tip here is to grab a few photos right here and then move over to this other side. And what was really nice here too is that we end up asking some of the staff here to take a photo for us. Um, and they did a really great job. But this is uh this is kind of like the thing. You can see everybody’s over there like they’re all piled up. They’re trying to get that shot with Mount Fuji on the left side of the pigota, but it’s actually just as good of a shot in my opinion to shoot with the pigota on the left side and Mount Fuji on the right side. There’s nobody around. It’s really easy to do. And once people kind of figured this out, people started coming over to where we were at. Now, one thing that was a little strange is that we all waited in this long line to come up here and take photos. But all of a sudden, this couple and this guy just walk up the exit and start trying to take a bunch of photos and not let anybody else take photos over here. Look at me. I don’t care about that. We traveled halfway around the world and freaking literally waited an hour. I’m not waiting for somebody else. Sir, sir, you got to take a photo. Jeez. Okay. Yeah. We waited an hour for this. Do you want a picture? Yeah. Yeah. We’ll take one of you. We got one together. Thank you so much. Thank you. So, that was completely and totally wild. Bizarre. So, bizarre. It’s really funny because when you get up here, everybody kind of huddles to uh one side. Yes. And which is if you’re looking at the at like the the shrine, everybody kind of stays to the left. But I did see somebody had said actually if you go further down on the right side, it’s very open. Nobody’s standing there usually. So that’s where we got some photos, which was great. Except for these people came walking up the exit and then we’re trying to force us out way. And we’re like, “We just waited 45 minutes and you guys just skipped everybody and walked up the other.” And then I was taking a picture for this other couple that was waiting in line behind us. And the guy literally went up and put his hands on the girl and was pushing her out of the way and she was like, “Please do not touch me.” It was pretty wild. It was really crazy. Literally, when we got up there and it was our turn, we were the first people like on the platform cuz they cut the line off right before us. I literally was shaking walking up there because I was like, “What if we don’t get the picture? What if I don’t get the right picture? What if it doesn’t look good?” So, I was like panicking. I’m literally still shaking because I just wanted to make sure we got a good picture cuz this is the one. Like, this is the photo that I’ve been waiting for this trip. This is the one. So, I am really glad that we ended up waiting 40 minutes to do that cuz that was awesome. Okay, so quick little recap. All in all, we waited probably 45ish minutes uh in that line. And, you know, I thought it was it really didn’t it didn’t feel that long cuz we were like moving intermittently, right? And uh you know we were able to take pictures off the side with Mount Fuji in the background basically the entire time. But what I would say is that when you get up there uh now we were super fortunate because they cut the line off literally right in front of us. So we were some of the first people to go for the next group which is funny cuz we could have just said we were with those people in front of us and gone in but I’m glad we did it. Yeah. You know, if you want if you want to get a photo on the left hand side, like the traditional looking photo, definitely do it. But then move over to the right side where like nobody’s at. Nobody goes over there. Um it’s usually wide open. Then people saw us taking pictures over there and then started coming over. So you should know you can’t use a tripod up there. So they don’t let you do that. Um, and we ask before make friends with people in line or ask one of the guides if you they’re not helping anybody else because you don’t want to get up there and then try to get it out and put it down and then they’re going to come over and yell at you or something like that. Especially because it was busy. So, we only had 5 minutes. Well, we got a real good story out of that. It’s so congested in here you can’t even drop. Stop. Oh my gosh. This is one of Josh’s traditions. Yeah. What an odd tradition to start a long time ago. I need a picture of you with Mount Fuji and your strawberries. But yes, we started this back in France at just like going through the local markets and they had strawberries and then I thought it was raspberries there. Maybe it was strawberries and then it was Norway. Yep. And now it’s uh here in Japan. Are they good? Oh my gosh. But like it might be like the most delicious strawberry. Iconic walking through Japan with Mount Fuji in the background eating some strawberries. They said they were picked this morning. I mean, they do look pretty. Is that what they said? Yeah, they look pretty fresh. They were very excited because Josh bought two packs. They’re like um 500 yen is like three bucks or something. Uh something like that. So, they’re pretty comparable in price to what they are in the States. But I’ll tell you what, they are juicy. To me, they taste 10 times better. I’m glad. Oh my gosh. She’s a stroller. Ready? [Music] Well, I think our day is uh is coming to an end here for us. Kayla’s grabbing a photo down there. And we didn’t really get to do like as much as I really wanted to, as much as what was kind of advertised for the tour. And I think a little bit of that was weather, traffic, and uh even I hate to say, but like communication, failure to communicate on our part a little bit. So, we’re kind of finishing here, I think, today at the lake. See not so much of Mount Fuji now as the clouds begin to move in. So, excuse me. Wow. It’s just it’s still just crazy to think that we’re here. And even though we can’t really see Mount Fuji anymore because of the cloud cover, uh it still is just, you know, breathtaking. Now, like everywhere that we’ve gone so far today has been like basically a more of a like photo kind of like hot spot essentially meaning that like you know people come here to take the photos and this whole area. Usually these shrubs would be red, but that’s usually at the end, I think, like towards the fall. So, we don’t have that right now. So, one of the other like really touristy things is to get the ice cream. So, we’re going to wait in line and get some ice cream, which is what Taylor’s doing while I went around and got some video. Well, hopefully the wind is not crushing the mic right now. But, we’ve got our ice cream. Cheers. And we’ve got Mount Fuji barely in the background, but it’s there. I got coffee flavored. Yeah, this is lavender. It’s uh It’s not bad. It’s It’s very very different than what’s back in the States. It’s very silky. Uh-huh. And smooth. And they had a lot of different flavors like blueberry, lavender, uh grape, white grape, red grape, coffee. Mhm. Pistachio. All right, back to the car. So, to end our tour today, we decided to go for a little walk and find some ramen. So, I think we’re going to be trying to eat some ramen later on in the trip, but I really wanted some when we got here. It’s loaded with carbs and some great protein, I guess you could say, as well. And so, we did have to walk a little ways from the uh hotel to get here. Basically, like Taylor’s got a pork ramen over there, and I’ve got a meat lovers ramen, you could say, which looks like pork belly sliced really thin with more pork and more pork and some eggs. And some eggs in there as I think they’re like flavored. I think it said. And then I also went and got a mjito from It’s pretty fancy. The ocean bar. And then we also got some little pot stickers, dumplings to try as well. It’s a Friday. And I’m like really surprised that this place has like nobody in it cuz I thought for sure that this would be very very busy. And thankfully it’s not. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe it’s a bad thing. I don’t know. See you slurp those noodles. Smells good. I can’t see you slurping your hats in the way. It’s like boiled bacon. That’s what I thought. That’s pretty good. I What I really love about this kind of place, especially like here in Japan so far, is that most of the places when we’ve gone to eat, you just order like at a touchcreen and it’s super easy. Um it’s very intuitive. Everything has English on there plus like Japanese and everything else. So, it’s been really nice and super easy and a good way to end my birthday cuz today we didn’t send this but a today was my birthday. So, I think we have already talked about the tour portion of this. So, yeah. All right, everybody. We are getting ready to uh pack up all of our stuff and so that we can get uh started for imbarcation day here at the hotel. Um, and I wanted to just kind of show you guys the hotel room one more time. So this is our room which is uh quite small. I’m on the bed and it’s maybe just a full size if that bed. We’re taking turns packing. So one of us has to sit on the bed while the other one packs. Yeah. Um so like that’s like literally just the space right there that we have. And then there’s the door and behind the mirror is where the bathroom’s at. So, we did probably like sacrifice a little bit of like luxury staying here at this hotel, but we weren’t really here like at the hotel at all the last couple of days. Um, which was fine, you know. We just came back here just so that we could sleep and that’s really it, you know. So, just kind of think about that whenever you’re thinking about getting a hotel and what’s most important to you. For us, it’s always the experience of getting to do a lot of other things and not really spending a lot of money on the accommodations if we don’t need to. So, but also not spending no money on accommodations. Also true. Let’s pack up and head to the ship. What is going on everyone? Today is imbarcation day here. Door has been unlocked. We didn’t even have to. First first experience with the medallions. [Music] [Applause] Fantastic. [Music] He’s calling me.

We finally made it to Japan to see the iconic Mt. Fuji — and while the views absolutely delivered, the private tour we booked… didn’t. In this video, we take you along as we explore some of the most photogenic spots around Mt. Fuji, including stunning lakeside views and peaceful shrines. But we’re also sharing the full story: what went wrong with our tour, what we wish we had known before booking, and whether a private tour is really the best way to see Mt. Fuji.

If you’re planning a trip to Japan and want to see Mt. Fuji for yourself, this video is packed with helpful tips, honest insights, and (of course) beautiful scenery!

👍 Like, comment, and subscribe for more real travel experiences from Japan and beyond!

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6 Comments

  1. That was extremely rude of the guy who raised his voice, which is an insult, especially when he grabbed at her arm. So I guess some people can be real rude and pushy. We don’t just have Kevin‘s and Karen’s here in America. They have them in Asian countries too.
    You look so good Taylor. I’m sure your pictures turned out wonderful. I hope you had a good time both of you. Thank you for sharing.❤

  2. Love this! Hubby and I climbed Mt. Fuji in 2009 when we were stationed there for 3 years. 10 hours up 4 hours down. It was AMAZING!! We loved our Japan experience. 💕