Day 5 – 8 October 2024, Tuesday

After spending one night in Hakone, it was time to make our way to Kawaguchiko. It would be a relaxing day as we would drop by Gotemba Premium Outlets for some shopping along the way. It was 21 degrees C in the morning and it wasn’t raining yet, but the weather forecast showed that it would rain for the rest of the day, which was a real bummer. We checked out of our lovely Yumoto Fujiya Hotel at 7:55am and walked to the bus stop to catch the Hakone Tozan bus to Gotemba Premium Outlets.

There are four bus depots located at the main road opposite Hakone-Yumoto train station. Our Hakone Tozan “L” bus to Gotemba Premium Outlets is at bus depot number 3. The “L” bus is a direct service from Hakone-Yumoto to Gotemba Premium Outlets, and the journey takes one hour. There are only three bus services a day – at 9:00am, 9:10am and 2:15pm. This Hakone Tozan bus is also included in our Fuji Hakone Pass so we didn’t have to pay extra for it. Otherwise, the fare is 1,440 yen (S$12.96) for adults.

As usual, we wanted to be the first to board so that we could secure storage space for our large suitcases. When we reached bus depot number 3 at 8:00am, there was no one else yet. It was only at 8:30am when three other people joined the queue.

Our “L” bus arrived at 8:55am. It was not a coach but a small bus, so there was not a lot of storage space on board. A female staff member helped us to arrange our luggage neatly inside the bus, which had room only for our six suitcases and two other big backpacks. There was one other solo guy with a suitcase in the queue but the staff asked him to take the next bus at 9:10am because there wasn’t enough space on our bus. Hence, if you are travelling in a group with large suitcases, it is important to queue up early to secure storage space or you might not be able to board the bus.

Our “L” bus departed Hakone-Yumoto promptly at 9:00am. At the next few stops, we picked up several people who were also travelling with suitcases. The driver allowed them to board but they had to hold on to their suitcases while they stood. The bus was soon full and those who boarded later stood shoulder-to-shoulder. Luckily, our hotel was located near the bus depot so we could be the first to board and have seats for the one-hour bus ride.

It started to drizzle shortly after 9:00am. Immediately after leaving Hakone-Yumoto town, we drove through winding mountain roads with lush green foliage. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We saw several suspension bridges across rivers and deep valleys. It would have been lovely to spend some time to hike here. I can imagine it would be even more beautiful during autumn when the leaves turn yellow and red.

As we ascended higher and higher, it started to get foggy as well. The female bus driver was very skilled. She had a steady hand, navigating the turns with ease and never crossing the centre divider line. That is why they use a small bus for this route, because of the mountainous terrain. We observed that a lot of Westerners seemed to be staying at the numerous onsen resorts up in the mountains.

The bus started to descend after 9:35am, and we arrived at Gotemba Premium Outlets at 9:55am, five minutes ahead of schedule. The first thing we did after we got off the bus was to deposit our luggage at the lockers.

Gotemba Premium Outlets is divided into three zones – West Zone, East Zone and Hill Side. There are lockers in each zone but most of them are located in the West Zone, where the bus stops are. Click here to see the locations of the lockers. From the bus drop-off point, we walked to the nearest lockers next to the Gap store.

At the West Zone, there are two types of lockers – those that charge a one-time fee and those that charge per 30- or 60-minute block of usage. The one-time fee lockers come in four sizes – Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large, and the fee depends on the locker size, ranging from 400 yen to 1,200 yen. We used the other type of Large locker, which charged a fee of 100 yen for every 30 minutes, with a maximum cap of 800 yen (S$7.20). Payment was made using our Suica IC cards so it was very convenient. With our luggage settled, we were ready to shop!

Gotemba Premium Outlets is one of the largest outlet malls in Japan, with 290 stores spread across its three Zones. All the big brand names can be found here, including the popular sports/lifestyle brands like Nike, Adidas, Asics, The North Face and luxury brands like Coach, Prada, Longchamp, Gucci and more. Besides shopping, it also offers a good view of Mount Fuji on a clear day, which of course, we had no such luck because of the cloudy weather during our visit.

We went free-and-easy for our shopping but I met mum and dad for lunch at Food Bazaar in the East Zone at 12:00pm. The food court was housed in a cavernous building with a high roof. There were about a dozen food stalls selling Japanese staples like ramen and udon, and also a stall selling Singapore Chicken Rice in a prominent location facing the entrance. I went for pork cutlet curry rice (1,529 yen/S$13.51) but dad bought the chicken rice set with Green Curry (2,090 yen/S$18.81).

The chicken rice was soooo bad. I didn’t try it but I could tell just by looking at it. The chicken can be described as “siap siap” in Hokkien, which means astringent – dry and rough. The rice also lacked the signature oily sheen that is derived from cooking the rice with the chicken broth from the poaching process. The entire dish just looked lifeless and unappetising. I hope tourists and Japanese visitors don’t get the wrong impression that our Singapore chicken rice looks and tastes like this. That will be a travesty. Come to Singapore to eat the real Hainanese Chicken Rice!

We continued to do our own shopping after lunch. As expected, the prices were not dirt-cheap so we didn’t buy lot of stuff. I only bought socks and a sweater from Adidas, a pair of running shorts from Puma and a pair of sneakers from Nike. My total damage was 13,296 yen (S$117.49), not much for five hours of shopping at a premium outlet mall.

It started to rain just as we were about to regroup. After retrieving our luggage from the lockers, we went back to bus stop number 3 at 3:00pm to queue up for the bus to Kawaguchiko.

There are two types of bus services from Gotemba Premium Outlets to Kawaguchiko Station – the local service C1 and C2 bus, and the limited express “G” Liner GL bus. All seats on the GL bus are reserved while there is no reserved seating on the C1/C2 bus. Being a limited express service, the GL bus is much faster. The journey from Gotemba Premium Outlets to Kawaguchiko Station on the GL bus takes 60 to 70 minutes compared to 110 minutes on the C1/C2 bus.

The C1 and C2 buses are included in the Fuji Hakone Pass but the GL bus is not. The regular fare for the C1/C2 bus is 1,750 yen (S$15.75) while that for the GL bus is 2,000 yen (S$18.00). If you book the GL bus via the Sekitori website (click here), the web discount fare is 1,850 yen (S$16.65). Instead of paying the additional 1,850 yen each for the faster GL bus, we opted for the slower C1 bus departing Gotemba Premium Outlets at 3:50pm so we didn’t have to pay extra.

We were not the first in line when we started queuing up at 3:00pm; there was a couple of guys before us. As time went by, more people came but we couldn’t form a proper queue outside because it was raining so we all took shelter in the building near the bus stop. When the C1 bus arrived at 3:40pm, everyone rushed forward but thankfully, we were able to get on the bus early to secure space for our luggage.

The C1 bus was bigger than the earlier “L” bus from Hakone-Yumoto and there were more seats and slightly more storage space on board. The bus driver stacked our suitcases neatly before using a net to secure them. At 3:50pm sharp, the C1 bus left Gotemba Premium Outlets with 12 passengers on board.

The bus made many stops and picked up a lot of locals along the way. One interesting thing I observed is that passengers board from the rear door and alight from the front door. In this way, the bus driver can ensure that every passenger pays for their fare before alighting, either by tapping out (if they’re using a pre-paid IC card like Suica) or making a cash payment (they’ll need to grab a ticket when they board the bus). In our case, the driver can check the validity of our Fuji Hakone Passes before we alight.

It rained steadily and the outside temperature dropped to 14 degrees C as the sun began to set. The chill caused the windows to fog up. I used my hand to wipe the condensation on the window so I could catch a glimpse of Lake Yamanakako, the largest of the Fuji Five Lakes and the closest of the five to Mount Fuji. Lake Yamanakako also has good views of Mount Fuji but it is less developed than Kawaguchiko so it is less popular with tourists. Might be worth a visit next time.

We finally arrived at Kawaguchiko Station at 5:58pm, much later than the scheduled arrival time of 5:40pm. The delay was likely caused by the slow-moving traffic due to the rain. After alighting, we made a beeline for the toilet at the train station.

From Kawaguchiko Station, we were supposed to catch the Red-Line Kawaguchiko Sightseeing Bus (R-Line bus) to our accommodation. This R-Line bus was included in our Fuji Hakone Pass. However, to my horror, when I checked the timetable at bus depot number 1, I saw that the last bus had already departed at 5:45pm. If our C1 bus had arrived on schedule at 5:40pm, we would have made it just in time.

I panicked for a moment because our accommodation was located about 7km away on the opposite bank of Lake Kawaguchiko and it was not possible to walk there. I opened my Uber app and saw that no cars were available. Just when I thought we would be stranded, I spotted two taxis at the taxi rank. I had never taken a taxi in Japan before because it is quite exorbitant, but that was our only option. We quickly walked towards the taxis before anyone else could grab them.

The two taxi drivers were very happy to see us. Perhaps they had been waiting a long time for passengers before we showed up, or perhaps it was because we told them we wanted to go to Kawaguchiko Urban Resort Villa, a considerably long distance away. They helped us load our luggage into the boot and we were off.

The ride took 14 minutes and we arrived at our villa at 6:25pm. The starting fare was 600 yen (S$5.40) and the final fare was 3,200 yen (S$28.28) for one taxi. For the six of us, we had to utilise two taxis so we paid 6,400 yen (S$56.56) in total. While it was a pretty pricey ride, I think it was money well-spent because it was already dark, drizzling and cold. The bus ride (if we managed to catch it) would have taken twice as long and we would have to walk a distance from the bus stop to our accommodation, dragging our suitcases along. We were also tired at this point so it was nice to take a comfortable taxi ride directly to our villa.

Looking at the chain of events, if we had each paid 1,850 yen (S$16.65 each, or S$99.90 for the six of us) to book the earlier 2:40pm GL bus, we would have arrived at Kawaguchiko Station at 3:50pm. We would then have been in time to catch the R-Line bus to our villa, and wouldn’t need to fork out 6,400 yen (S$57.60) for the two taxis. But that meant an hour less of shopping at Gotemba Premium Outlets.

If we had paid the same amount (S$99.90) for the 4:40pm GL bus, there was no guarantee we would have arrived at Kawaguchiko Station on schedule at 5:40pm. We could still be late and miss the last R-Line bus at 5:45pm, and end up taking the taxis as well. In hindsight, it was the correct decision to take the 3:50pm C1 bus, in terms of the time (shopping time at Gotemba) and money spent (we spent less on taxis overall compared to what we would have paid for the GL bus).

At a friend’s recommendation, I had booked Kawaguchiko Urban Resort Villa for our two-night stay here. The staff member was already waiting for us and he escorted us to our Tsubaki villa, located on the second floor of the building beside the reception office. Our villa came with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a large dining and living room and a balcony. It was nicely furnished and very spacious.

I had pre-booked a BBQ dinner for 7:00pm tonight. It cost 3,300 yen per person for the food/ingredients and 5,500 yen for equipment rental, so it came up to 25,300 yen (S$232.82) altogether for the six of us, or S$38.80 each. The BBQ was supposed to take place in our private garden on the ground floor, but it was raining so we had to do it indoors using an electric grill instead. In any case, even if it wasn’t raining, it was too cold and dark to be having a barbecue outside, so I was glad we were able to do it in the comfort of our living room.

The ingredients were already prepared and stored in the fridge, so all we had to do was to set up the grill and start cooking. There was a good variety of food – sausages, chicken, premium beef, pork, seafood (prawns, scallops, squid), vegetables (cabbage, bean sprouts, mushroom, eggplant, pumpkin, peppers, onions) and Yakisoba noodles.

It was a very enjoyable way to spend the evening together, cooking and having dinner at our villa. In fact, there was too much food and we couldn’t finish it all. We kept the balcony doors slightly open to enjoy the cool breeze. After a soothing shower, we relaxed in the comfy living room before retreating to our rooms and calling it a night, bringing an end to Day 5 of our trip.