10 Best Ryokans & Hotels with Mt Fuji Views

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Want Mt Fuji outside your window? Book the room type. A ryokan that sells Fuji views can still hand you a forest-view twin, so pick a room with Fuji in its name. Then set an alarm, because Fuji shows on far more winter mornings than summer afternoons. Here’s where I’d book, in Hakone and around the Fuji Five Lakes.

Hakone

Fuji Five Lakes

Which Rooms Actually Face Mt Fuji

The Fuji view belongs to a room type, and at some hotels the room next door looks the other way.

• Pick a Side by the Lake: At Fuji Lake Hotel, each room looks at the lake or at Mt Fuji, and the hotel says no room gets both. A lake-view room there has the water in front and the mountain out of sight. Take the Fuji side if the mountain is the reason you’re going.
• Forest and No-View Rooms Next Door: Hakone Yuyado Zen also sells Forest View and Mountain View twins, and neither sees Fuji. Ooike Hotel sells rooms named “No View” alongside its Fuji-side ones, and Lakeland Hotel Mizunosato sells rooms with no view too.
• A Fuji Name Doesn’t Promise a Fuji Bath: Several room types at Fujisan Onsen Hotel Kaneyamaen carry “Mt. Fuji View” and an open-air bath, yet the hotel’s own room pages tie the view to the tub in only some of them. In its Waraku rooms, Fuji shows from the lounge area instead. Hotel Green Plaza Hakone sells its only rooms with an open-air bath, the Asian Twins, without any Fuji view.

When Mt Fuji Hides Behind Cloud

Fuji City, on the mountain’s south side, has counted the days Fuji shows at 8am, noon and 4pm for more than three decades.

• Winter Mornings Show It Most: In one year of Fuji City’s count, the whole mountain showed at 8am on 27 days in December and 23 in January. Across the full record, the winter months come out on top.
• The Summer Gamble: That same year logged 5 fully clear mornings in June and 4 in August. Summer stays at Fuji-Kawaguchiko Onsen Konansou and Lakeland Hotel Mizunosato have had Fuji hidden by cloud, even from rooms built around the view.
• Go Before Breakfast: Fuji City’s 8am count beats its noon and 4pm counts in each of the last three years of the record. In one July count on the north side, Fuji showed on 11 mornings and only 4 afternoons. Open the curtains before you go down to eat.

Hot Spring Water or Heated Tap Water

A hot spring in the hotel’s name doesn’t mean the tub in your room is filled from it.

• Free-Flowing Water in Hakone: At Hakone Yuyado Zen, the water flows through the tub and out without being recirculated, with some fresh water added. Hakone Takuminoyado Yoshimatsu draws simple sulphur water from the Ashinoko hot spring, with free-flowing tubs among its baths, and seven of its rooms have their own open-air tub from the same spring.
• Three Kawaguchiko Hotels Filter and Reheat: The hot spring at Fuji Lake Hotel comes up from 1,500 metres below the mountain, then gets water added and runs heated through a filter. Lakeland Hotel Mizunosato and Ooike Hotel treat their spring water the same way.
• Ask Before Paying for a Room Tub: Ooike Hotel‘s room baths aren’t hot spring water, and the hotel says only its big bath is. At Fujisan Onsen Hotel Kaneyamaen, every bath is natural hot spring water, the room tubs included.

Private Baths With a Fuji View

A Fuji view from the tub comes two ways: in your own room, or in a bath you book for the two of you.

• Rooms With Their Own Tub: Ooike Hotel‘s Room with Tatami Area and Mt.Fuji View and Open Air Bath sees Fuji from its own outdoor tub. Ryuguden‘s three private-bath rooms have indoor tubs, so the Fuji view there is from the room’s windows.
• Book a Bath for Two: Fuji Lake Hotel keeps a private hinoki bath that faces Mt Fuji, apart from its main bathhouse. You and a partner soak in it together, with the view to yourselves.
• No Big Bath Means the Room Tub Is It: Hakone Yuyado Zen has no shared baths and no sauna, so every soak there happens in your room. Pick a hotel with a big bath too if a long soak after dinner is part of the plan.

Getting to Hakone and Lake Kawaguchiko From Tokyo

Both trips start at Shinjuku. Book the reserved train seat when you book the room.

• Take the Limited Express to Hakone-Yumoto: The limited express runs from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto in 75 to 90 minutes without a change. Every seat on it is reserved.
• Is There a Direct Train to Kawaguchiko? Yes, a limited express goes straight from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko Station in 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours. Only a handful of trains run each day, so book it first.
• Highway Buses Run Late on Busy Days: Highway buses from the Shinjuku bus terminal reach Kawaguchiko Station in 1 hour 45 minutes to 2.5 hours, depending on traffic. Take the train if you have a dinner time to make.
• From the Station to the Hotel: From Hakone-Yumoto, the local bus toward Togendai stops a short walk from Hotel Green Plaza Hakone, and Ryuguden runs a shuttle bus from Moto-Hakone. At Kawaguchiko Station, Fuji Lake Hotel collects you when you call, and Ooike Hotel runs a shuttle on request. La Vista Fujikawaguchiko runs a station shuttle you book ahead, and Fuji-Kawaguchiko Onsen Konansou has one too.

Hakone or Lake Kawaguchiko for the View

Hakone sits about 30 km south-east of the mountain, and Lake Kawaguchiko lies at its northern foot. That distance shows in the window.

• A Bigger Mountain From Kawaguchiko: From Lake Kawaguchiko the mountain looks big enough to pick out the snow on its upper slopes on a clear day. In Hakone it rises smaller and farther off, with more haze in between.
• Half-Cloudy Days Favour the Lake: When cloud covers part of Fuji, Kawaguchiko still shows a recognisable silhouette. Hakone’s view is more all or nothing.
• Skip Gora for the View: Gora sits in a valley, and Mt Fuji can’t be seen from it. Stay there for the town, and book Sengokuhara or Lake Ashi if Fuji from the room is the point of the trip.

FAQs

1. Can you see Mt Fuji from the onsen in Hakone?

Yes, at a few, and Ryuguden is the one to book for it. Fuji rises over the outer rim of the Hakone crater from both the men’s and women’s baths in its main building, where guests from the annex bathe. The annex’s own indoor bath looks onto a garden instead, so cross to the main building for the view.

2. Where else in Hakone can you see Mt Fuji?

Lake Ashi has two of the easiest viewpoints: the upper deck of the sightseeing cruise and the observation deck in Onshi Hakone Park. At Owakudani, Fuji stands behind you as you face the volcanic vents, so turn round on a clear day. The Komagatake Ropeway summit adds a panorama over Fuji and Lake Ashi. Go early, before the day’s cloud builds.

3. Is Lake Kawaguchiko part of Hakone?

No, Lake Kawaguchiko is in Yamanashi, on Mt Fuji’s north side, while Hakone is a town in Kanagawa to the south-east. No direct train links the two. The bus route changes at Gotemba Station and takes 2 to 2.5 hours, plus the wait for the connection. Split the trip with a night on each side if you want the Hakone hot springs and the closer view.

4. When does Mt Fuji have snow on top?

Snow first dusts the summit in early October, and once held off until early November. By July the climbing trails are clear of snow, and the upper slopes show dark volcanic rock. For the white cap in your window photos, avoid July to September. Winter stays get the cap and the clearest mornings together.

5. Do ryokans near Mt Fuji have beds or futons?

Both, and it changes from room to room. Ryuguden‘s Highest Floor twin has two airweave beds, and the Japanese Western-Style Fuji room at Hotel Green Plaza Hakone pairs two single beds with two futons. At Lakeland Hotel Mizunosato, the Fuji-view twin with an open-air bath sleeps two on futons. Ask for a room with beds if getting up from floor level is hard.

6. Do you wear a swimsuit in an onsen?

Never in the shared baths, where swimwear isn’t allowed and you bathe naked. Wash at the showers first and keep your small towel out of the water. Tie long hair up too. A room with its own open-air tub, or a private bath you book, lets you soak with a partner.

7. Where do you eat dinner at a ryokan near Mt Fuji?

In your room, a private dining space or the restaurant, depending on the hotel. Hakone Yuyado Zen serves dinner in a private dining space, while Ryuguden serves it in the annex’s second-floor restaurant or in the room, depending on the package. At Fuji Lake Hotel, the buffet restaurant looks out on the lake or Mt Fuji. Pick the meal plan when you book the room.