Camping at the foot of Mt. Fuji

By YiPin Wu, (University of Tokyo, Japan)

We went to a camping place, called Fumotoppara Campground, which is near Mt.Fuji. I met up with two of my friends at Yokohama and we drove to there. On the way, we stopped at a big supermarket to stock up on everything we needed (ingredients, drinks, firewood…). Driving another 20 minutes, we arrived at the campground. Fumotoppara is famous for its view of Mt. Fuji, but we were just a bit unlucky:) the weather that day was pretty gloomy and we could barely see it.

Setting up camp was straightforward enough, but the campfire was a whole other story. The wood we picked up from the store turned out to be way too big, and getting it to catch was a real struggle. We spent a good while crouched over it, blowing on the embers every few minutes just to keep it alive. I’m not going to lie, it was exhausting. But we got there in the end, and once it was going we cooked a simple noodle soup with pork and vegetables. It tasted incredible, partly because the food was good and partly because we were all absolutely starving from the effort of making the fire. We sat around and had a chill night.

The next day we went skydiving. The clouds were still thick so we didn’t get the famous Mt. Fuji view from above, but honestly, the route circled around and landed slowly and smoothly, which left me feeling a little dizzy on the way down:) It is still a fun experience, and I’d really recommend adding it to the itinerary, especially on a sunny day when you can apparently see Mt. Fuji clearly while flying.

Fumotoppara is a great spot for a first camping trip in Japan. It’s well-organised, scenic even on a grey day, and close enough to Tokyo to make it a very doable weekend escape.