We left Tokyo this afternoon, and took a bus to Kawaguchiko, about 2 hours away, at the foot of Mt Fuji. Before catching the bus we spent the morning in Shinjuku, a major hub for shopping, entertainment and business. It is said that Shinjuku station is the world’s busiest railway station.

One of Shinjuku’s iconic sights is the 3D cat – a curved video billboard featuring a large cat (between various advertisements) which really does seem 3 dimensional. He is constantly on the move and fascinating to watch – we spent about half an hour just standing in the street enjoying the show. We took lots of videos but they will need some editing before we share them – the photos are not great either but trust me it looked amazing in real life.  Meanwhile here’s a you tube video to show you some of what we saw – 3D Cat in action. We also spotted Godzilla hiding on a roof.

Omoide Yokocho is a warren of narrow alleyways near Shinjuku station that feels like a remnant of pre-industrial Japan. We stopped at the tiniest cafe for kushiyaki (grilled skewers) which was both delicious and atmospheric. The photo of the restaurant below is the entire restaurant.

Our bus ride to Kawaguchiko was smooth and comfortable (and I have to admit it was nice to sit for a couple of hours). We found our accommodation with a little difficulty, but were thrilled to find a pretty good view of Fuji-san from our balcony. We headed to a charming restaurant which serves the local specialty – Houtou – vegetable stew with wheat noodles cooked in miso soup. Delicious and it certainly warmed us up – we are at a higher altitude now and it is very brisk – current temp as I write is 5°C 🥶