Momiji Corridor at Kawaguchiko for red leaves viewing in autumn

This year hasn't been good to see red leaves due to the more than usual number of rainy days. One of the popular spots is the "Momiji Kairou" at Lake Kawaguchi. Momiji means red leaves and the English translation can be "Momiji Tunnel" or "Maples Corridor" although they are two separate but close-by places on the map. A "Momiji Matsuri" festival is held every year from the end of October to mid November with road stalls and romantic night illumination so it is a popular destination during November for people to see both Mt Fuji and red leaves.

There are a few ways to get to Kawaguchi-ko station from Shinjuku station. Odakyu offers a 3 day Fuji Hakone pass for 7,400yen and JR offers a 2-day round trip ticket for 5,600yen. We were only going on a day trip so we opted for the JR round trip ticket that includes sitting in a limited express train called Kaiji 101 that you can board within the JR platform at Shinjuku station.

If you are not going up to the fifth station and planning to go around Lake Kawaguchi, then I recommend just queuing up and buying separate tickets that will cost around 2,500yen one way. However if you stay far from Shinjuku, then you might just break-even to get the round trip ticket as it also includes ride within JR Yamanote Line.

You can also take local trains, but that will take around 3 hours for just one-way and costs around 2,000yen. Highway buses are cheaper at 1,750yen and takes 2hours but tickets get sold out pretty fast.

Most trains will not go directly to Kawaguchi-ko station so you will need to transfer to a Fujisan Limited Express train on the Fujikyuko line at Otsuki station. Their trains are damn cute!

Be sure to take a photo with them!

It takes around 50min to get to Kawaguchi-ko station!

If you are there early and going around to at least 2-3 attractions, then buying a 2-day bus pass for 1,200yen is worth it.

You can hop on these buses to get around the lake easily.

Queue was very long at the station so they had to write queue numbers to make sure you are at the right queue as there are two different routes. One is the Green-line that goes towards the west of the lake and a Red-line that goes to the east of the lake where the red leaves are.

It will cost 380yen from Kawaguchi-ko station to #19 Itchiku Kubota Art Museum, where the festival is held. If you did not buy the pass, you will have to pay exact cash when you get down.

So many people!

Very beautiful with Gingko yellow leaves as well :3

Not sure why there is a small hut but there seems to be water coming out from underground.

There were so many people so we decided to walk around a bit and discovered this nice path with colorful leaves!

I suppose this is the Momiji Tunnel with already fallen red leaves thanks to the 3 days of continuous rain...

We actually came here for the supposedly damn scenic view of Mt Fuji set against patches of red leaves... but here was what we saw...  Based on fan feedback, the area is cloudy most of the time and the best time to catch Mt. Fuji is actually during early morning before the clouds set in. She caught it on 7am so the best way to catch the beautiful mountain is staying at a hotel there overnight and waking up early to catch the scenic view.

So ok nevermind, we started to shoot each other in various balancing yoga poses...

...and shoes.

We wanted to wait for the night illumination that starts when skies grow dark at around 5pm. It was cold, around 10 degrees celsius so we went into a cafe to "chill out" first. We regretted it because it was expensive... seems that there's no good food up here!

Night illumination was nice, but actually you can see at Rikugien (Rikugi Park) in Tokyo too at the end of the month~ You cannot see Mt Fuji or anything else anyway.

The stalls at the road side doesn't seem to be getting much business...

The bus seems to run from 9am to 6pm daily so you should depart from Shinjuku ideally at around 6-7am to explore more attractions.

With that, I definitely recommend staying at Lake Kawaguchi for 2-3 days (including going to Gotemba Premium Outlet or Fujikyu Highland amusement park). Oh well, maybe next time!