5.5 Days Tokyo Trip - Part 1

Finally made our first ever trip to Tokyo on 3rd week of September, the weather was hot, the sun was burning my skin, an umbrella and good sunscreen is a must. 1st day - Took a morning ANA flight from KUL, landed in NRT in the afternoon. We took an express bus to our hotel in Hibiya, there were some traffic along the way, by the time we arrived and checked in the hotel, it is already evening. After we had our dinner (9PM), most of the shopping places are closed, hence we just had a stroll from Tokyo Station back to Hibiya, also bought the IC card (Suica) from one of the JR station which will be useful throughout our trip. We made a small mistake by taking the express bus from the airport, we should have taken the Narita Express train instead, with shorter transit time and no traffic issue. Tip: Book seats on the left of the aircraft for flights from KUL, we saw the tip of Mt Fuji before landing in NRT. 2nd day - Checked out of hotel and deposited our large luggages with the hotel, we are heading to Fujikawaguchiko area for 1-night stay, we will be back to Tokyo city centre on the 3rd day. We took the JR highway express bus to Fuji Q - this was our main purpose to visit Fuji! We booked a night of stay in Highland Resort Hotel & Spa with a mountain view room, hence we are entitled to early access to Fuji Q Highland, discounted theme park day-pass, and what's even better, FREE access to Fujiyama onsen! We deposited our bags at the hotel reception and headed to Fuji Q. We took all the thrill rides, but I would like to highlight that FUJIYAMA is definitely the GOAT! We took the ride more than once until closing hour, had our dinner and proceed to enjoy the free onsen. Tip: We booked the same hotel in Hibiya before and after the stay in Fuji, we checked that the hotel do provide free storage service, hence we were able to travel light to Fuji without having to pay for storage for our large luggages. 3rd day: Waking up early to enjoy Fujisan view from our mountain view room, thankfully weather was good. Hotel breakfast was awesome, and the best part, the view of Mount Fuji is beautiful in the restaurant and we could also have paranomic theme park view on the other side of the restaurant, we had the best view of sides. We checked out of hotel early to explore Fujikawaguchiko area for the rest of the day. There were too much to offer around the 3 lakes, we only explored some of the attractions around the red and green shuttle bus line. The lake was beautiful, we walked around the lake for a little (or cycling), visited a UNESCO heritage shrine and the wind cave. There wasn't too much ice in the cave as it was summer, but we are lucky to spot some. The temperature in the cave was really cold, if we stayed a little longer, our fingers would have been frozen. The work of nature made us speechless as it was burning hot outside of the cave but there were icicles in the cave. We will definitely come back in the future to explore other places in Fujikawaguchiko and Fujiyoshida, probably will choose to stay in a ryokan for the experience. We took the same JR highway express bus and travel back to Tokyo - Hibiya. Tip: To access Fuji Q train station from the hotel, speak to the reception, they will provide a free entry ticket to Fuji Q (with no rides included) so that we could cut through the theme park to the train station.