The hotel near Fuji

Most countries hand you a circuit. Go in this season, see these places, move on. Japan does not. Everything is close together. Everything is highly rated. It is hard to tell one place from the next.

So we set one rule. Nature first, and good for the kids. A city only gets in if it is something only Japan does. Disneyland. teamLab Planets. A sumo show. That’s it.

Friends who had been there told us what to skip. Then they put us in touch with a friend of theirs who has lived in Japan for more than ten years. He cut the list again.

The one I wanted most was Mount Fuji outside the window. A stay at Kawaguchiko, the lake at its feet.

Every hotel was missing something. The rooms were too small for four. Or the price was too high. Or the price was fine and there was no Fuji view. Or there was a view and no restaurant. Bed only.

The plan went through ten versions. Fuji did not survive. We are staying in Hakone instead.

We leave on 9 November. The food is what I am waiting for most. The small eateries. The way they set a plate down in front of you.

Fuji will have to wait for the train window.