I and a friend traveled to Mt. Fuji in late April.  If you are a student or a staff of the university, you can reserve a facilities in the Yama-naka(山中) Lake for a very cheap price.  If you are a student/staff you pay about 1000 yen for the room(720 yen) and heating(350 yen, only for Nov.~April).  Also you can dine there.  Breakfast/lunch is 470 yen, dinner is 820 yen. For more information and reservation, visit here.  Also, once you make the payment, you can not get a refund.  There are two road ways to get to Mt. Fuji; one is to take the highway(from Tsukuba, 常磐自動車道->外環道-> thru western Tokyo to south->中央自動車道, it took us 3.5 hours to Mt. Fuji by car.  The total toll was about 5,000 yen), another is to take the local routes(from Mt. Fuji, route 413 -> route 16-> route 3->route 19; it took 6 hours by car, no tolls). We spent about 60 liter of gasoline and total mileage was about 600km, including local driving at Mt. Fuji. For just round trip to and from Mt. Fuji, it's about 400km.

 

Here is the map to the facility. The center is the facility. Whether you are approching from east or west, you will have hard time to find it, because the entrance is not that outstanding.

 

When you see this, you are right next to the entrance.

 

 

The entrance.  Specially from the east(from right), it is impossible to see this.

 

It took us 4 hours to walk all around the lake.  Very tired after doing so, but you can have a hot bath at a very famous spa near by.

 

The room. The staff guest house is seprate from the student dormitory.  And there are three rooms in the house.  3~4 people can sleep in one room.

 

The hall way.
 

 

You have a refrigerator.  There is no kitchen but there is a kitchen for the caretaker's room in the house.  But the caretaker doesn't live in the house so I guess you can cook there in the caretaker's kitchen.

 

Wood-floored toilet.  I thought they extincted.

 

 

The ceiling. Also if you are alegic to dust, the Dadami floor will give you a cough.

 

The dinner. I would rather dine out.
 

 

The dinning room.  

 

Bath rooms for boys and girls.

 

Dryer and washer.

 

The community bathroom.

 

A landmark?  For some reason, it looked so sad to me.
 

 

A Chinese-Japanese noodle shop on the lake-shore drive.  We had a lunch here.

 

Kimchi(Korean pickled cabbage ) ramen(a Japanese noodle).  Not the taste I expected but OK.

 

A rental shop for bikes and boats. There are many shops like this one. You can borrow bikes for free at the university facility.  Just ask the caretaker.

 

A Korean restaurant on the south coast of the lake.  Cheap and delicious.  I ate Kimchi-jjige(pot boiled Kimchi) and it was 980 yen.

 

The famous spa.  It is on the route 413 to north. Very soothing.
 

 

The name of the spa means "stone cutting spa" literally. 700 yen for adults. There are restaurants and shoops inside.

 

 

View to Mt. Fuji from the university facility coast.  It was very early in the morning and a swan is swimming for breakfast.  They are fed by the local government.  Thus, they are not natural. Very agressive.  Be careful when you approach them.

 

The water quality of the lake is acceptible.

 

There are 10 steps to the top.  You can drive up to 5th step and climb fromthat point on foot.  Yes, there is still snow.

 

 

At the 5th step parking lot.  Make sure you bring mountain gears and prepare for harsh weather.  It gets REALLY cold and slippery when you go up to the top.

 

The entrance to the pathway.

 

 

 

 

You can see how thick the snow can be.  It is more like ice, very hard and concrete.

 

At 6th step. I am already tired.
 

 

View to the Inner-Mountain-Lake(山中湖; Yama-Naga-Go). Its altitude is about 2800 meters.

 

Rainbow on the mountain.
 

 

One of the famous attraction in Mt. Fuji is the fountain.  Very clear and cold.  It says "Try to keep your hands longer than 30 seconds."

 

The whole village live on the fountain and tourists to see this.
 

 

It is about 5 meters deep and you still can see the bottom.

 

On the way to Fuji Mt.  Me and my car.

 

 

 

 

Near the Fuji Mt. Top.  Yes, I am above the clouds.

 

In the morning of the second day, at the lake shore of the university facility.