One day for Mt. Fuji, already on the calendar. What’s left is how: a bus tour that leaves from Tokyo, or Kawaguchiko on your own by the Fuji Excursion train or the highway bus from Shinjuku. Page one of the search is tour sellers and blog itineraries, and each answers “tour” or “alone” before asking what your day has to hold.
This page asks that first. Which months show the mountain is a separate question, answered with two official day-counts in the Tokyo day-trips ranking. Here the date is yours; the question is only the way there.
The answer, in the order the conditions decide it
1. Your stop list. The 5th Station, Oshino Hakkai and the Gotemba outlets on one day: the tour. On your own, each is a separate bus, and the outlets are in Shizuoka Prefecture, not at the lakes. The lake, the town and at most the 5th Station: on your own.
2. Your clock. The last direct train back leaves Kawaguchiko at 17:41. If your day needs the evening, the highway bus runs later. A tour comes back when its bus does.
3. How late you can commit. Train seats go on sale a month ahead and every seat is reserved; the highway bus needs a reservation too. A tour is one date, one booking, with its cancellation terms on its listing.
4. The price for your party. On your own, every leg is per person, so the sum grows with every traveler. Price the tour for the same headcount and date on its listing, then compare the two totals.
Want the easy option?
Mt. Fuji 5th Station, Lake Kawaguchi, Oshino Hakkai & Gotemba day tour from Tokyo on Klook
If your list holds the 5th Station, Oshino Hakkai and the Gotemba outlets on one day, one booking covers the four stops this tour names, by bus from Tokyo.
Check the tour on Klook →Sold on Klook (Klook Travel Technology Limited), an online travel agency. Before you pay, check on the listing for your date: pickup point, return time, what happens if the Fuji Subaru Line keeps the bus from the 5th Station, and the cancellation terms.
| Tour from Tokyo (the listing linked below) | On your own: Fuji Excursion | On your own: highway bus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokyo to Kawaguchiko and back, per person | In the tour price | ¥8,400 | ¥4,400 |
| Leaves from | The pickup point on the listing | Shinjuku, just under 2 hours | Busta Shinjuku, about 1 hour 45 minutes |
| 5th Station | Named in the tour’s title | Local bus, ¥3,400 round trip | Local bus, ¥3,400 round trip |
| Oshino Hakkai, Gotemba outlets | Named in the tour’s title | Separate buses | Separate buses |
| Last way home | The return time on the listing | 17:41 from Kawaguchiko | 20:15 from Kawaguchiko (Sept. 11–30, 2026 timetable) |
| Booking | On the listing | One month ahead, 10:00; all seats reserved | Reservation required |
The rest of the page is those four conditions, one worked day, and what to check before you book.
First: which stops are on your list
The tour linked at the end of this page names four stops in its title: the Mt. Fuji 5th Station, Lake Kawaguchi, Oshino Hakkai and Gotemba Premium Outlets. On your own, the ride from Tokyo gets you to Kawaguchiko Station, and each of the other three is its own trip from there.
The 5th Station. Fujikyu’s local bus climbs the Fuji Subaru Line from Kawaguchiko Station in 55 minutes. On the timetable from October 1, 2026 it leaves five times a day (9:40, 10:40, 11:40, 13:00, 14:00), and the last bus down leaves the 5th Station at 15:50. ¥2,000 one way, ¥3,400 round trip; no reservation.
Oshino Hakkai. A different bus. The Fujikko-go leaves Kawaguchiko Station 11 times a day and runs by way of Fujisan Station and Oshino Hakkai (Fujikyu). Oshino Village also lists a route bus from Fujisan Station.
Gotemba Premium Outlets. In Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture: outside the lakes area altogether.
What follows. A list of the lake and the town (a lakeshore walk, the Chureito pagoda in Fujiyoshida) plus at most the 5th Station fits the ride from Tokyo and one local bus. A list with all four stops is three local timetables after the ride from Tokyo, and one booking replaces all of them. If the outlets aren’t on your list, the four-stop tour still stops there.
Second: when you need to be back in Tokyo
By train, the day has a hard end. The last direct train back leaves Kawaguchiko at 17:41 (Fujikyu, timetable from March 14, 2026, checked 2026-09-25) and reaches Shinjuku before 8 p.m. After it, the way home is a change of trains or the bus.
The highway bus runs later. On Fujikyu’s highway-bus timetable for September 11–30, 2026, buses for Shinjuku leave Kawaguchiko Station until 20:15, reaching Busta Shinjuku at 22:00. Timetables change by season; read the one for your month.
The 5th Station keeps its own clock: on the October timetable the last bus down reaches Kawaguchiko Station at 16:35.
A tour’s return time is on its listing, and it is the group’s time, not yours. If the lake at sunset or dinner in Kawaguchiko is part of the day, that decides it: on your own, home by bus.
Third: how late you can commit to the date
The mountain decides more of this day than the transport does, and the month-by-month records are where to set that expectation. What you control is how late you commit.
By train. Fuji Excursion seats go on sale one month before the travel date at 10:00, on Eki-net and at JR ticket windows. There are four direct trains a day each way, plus a seasonal one, and no unreserved seats. Fujikyu also sells a seat-unassigned ticket, which fixes only the date and the section.
By highway bus. Reservation required; book online with the operator.
By tour. One date, one booking. Its cancellation terms are on its listing; read them before you pay, not after the forecast turns.
The 5th Station also depends on the road. The Fuji Subaru Line is open all year with no fixed closure, but in winter the open section changes day by day with snow and ice (Yamanashi Road Public Corporation). Fujikyu’s bus does not run when the road is closed or open only to the 1st Station. A tour drives the same road, so in winter, check what the listing does when the 5th Station can’t be reached.
What follows: if a clear day matters more than a fixed date, the condition is which booking you can move, and on what terms. The tour’s are on its listing; the train’s and the bus’s are with their operators.
Fourth: the price for your party
On your own, every leg is per person: ¥8,400 round trip by train or ¥4,400 by bus, plus ¥3,400 if the 5th Station is on your list. On your own, nobody pays less for being the second one in the party. Price the tour on its listing for the same date and the same headcount, and compare the totals, not the per-person numbers.
One day, run both ways
Two adults, a weekday in November, staying in Shinjuku. Their list: the 5th Station and the lake.
On their own by train: the 7:30 Fuji Excursion from Shinjuku reaches Kawaguchiko at 9:28. The 9:40 bus is at the 5th Station at 10:35; the 12:30 bus down is back at Kawaguchiko Station at 13:15. The afternoon is the lake, and the 17:41 is the train home. For two: 2 × (¥8,400 + ¥3,400) = ¥23,600. By highway bus instead: 2 × (¥4,400 + ¥3,400) = ¥15,600, on the bus timetable for their month.
Now add Oshino Hakkai, and the day changes. The 5th Station bus runs five times a day and the Fujikko-go 11, from the same station, and the train home still leaves at 17:41. Add the outlets and it is another prefecture. That is the tour’s list, and the comparison becomes the tour’s price for two against ¥23,600 or ¥15,600 plus the extra buses.
If your conditions picked the tour
Your list holds three or four of the tour’s stops, you are fine being back when its bus is, and you can commit to one date. Before you pay, read four things on the listing for your date: the pickup point and time in Tokyo, the return time, what happens when the Subaru Line keeps the bus from the 5th Station, and the cancellation terms. The tour linked here is sold on Klook, an online travel agency. This page does not repeat its details; they are the listing’s.
Your conditions picked the tour?
Mt. Fuji 5th Station, Lake Kawaguchi, Oshino Hakkai & Gotemba day tour from Tokyo on Klook
Book the date here, then check the pickup point, the return time and the cancellation terms on the listing before you pay.
Check the tour on Klook →Sold on Klook (Klook Travel Technology Limited), an online travel agency. Before you pay, check on the listing for your date: pickup point, return time, what happens if the Fuji Subaru Line keeps the bus from the 5th Station, and the cancellation terms.
If your conditions picked going on your own: book the Fuji Excursion a month out at 10:00, or reserve the highway bus, and buy the 5th Station bus at Kawaguchiko Station on the day.
Next
- Tokyo day trips, ranked: which months show the mountain
- Where to stay in Tokyo: which base puts you at Shinjuku
- What the trip costs
- Is the Japan Rail Pass worth it?
Checked 2026-09-25 against Fujikyu’s Fuji Excursion page (timetable from March 14, 2026), Fujikyu Bus’s 5th Station timetable and fares and Fujikko-go, Fujikyu Travel’s highway-bus timetable, Keio’s Kawaguchiko route page, the Yamanashi Road Public Corporation’s Fuji Subaru Line FAQ, Oshino Village and Gotemba Premium Outlets. Timetables and fares change by season; check the operator before relying on a figure here.
