Yamanashi

Ringed by mountains and with no coast at all, this basin gets long hours of sunshine, relatively little rain, and a wide gap between daytime and night-time temperatures. That combination is close to ideal for fruit, which is why the prefecture leads the country in grapes and peaches and why commercial winemaking started here in the 1870s, working with a pale pink-skinned grape that had reached Japan overland centuries before.

The wine is worth taking seriously rather than as a novelty; the local white is dry, light and food-friendly, and dozens of small producers pour it. The obvious problem is that tasting and driving are incompatible, and the wineries are spread through farmland. The workable answer is the cluster within walking distance of the vineyard-district station, which exists for exactly this reason — arrive by train, walk between four or five, and take the express back.

Two days, and the honest framing is that Yamanashi is a mountain view and a wine region rather than a place with a centre. Kofu, the capital, is about ninety minutes from Shinjuku by limited express and is a base rather than a sight.

The two routes. North: the Fuji Five Lakes, roughly two hours from Tokyo by bus, which is where the postcard view of the mountain from across a lake comes from and where most visitors go. East and central: the Katsunuma vineyards and the Shosenkyo gorge, both within forty minutes of Kofu, which is a completely different and much quieter day.

One night at the lakes plus one in Kofu covers it. If the mountain is the whole reason for the trip, note that it is visible on far fewer days than photographs suggest, and that clear winter mornings are the reliable window rather than summer afternoons.

The chain of lakes on the southern border is not a set of natural valleys that happen to sit below a volcano. They are what remained when lava flows blocked the drainage of the land at its foot, which is why they lie in a rough arc at a similar altitude and why the shore in several places is black rock and pine rather than sand.

This is the reason the famous views look the way they do. The mountain is seen across water or over a town from close range, on the flat, rather than from a ridge at a distance — you are standing on its own debris. It also explains the lava caves and the wind cave in the forest nearby, and the forest itself, which grew back on the flows and is shallow-rooted and disorienting as a result. Walk one of the lava tubes if you have an hour; it makes the landscape legible in a way the photographs do not.

The JR Chuo line limited express reaches Kofu from Shinjuku in about 90 minutes, and the Fujikyu line branches at Otsuki for Kawaguchiko; direct trains and highway buses also run from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko in around two hours. Highway buses are often the faster option for the Fuji side. Once there, the Kawaguchiko sightseeing buses circle the lakes, but the further lakes and the Chureito pagoda area reward a car, as do the Katsunuma wineries — which is the standard problem, since tasting and driving do not mix. Several wineries sit within walking distance of Katsunuma-Budokyo Station for that reason.

Summer afternoons if you have come for the mountain. Haze builds through the day and through the season, and July and August are the worst months for actually seeing Fuji despite being the only months you can climb it. The reliable view is a clear morning between November and February, which is the opposite of when most visitors arrive.

Avoid the climbing season's opening and closing weekends if you intend to climb, when the route is at its most congested. And note that the trails are officially open only for a short summer window and closed the rest of the year regardless of the weather — an out-of-season attempt is not a bold choice but an unsupported one, with the huts shut and no help on the mountain.

Fuji shows itself far more often in winter than in summer: cold, dry mornings from December to February give the clearest views, though the lakes are cold and some boat services thin out. The climbing season on the mountain itself is only early July to early September, and huts and trails are busy throughout. Grapes ripen from August to October and peaches through July and August, with pick-your-own orchards around Katsunuma and Fuefuki. The basin is hot in summer, above 33°C, and cold and dry in winter with little snow. Shosenkyo gorge colours in early November, and the Fuji Shibazakura festival runs mid-April to late May.

Hoto is flat wheat noodles simmered in miso broth with pumpkin and root vegetables, thick enough to be eaten with a spoon, and it is a winter dish that Takeda-era soldiers are said to have carried the ingredients for. The Koshu grape makes a dry, light white that has gone in and out of international fashion; Katsunuma has dozens of small wineries pouring it. Peaches and grapes are sold from roadside stands from July to October. Torimotsu-ni, chicken offal glazed in a sweet soy reduction, is a Kofu speciality that started in a soba shop.

Trains and buses are enough. The express from Shinjuku runs to Kofu and Otsuki, the private line and the direct buses serve the Five Lakes, and the wine town of Katsunuma has its own station on the main line with wineries walkable from it — which is a genuinely unusual and useful arrangement for a wine region.

A car helps for the higher valleys, the Minami Alps foothills and the smaller vineyards. It is a liability at the lakes in peak season, when the road around Kawaguchiko is congested and parking near the good viewpoints fills early. If you are climbing Fuji itself in the summer season, the bus to the fifth station is the intended approach and private vehicles are restricted at busy times.

A first visit goes to the lakes and should be built around a morning rather than a day. Get up early, look at the mountain while the air is clear, and treat everything after ten as a bonus — the pattern of visitors arriving at midday and seeing cloud is so consistent it is almost a rule.

A second visit should ignore Fuji entirely and go to the wine. Katsunuma has been growing grapes since the nineteenth century, the local koshu variety exists essentially nowhere else, and the wineries are small, welcoming and reachable on foot from a train station on the Tokyo line. Add the Shosenkyo gorge in late October and you have a weekend that is genuinely about Yamanashi rather than about the mountain that happens to sit on its border.