The Mt. Fuji Ropeway entrance is at the east of Kawaguchiko. You'll see a sign with a white rabbit and a brown raccoon dog. They are from an old Japanese children's story book. The story goes like this: An old man caught a mischievous raccoon dog and tied it up in the house before he left for town. His wife, who was making mochi, got persuaded by the raccoon and let him go free. In return, the raccoon killed her. The rabbit, who was a friend of the old couple, found out, promised the old man that he would revenge for them. He set out to torture the raccoon with a series of tricks and eventually watched him drown. (The whole story was a lot darker. I wonder why they let kids read this...)
The setting of the story is said to be on Tenbo Mountain, where the Ropeway is.
So, because of the story, there is a small shrine of the rabbit. It is said to touch the rabbit's feet will bring you good luck so we did... The snack shop has some cute snacks that relate to the rabbit-raccoon story, rabbit ice cream and mochi (danko).
Pass the shrine, there is a gate that leads up to the viewing platform of 武田信玄の戦国広場 絶景やぐら。Takeda Shingen was a Samurai General from Sengoku period. He is very well-known is Asia for his intelligence. It was pretty cool to go up there. It did offer really great view of the lake and mountains.
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