A humble two-car local train out of Otsuki delivers the single best moving view of Japan's sacred mountain.
Most visitors reach Mount Fuji by bus, which tells you something about how few people know the Fujikyu Railway exists. It's a modest private line running from Otsuki, on the main Chuo route out of Tokyo, up into the lake district around Kawaguchiko — and for the last third of the ride, the mountain simply appears and stays with you, filling the window with almost embarrassing scale.
The carriages are ordinary rather than romantic — vinyl seats, a recorded announcement, commuters getting on and off at small stations along the way — which somehow makes the mountain more startling when it shows up. Sit on the right side heading toward Kawaguchiko for the clearest sightlines, and pick a clear morning; Fuji hides behind haze more often than photographs suggest.
Break the journey at Fujikyu Highland or just ride straight through to Kawaguchiko, where the lake gives you a second, mirrored view of the peak if the wind has dropped. Some of the line's newer trains run oversized picture windows for exactly this stretch — worth checking the timetable for the Fujisan View Express if you want the full cinematic version.
The whole one-way trip from Otsuki runs under an hour and costs a few hundred yen, which makes it one of the cheapest great train rides anywhere. Combine it with a night in Kawaguchiko's onsen ryokan and you get the mountain twice — once from the train, once from the bath.
