FuFu Kawaguchiko — Hotel in Fujikawaguchiko

We booked Fufu Kawaguchiko to decompress mid-vacation after spending our first 5 days in Tokyo experiencing all the hustle & bustle.||If you're looking to relax in a beautifully decorated environment with warm tones, comfy beds, and breathtaking scenery, this is your spot. The private onsen is fabulous to enjoy on a nightly basis, the shower pressure is fantastic and the products smell lovely. Beds are super plush and comfy. We never used the small sitting area in the Precious Suite we reserved because we were too busy enjoying the view of Mt. Fuji from the patio furniture. Loved the design of the indoor/outdoor balcony that could be used - we loved listening to the sounds of nature around us but when it got too hot, it was great to use the glass doors to enclose the space but still enjoy the view!||We also enjoyed an in-room couples massage by spa by sisley - big shoutout to Manami for such a wonderful experience for both body massage and an excellent facial (my skin was glowing for 2 days straight!) It is pricier, but the product quality and esthetician experience shows through.||The in-house chef is extremely talented - we were wowed during dinners and breakfasts with the elaborate multi-course experiences provided, and some of these meals were better than what we were able to enjoy in other parts of Japan between Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. The food was beautifully presented and delicious. You definitely need to pace yourself as the flavors are bold and rich, and although portions may seem small, they add up!||Would recommend 2 nights, 3 days. One of the days we ended up walking across the bridge into downtown and around a large portion of the lake - it was a beautiful walk! Fufu also rents out e-bikes if anyone is interested. We took a bus from Shinjuku Bus Terminal to Kawaguchiko Station, and then took a taxi from the station directly to Fufu.||The reason for 4 stars are driven by two main reasons - I had tried to book a spa appointment multiple times with no response in advance of my check-in date. I reached out through Gmail, Instagram, and Facebook but never received a response. Only when Fufu Kawaguchiko emailed me 8 days before check-in and I responded back confirming details and asking about a spa appointment, that they were then able to reserve an appt. For a luxury hotel I would recommend this needs to be addressed.||The other main reason is the check-in and check-out process took quite a while. The hotel and staff are very hospitable, but expect to be seated in their waiting area for checking in and when checking out, it took about a total of 10-15 minutes to complete the total...

Fufu Kawaguchiko is definitely one of the most beautiful hotels we’ve ever stayed in. The design from the front entrance through the cozy lobby up to the rooms is one of a kind. Every little detail seems to have been considered.

The rooms, all with direct view to the Fuji, feel like your privately decorated weekend hideaway. A private Onzen, a wonderful terrace, carefully selected furniture, large beds, a BeoLink loudspeaker, free drinks and even a set of cables for all of your portable devices. There’s also a very nice Onzen for all the hotel guests with a sauna and large windows in front of the black hot tub facing a small stone garden and the forest behind the hotel. Very relaxing and we‘ve not seen more than another guest in that Onzen whenever we’ve been there. As we’ve been so lucky to have clear skies on both of our days at the hotel, Mt. Fuji filled the center of our terrace view. What a breathtaking way to wake up looking at that majestic mountain from your bed!

The terrace and the garden in front of the main building offer very nice cabanas and fireplaces.

The restaurant is designed as beautiful as the rest of the Hotel. The staff is very helpful and polite and the food of Master Chef Masayoshi HOSHINO outshines everything else at the restaurant. We had the great pleasure of two breakfasts and two dinners. Breakfast was great, but both dinners rank about the best food experiences we ever had in Japan.

Beyond all the great staff members we would like to particularly mention Assistant General Manager Mr. Yukitoshi TAMURA who has been exceptionally helpful and flexible throughout our stay. His English is perfect and he had no problem to fulfill some of our not-so-common requests, like having drinks after dinner in the garden near the open fire.

Permit us to add some small recommendations to your wonderful hotel: • It would be great if there would be at least one staff member with sufficient English language skills around the reception/concierge desk, at least from 8am to 8pm. • As the area around Lake Kawaguchi is perfect for a bicycle tour, more than just five rental e-bikes at the hotel would make sense. • We’d have loved the option to get an espresso and or cappuccino at any time of the day or at least from breakfast until after dinner.

Once again we’d like to thank the entire staff of Fufu Kawaguchiko for one of the best hotel experiences we’ve ever had.

Please keep that high level! We will come back as soon...

Room: Fantastic (5/5). We have reserved the most exclusive room, with a private outdoor onsen, a private campfire on our balcony, and even a private sauna room. With an excellent view of Mt. Fuji, the room is spotless and has everything you need. It’s a great facility and location to enjoy the view of Mt. Fuji.

Food: 50/50 (2.5 out of 5), I would say, with the room costing that much... To be honest, I’m expecting more. Both dinner and breakfast are okay but not great, especially compared to similar hotels in this price range.

Services: Terrible (1 out of 5) Both check-out and check-in experience are not that good…

For check-in, the staff spent lots of time explaining the price of each item at the snack bar, even though there were price tags on them… she didn’t mention there were towers to keep us warm if we wanted to go out or go to the balcony. We found that out by ourselves the following day when we were about to check out… they need more training on what should or should not be explained to guests during the check-in process…

For check-out, the staff printed three copies of my credit card receipts, which, this practice I have never seen anywhere… for credit card purchases, there are always only two copies of receipts (merchant and customer copy). I asked him, "Why do you need to print out three copies?!” he responded, "One for you, one for us, and the last for the credit card center.” I then replied, "I've never seen this practice.” And he responded, “This is the usual practice, and you can ask anyone else.” He left us with my copy of the receipt without saying anything and then left… We would not expect this service level for the hotel in Japan, especially for the almost 400,000 yen invoice that they have just charged me...

Summary - Overall: The room is excellent, and the food is okay, but the service was terrible… for the room with a price tag of over 300,000 yen, it’s hard to believe they didn’t serve welcome drinks and snacks… to be honest, other hotels with 1/3 of this price are already serving those… So, great facility to enjoy the view of Mt. Fuji, but definitely need improvement...