Luxury Glamping at the Foot of Mount Fuji

Just a few minutes from Kawaguchiko station, the appearance of Hoshinoya Fuji is somewhat incongruous. Nothing about it looks like a hotel, nor even a room; just a building with large windows where check-in takes place.

Once the formalities have been completed, the experience can begin. First, visitors choose one of the many backpacks hung on the wall that will accompany them throughout their stay. Inside are a headlamp, a water bottle, and a small quilted jacket. Next, they climb aboard the Jeep that will take them to their room, which is currently still hidden behind the trees of the forest overlooking the reception.

Mount Fuji as a backdrop

Hoshinoya Fuji evades definition, not quite a hotel, nor really a campsite. The architectural firm Azuma Architects and Associates behind the project sought to combine the luxury of a hotel with comfortable rooms, and the immediate proximity of nature with the frugality of a campsite.

This glamping site consists of forty cabins, small white cubes that look like contemporary works of art, arranged on a hill, amongst hundreds of trees. ‘The rooms have been designed to provide all the comforts of a hotel, with air conditioning and a bathroom’, explains Yoshiharu Hoshino, director of this extraordinary establishment. ‘But we also made sure that a third of the room was in the open air so that guests can enjoy the surrounding nature and perhaps a campfire, as though they were really camping.’

While the rooms have been perfectly furnished and decorated with care, it is the view that really sells the place. All the cabins offer a magnificent view of Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi, in which the sacred volcano of Japan is reflected. Completing this picturesque sight is a magnificent forest of red cedars and deep green pines.

More information on Hoshinoya Fuji can be found on the glamping site’s website.