Places in Japan: The Narusawa Ice Cave

BASIC INFORMATION

• Name: The Narusawa Ice Cave
• Where: Kawaguchiko, Japan
• Cost: Adults ¥350; Child ¥200
• Hours: Open 9AM-5PM daily
• More Information: Official website for the Ice Cave

Directions

The Narusawa Ice Cave is one of the more popular attractions in the Kawaguchiko area and is easily accessed off of Highway 139 west of Kawaguchiko for those who are driving.  From Kawaguchiko various buses run to the cave.  Click the following link for more information.

Parking

At the Narusawa Ice Cave there is a huge parking lot that extends down the main road leading to its entrance.  My son and I visited on a summer weekend and had no problems finding parking:

Narrative

One of the popular tourist attractions in the Kawaguchiko area is a visit to the Narusawa Ice Cave.  On a very hot summer weekend my nine-year old son and I made the drive from the Tokyo area up to Kawaguchiko to check out this ice cave.  The ice cave is located to the west of the city in the middle of the Aokigahara Forest also known as the “Suicide Forest” due to the amount of people who commit suicide here each year.  The forest grows on an old lava flow that erupted from a parasitic cone volcano located on the slopes of Mt. Fuji about 1,150 years ago.  The below picture taken from my DJI Mavic 2 Zoom – Drone shows the road through the Aokigahara Forest leading to the Narusawa Ice Cave Visitor Center with Mt. Fuji in the background:

My son and I found the visitor center to be quite busy, but the line at the ticket counter moved pretty fast and we soon had our tickets:

Before entering into the cave we checked out a sign that explained how the ice in the cave forms using ground water flowing through the porous lava rock below Mt. Fuji:

Another signboard showed a map of what the inside of the cave looked like.  The sign made the cave look bigger than what it actually was:

After checking out the signboards my son and I next walked over to the cave’s entrance:

At the top of the cave it was hot and humid and when we descended the stairs into the cave we literally passed an unseen line where the temperature dropped sharply.  We were glad we brought our sweaters with us to keep us warm.  As we descended deeper into the cave, besides being cold, the path became wetter, more slippy, and narrower:

My son was small enough that he had no problem getting through some of the narrower passages, but I am 6′ 3” and thus had to get on my hands and knees to get through a few areas:

For people with mobility problems or a bad back I would not recommend going into this cave:

After about 10 minutes we reached the bottom of the cave where the ice is located.  The Japanese have long known about the ice in this cave because they would mine it and transport it as far as Tokyo to sell for refrigeration purposes:

There really isn’t that much ice to see and some of it was caged off to prevent people from breaking off the icicles:

With the large line of people behind us we didn’t get to spend too long checking out the ice anyway and proceeded to ascend back up to the cave’s entrance.  In total we spent less than 30 minutes in the cave before getting back to the surface.  I think it is important to have reasonable expectations when visiting this cave, just remember it is small and there is not that much ice to see.  Afterwards we actually spent more time in the visitor center buying souvenirs and snacks to eat before heading back to the car.

Conclusion

For people that have visited caves like Carlsbad Caverns or Mammoth Cave, the Narusawa Ice Cave will seem very underwhelming.  With that said the cave has cheap admission, is a quick visit, and provides a nice relief from the summertime heat.  For those that manage their expectations a visit to the Narasawa Ice Cave may be worth checking out, especially if combined with a hike through the adjacent Aokigahara Forest.