Places in Japan: The Fugaku Fuketsu Wind Cave

BASIC INFORMATION

• Name: The Fugaku Fuketsu Wind Cave
• Where: Kawaguchiko, Japan
• Cost: Adults ¥350; Child ¥200
• Hours: Open 9AM-5PM daily
• More Information: Official website for the Wind 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 large parking lot along Highway 139 that people can park at.  If it is filled up I recommend parking in the Narasawa Ice Cave parking lot and making the short walk over to the Wind Cave.

NARRATIVE

A popular tourist attraction in the Kawaguchiko area is the The Fugaku Fuketsu Wind 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 cave.  We checked out this cave as part of our Aokigahara Cave-to-Cave Loop Hike that began at the Narusawa Ice Cave.  From the Ice Cave we walked about a half mile over to the trailhead for the Wind Cave portion of our hike. At the Wind Cave Trailhead there is a large sign and tourist shop selling souvenirs and snacks:

My son and I stopped to have ice cream at the tourist shop because it was a blazing hot day.  From the trailhead we had to walk a short path into the Aokigahara Forest.  Being emerged in the trees at least brought the temperature down a bit.  This forest is more popularly known as the “Suicide Forest” due to the amount of people who commit suicide here each year.  The Aokigahara is definitely thickly forested with its lava rock floor giving it an unusual vibe, but overall I found the forest to be quite beautiful:

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 parasitic cones and sweeping views of the Aokigahara Forest can still be seen by hiking up the nearby Mt. Sankodai Trail.  The below picture gives an idea how thick the trees and underbrush are in this forest:

After a short walk from the trailhead my son and I came to the Wind Cave’s entrance gate:

At the entrance gate the person taking money for the tickets tried to discourage me from going into the cave because of my size.  I am 6 foot 3 inches so he must have thought I would hurt my head or back going into the cave.  I told him I would be fine and he sold me my ticket.  Near the entrance there is an artist’s depiction of what the inside of the cave looks like.  The depiction makes the cave look much bigger than it really is:

Just like the Ice Cave, the entrance to the Wind Cave had a nice staircase descending into its opening:

Once again similar to the Ice Cave, we passed an unseen line where the temperature dropped instantly. It was like suddenly entering into a walk-in refrigerator.  It wasn’t long before we saw our first signs of ice:

Despite being called the Wind Cave we felt no wind and this cave actually had more ice in it than the Ice Cave we had previously visited:

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.  We soon came to a section that required me to get on my knees and crawl through due to how small the opening was:

The path soon opened up into a larger chamber called a natural refrigerator that once was used to store silkworm eggs:

Inside the chamber there was a structure built that housed the silkworm eggs:

According to the sign inside of the structure, silkworm eggs have been cultivated in Japan to make silk since ancient times.  Storing silkworm eggs in cold storage and managing there hatching led to increased silk production:

Here is what the containers with the silk worm eggs in them looked like:

Besides silkworm eggs the structure also stored a variety of seeds for agriculture:

After reading the signs in the structure my son and I turned around to go back to the cave entrance since there was nothing else to see.  This ended up being a short walk of less than 30 minutes in the cave.

Conclusion

Much like the Narusawa Ice Cave we had previously visited, my son and I found the Fugaku Fuketsu Wind Cave to be a little underwhelming due to having visited much larger caves in the past like Carlsbad Caverns or Mammoth Cave.  With that said the admission is cheap and this is a quick visit for anyone hiking through the Aokigahara Forest.  If people just want to visit one cave I would recommend the Wind Cave due to having more ice and the interesting silkworm breeding history.  It is also a great place to go to get a break from the heat if visiting during the summer.  Just keep expectations reasonable and this little cave can be a good visit.