Chureito Pagoda and Arakurayama Sengen Park

The Chureito Pagoda is free and never closes. It stands halfway up Mt Arakura in Arakurayama Sengen Park, Fujiyoshida, and from the deck just above it you see the red five-storey tower, the town below and Mt Fuji rising behind, all in one frame. Getting there means climbing 398 steps.

That view is now a problem for the people who live under it. In February 2026 Fujiyoshida cancelled the park’s cherry blossom festival because of the crowds. The park stayed open, and it is still worth the climb, but how and when you go matters more than it used to.

The pagoda is about 15 km from Lake Yamanaka, roughly 23 minutes by car, which makes it an easy early-morning trip from the lake.

Chureito Pagoda at a glance

Checked October 2026.

Entry	Free
Hours	Open 24 hours; lit at night (times may change)
Steps	398, the Sakuya-hime stairs, from the shrine to the deck
Viewing deck	Rebuilt and reopened 1 February 2022
Toilets	In the park
Car parks	Four city lots, ¥1,000 to ¥1,500 per 6 hours
Nearest station	Shimoyoshida, Fujikyu Line
Contact	Fujiyoshida tourism, 0555-21-1000

What you are looking at

The tower is not a Buddhist pagoda. Its name, Chureito, means a memorial tower for the war dead, and Japanese Wikipedia says it was built in the early 1960s in reinforced concrete, 19.5 m tall, to honour 1,055 people from Fujiyoshida who died in war. A memorial service is held there every September. It shares the hill with Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine, where the stairs begin.

The park itself opened in 1959. The photo everyone wants is taken from the viewing deck above the pagoda, looking south over Fujiyoshida to Fuji. Fujiyoshida rebuilt the deck and reopened it in February 2022.

The 398 steps

Fujiyoshida’s tourism site and the Yamanashi prefecture both give 398 steps from the shrine to the deck. The flight is about 200 m long. The prefecture lists handrails on the stairs, wheelchair parking and accessible toilets.

The city’s site times the walk from Shimoyoshida Station to the pagoda at about 25 minutes, stairs included. The prefecture’s “about 10 minutes” is to the foot of the park.

Best time to visit the Chureito Pagoda

Time of day: morning. The prefecture recommends it for the light on Fuji, which is behind the pagoda as you face south. Mornings also come before the coach tours, which arrive from Tokyo later in the day.

Season:

Season	What you see	Notes
Early to mid-April	Cherry blossom around the pagoda	Deck queues of 1 to 3 hours reported at peak bloom
May to September	Green hillside	Fuji is most often hidden by haze or cloud
Late October to mid-November	Autumn leaves	The prefecture’s recommended autumn window
December to February	Snow on Fuji	The clearest months for Fuji views

Check the visibility guide on the day; there is no view if Fuji is in cloud. The best time to see Mt Fuji guide goes month by month.

Crowds and the cancelled 2026 festival

Fujiyoshida ran a cherry blossom festival at the park every spring from 2016. On 3 February 2026 the city announced it would not hold one that year, and would stop using the festival’s name in its publicity. Its statement put it plainly: residents’ peaceful daily lives come before any tourism promotion. The problems it listed were chronic traffic jams, trespassing, people relieving themselves in private gardens and disruption to children’s routes to school.

The numbers explain why. The festival drew about 200,000 visitors a year, more than 10,000 a day at peak bloom, to a city of fewer than 50,000 people. Queues for the deck reached one to three hours.

The park did not close. The city kept guards, traffic control, temporary parking and temporary toilets from 1 to 17 April 2026, with traffic rules until 19 April. No decision on spring 2027 had been published by October 2026.

The year before, in April 2025, the city had already made its car parks paid, saying overtourism had brought traffic jams and litter and that it needed to cut car numbers and pay for guards and rubbish collection.

How to visit without adding to it:

• Go early in the morning or in winter.
• Use the city car parks or the train. The city asks drivers not to go up to the plaza in front of the pagoda.
• Stay on the paths. The hillside around the deck borders private land.
• Take your rubbish with you.
• Tour groups are asked to use Shimoyoshida Station only for drop-off, and not to use the station toilets.

Getting there

Parking

Fujiyoshida’s four car parks, paid since 1 April 2025, open 24 hours. Checked October 2026.

Car park	Spaces	Fee
P1 (main)	88 cars	¥1,500 per 6 hours
P2	38 cars	¥1,000 per 6 hours
P3	35 cars	¥1,000 per 6 hours
P4	21 cars, 10 motorbikes	¥1,500 per 6 hours (motorbikes ¥750)

The roads round the park are narrow and coaches cannot reach any of the car parks.

From Lake Yamanaka

By car it is about 15 km from Asahigaoka on the south shore, roughly 23 minutes in free-flowing traffic. Fujiyoshida’s site gives about 20 minutes from Yamanakako IC.

By public transport, ride the Fujikko-go loop bus or a Gotemba-line bus from the lake to Fujisan Station (the Fujikko-go takes 43 minutes from Asahigaoka), then take the Fujikyu train to Shimoyoshida and walk. It is quicker by car, but it works.

From Tokyo and Kawaguchiko

Shimoyoshida Station is on the Fujikyu Line between Otsuki and Kawaguchiko, and the Fuji Excursion train from Shinjuku stops there as well as local trains. Highway buses on the Chuo Expressway also call at the Shimoyoshida stop, about 10 minutes’ walk from the park. Tokyo to Mt Fuji covers the buses and trains.

Chureito Pagoda on a tour

The pagoda is part of the standard Fuji coach loop from Tokyo, usually alongside Oshino Hakkai, Lake Kawaguchiko and often Lake Yamanaka. The tour featured above starts with the reflections at Hirano Beach on Lake Yamanaka and finishes here. Check how long each tour gives the pagoda: the climb alone takes a while. Compare them on our tours page and in the day trip guide.

For other places to photograph Fuji, including Panorama-dai above Lake Yamanaka, see the best views of Mt Fuji.