Lake Motosu: The 1,000-Yen View, and When It Actually Appears

Lake Motosu is the westernmost, deepest and clearest of the Fuji Five Lakes, and the source of the single most reproduced view of Mount Fuji in existence: the one engraved on the back of Japan's 1,000-yen banknote. It sits at 900 meters in Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, roughly 50 minutes by bus west of Kawaguchiko, and it draws a fraction of Kawaguchiko's crowds.

Here is the thing almost every guide to Lake Motosu leaves out. The postcard image depends on two separate conditions lining up at the same moment: Fuji has to be out of the cloud, and the lake surface has to be glass. Those two things do not happen together as often as the photographs suggest, and the lake's own wind cycle means the window closes by mid-morning.

This guide covers the hard numbers, the exact viewpoint, what it costs, and how to time a visit so you are standing there when both conditions hold.

Table of Contents

1. Lake Motosu at a Glance
2. The 1,000-Yen View Is No Longer on the 1,000-Yen Note
3. Hiking to the Nakanokura Pass Viewpoint
4. Why the Lake Motosu Reflection Is a Dawn-Only Event
5. When Mt. Fuji Is Actually Visible from Lake Motosu
6. Camping at Koan and the Yuru Camp Effect
7. Getting to Lake Motosu and What It Costs
8. What Else to Do Around the Lake
9. Frequently Asked Questions

Lake Motosu at a Glance

Lake Motosu is the deepest lake in the Fuji Five Lakes and the ninth deepest in Japan, reaching 121.6 meters. It is third largest of the five by surface area at 4.7 square kilometers, with a shoreline of roughly 11.8 kilometers and an average depth of 67.3 meters.

Measure	Lake Motosu
Surface elevation	900 m
Surface area	4.7 km² (3rd of the five)
Maximum depth	121.6 m (deepest of the five)
Average depth	67.3 m
Shoreline	11.8 km
Minimum water temperature	4°C, never freezes
Administrative area	Minobu Town and Fujikawaguchiko Town, Yamanashi

That depth is the reason for everything else. A 121-meter water column holds its heat, so Lake Motosu never drops below 4°C and is the only one of the five lakes that does not freeze in winter. It is also why the water stays that deep blue-green locals call Motosu blue, and why the lake has become the most popular freshwater scuba site in the Kanto region.

The lake was not always separate. Before the year 864, a single large body of water called Senoumi covered this basin. During the Jogan eruption, lava poured down Fuji's northern flank and split Senoumi into three lakes: Motosu, Shoji and Sai. All three still sit at almost exactly 900 meters because they remain connected by underground channels through the porous lava, and the same flow created the Aokigahara forest on the plain between them. Motosu's quieter neighbour to the east tells a related story in our guide to Lake Saiko.

The 1,000-Yen View Is No Longer on the 1,000-Yen Note

The famous Lake Motosu view has not appeared on a circulating 1,000-yen note since July 3, 2024, when the Bank of Japan issued the Series F banknotes. The new 1,000-yen note carries a portrait of bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato on the front and Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa on the back. Mount Fuji survived the redesign, but as a woodblock print, not as Lake Motosu.

This matters practically. If you pull a 1,000-yen note out of your wallet in Japan today, there is a good chance it will not match the view you hiked up to see. You want a Series E note, issued from November 1, 2004, with Hideyo Noguchi on the front. Older notes remain legal tender and still circulate, so ask a cashier or check your change if you want the comparison shot. Plenty of visitors get to the observation deck, reach for a banknote, and find a wave staring back at them.

The image itself is older than either note. It comes from a photograph called Kohan no Haru ("Spring by the Lakeside"), taken on 2 May 1935 by Okada Koyo, a pioneer of Japanese mountain photography who called Fuji by the affectionate name "Fujiko" and spent his career documenting it. The engraved version first appeared on the Series D 5,000-yen note in 1984, moved to the Series E 1,000-yen note in 2004, and retired in 2024. Forty years on Japanese currency across two denominations, from a single morning in 1935.

Hiking to the Nakanokura Pass Viewpoint

The exact spot Okada shot from is the Nakanokura Pass observation deck (中ノ倉峠展望台), reached by a 20 to 30 minute uphill walk from the lake's southwestern shore in Minobu Town. The trail is about one kilometer long, well marked, and includes a genuinely steep section near the top.

Start from the parking area near the Koan campsite on Route 300. There is a roadside lot with space for around 20 cars, free, and it fills early on clear autumn weekends. The trailhead is a short walk from the lot and signed in Japanese and English.

What you get at the top is a wooden deck cantilevered over the slope, with the whole surface of Lake Motosu directly below and Fuji rising beyond it. The framing hills on either side are the ones in the engraving. It is a small platform, and on a good morning in November you will be sharing it with a dozen tripods.

A few practical notes that the shorter guides skip:

• Go up in the dark if you want sunrise. The walk takes 30 minutes and the light changes fast. Bring a headtorch; the trail is unlit and root-crossed.
• Footwear matters more than you expect. The steep upper section is packed dirt that turns slick after rain.
• There are no facilities at the deck. No toilets, no vending machines, no shelter. The nearest toilets are at the lakeshore.
• Keep climbing for a second view. Continuing above the pass brings you to Motosuko Panoramadai at 1,328 meters in roughly another hour, where the view opens out across Fuji and the Aokigahara plateau together.

For general composition and gear advice at Fuji viewpoints, our Mt. Fuji photography guide covers focal lengths and exposure in more detail.

Why the Lake Motosu Reflection Is a Dawn-Only Event

The mirror reflection at Lake Motosu is effectively a pre-9:00 AM phenomenon, because the same wind cycle that makes the lake one of Japan's best windsurfing venues destroys the water surface every afternoon.

This is the connection almost no Lake Motosu guide makes, even though both halves of it are widely documented. Windsurfing schools on the lake describe the pattern plainly: light southerly breeze in the morning, ideal for beginners, then a reliable strengthening through the afternoon that suits advanced riders. That reliability is precisely why instructors like the lake. It is also why the reflection is gone by lunchtime.

The mechanism is thermal. Overnight, air drains cold down the surrounding slopes and the basin goes still, so the surface flattens to glass. Once the sun heats the slopes, upslope circulation kicks in, the lake develops a chop, and the mirror breaks. At 900 meters in a bowl ringed by forested ridges, that transition is sharp rather than gradual.

Two things follow for planning:

1. Aim to be in position before sunrise, not at sunrise. The calmest water is usually in the hour before and the hour after first light. By mid-morning you can still photograph Fuji beautifully, but the sakasa Fuji inverted reflection will be soft or gone.
2. A clear day is not automatically a still day. Winter cold fronts deliver the sharpest air of the year and some of the windiest mornings. Check a wind forecast for the lake separately from the cloud forecast. They are not the same question.

If you are planning around first light generally, our Mt. Fuji sunrise guide compares Motosu against the other dawn viewpoints.

When Mt. Fuji Is Actually Visible from Lake Motosu

Mount Fuji is much more likely to be clear at Lake Motosu on a cold winter dawn than during the humid summer months. That seasonal pattern is reflected in our weighted atmospheric model: cold, dry air behind a winter high gives the crispest views of the year, while the summer rainy season and convective cloud frequently hide the summit.

Visibility alone does not give you the banknote shot. You also need a calm surface, and there is no published observation series that measures those two conditions together at this viewpoint. Assigning a precise percentage to the reflection would therefore be false precision.

The useful seasonal comparison is qualitative:

Season	Fuji visibility tendency	Reflection considerations
Winter (Dec–Feb)	Best	Crisp air, but passing cold fronts can bring wind
Spring (Mar–May)	Mixed	Haze increases; calm dawns remain possible
Summer (Jun–Aug)	Poorest	Water may be calm while cloud hides the mountain
Autumn (Sep–Nov)	Improving	Often the best balance of clearer air, foliage and calmer dawns

Winter wins on raw clarity, and a cold February dawn with fresh snow down to the treeline is as good as Fuji gets. But November and early December are the underrated sweet spot: clarity is improving, autumn colour remains on the surrounding ridges, and crowds are thinner than at the main Fuji Five Lakes stops.

Summer is the season to skip if the reflection is your goal. The water is often perfectly calm and the mountain is nowhere to be seen. For the full month-by-month picture, see our guide to the best time to see Mt. Fuji.

One practical advantage is unique to this lake. Because Lake Motosu never freezes, it is the only one of the five that offers open-water reflections through the depths of winter, exactly when Fuji is at its clearest. The shallower eastern lakes can ice over in a hard cold snap. Motosu cannot.

Before you commit to a 4:30 AM start, check the live Mt. Fuji visibility forecast the night before. A 40% winter baseline becomes a much better or much worse bet once you know what the next 12 hours actually hold.

Camping at Koan and the Yuru Camp Effect

Koan Campsite on Lake Motosu's northwestern shore is the most famous campground in the Fuji Five Lakes, largely because it opened the first episode of the anime Yuru Camp△ (Laid-Back Camp). Japanese visitors arrive specifically to pitch a tent in the frame from the show, and the site is upfront about it.

Practically, it is also the best-placed base for the Nakanokura hike: you can walk from your tent to the trailhead before dawn instead of driving Route 300 in the dark.

Current rates from the official Koan site, per night:

Item	First campground	Second campground
Adult	¥1,000	¥600
Child (elementary)	¥600	¥300
Tent space	¥1,400	¥1,000
Tarp space	¥900	¥500
Parking	¥1,400	¥1,000

So a two-person tent with a car at the lakeside first campground runs about ¥4,800 per night before extras. Cabins start at ¥16,000 for a four-person A-type. The bath costs ¥500 for adults and ¥300 for children. Check-in for cabins is 3:00 PM, check-out 10:00 AM for overnight campers and 5:00 PM for day use. Cancellation charges start seven days out at 20% and rise to 100% on the day.

The lakeside pitches are the ones people want and the ones that go first. Book well ahead for autumn weekends and anything near a public holiday.

Getting to Lake Motosu and What It Costs

Lake Motosu is about 50 minutes by bus from Kawaguchiko Station on the blue Narusawa/Shojiko/Motosuko sightseeing line, which runs every one to two hours. By car it is roughly 30 minutes from Kawaguchiko along Route 139 and then Route 300.

The fare detail is worth a paragraph, because it is where most visitors overspend. A single regular-bus ride from Kawaguchiko Station out to the Motosuko area costs around ¥1,450, so a return trip lands near ¥2,900. The Mt. Fuji North Area 1-Day Pass covering the Kawaguchiko, Saiko and Motosuko lines costs ¥1,500 for adults and ¥750 for children, and the two-day version is ¥2,000. Buying the day pass instead of two singles saves roughly ¥1,400 per adult, and it lets you stop at Saiko or the lava caves on the way back at no extra cost.

Approaching from the south is also possible. Fujikyu runs a service between Shin-Fuji Station and Kawaguchiko via Lake Motosu, taking about 75 minutes and costing around ¥1,900 from Shin-Fuji, which makes the lake a reasonable detour if you are arriving on the Tokaido Shinkansen rather than from Tokyo.

Two cautions about the bus. Service is genuinely sparse compared with the Kawaguchiko loop, so a missed departure can cost you two hours. And the first bus of the day will not get you to the Nakanokura deck for a winter sunrise. If dawn is the point of the trip, you need a car or a night at the campsite. Confirm the current timetable with Fujikyu Bus before you travel, since seasonal schedules change.

Coming from Tokyo, treat Kawaguchiko as the hinge: express bus or the Fuji Excursion train to Kawaguchiko Station, then the blue line west. Total door to door is three to three and a half hours.

What Else to Do Around the Lake

Lake Motosu is a doing lake rather than a strolling lake. Motorboats are banned, which keeps the water quiet and clear, and that clarity underpins most of the activities.

On the water. The Motosuko Activity Center runs canoeing, stand-up paddleboarding, windsurfing and wing foil sessions from late April to mid-November, at ¥7,000 for elementary-school age and up, around two hours per session, with English available on advance notice. Freshwater scuba diving is the lake's other speciality, and at 900 meters it counts as altitude diving.

Around the shore. The 11.8-kilometer shoreline loop is a popular cycling route, with real hills and winding road sections rather than a flat lakeside path. Food options are thin: a handful of small places on Route 300, so bring a bento if you are staying past mid-morning.

Nearby. The Fuji Shibazakura Festival takes place each spring at Fuji Motosuko Resort, about three kilometers south of the lake, with roughly half a million moss phlox plants laid out under the mountain. In 2026 it ran from April 11 to May 24, with admission of ¥1,000 to ¥1,300 depending on the date, and the dates shift slightly each year with the bloom. Expect heavy Route 139 traffic during the festival.

If you are still deciding which of the five lakes to build a day around, our comparison of the Fuji Five Lakes ranks them by view quality and access.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Lake Motosu famous for?

Lake Motosu is famous for the view of Mount Fuji reflected in its waters that was engraved on the back of Japan's 1,000-yen note from 2004 to 2024, and on the 5,000-yen note before that. It is also the deepest and clearest of the Fuji Five Lakes, and the only one that does not freeze in winter.

How deep is Lake Motosu?

Lake Motosu has a maximum depth of 121.6 meters and an average depth of 67.3 meters, making it the deepest of the Fuji Five Lakes and the ninth deepest lake in Japan. That depth keeps the water above 4°C year round.

Can you swim in Lake Motosu?

Yes, swimming is permitted and the exceptional water clarity makes it popular, but the lake is cold even in midsummer because of its depth, and there are no lifeguards. Most people in the water are diving, paddling or windsurfing rather than swimming laps.

How do you get to Lake Motosu from Tokyo?

Take an express bus or the Fuji Excursion train to Kawaguchiko Station, then the blue Narusawa/Shojiko/Motosuko sightseeing bus west for about 50 minutes. Total travel time is three to three and a half hours, and a ¥1,500 day pass is cheaper than buying single fares both ways.

Is the Mount Fuji view from Lake Motosu still on the 1,000-yen note?

No. The Series F 1,000-yen note issued on July 3, 2024 shows Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa on the reverse. The Lake Motosu view appeared on the Series E note from 2004, which is still legal tender and still circulating.

If You Only Get One Morning

Drive or camp, set an alarm for 4:00 AM, and be on the Nakanokura deck 45 minutes before sunrise in November. That single combination stacks every variable in your favour: near-winter clarity, the calmest water of the year, autumn colour on the ridges, and a deck you will not have to fight for.

Then check the forecast the night before and be willing to sleep in. Even a season with good visibility can fail when wind roughens the lake, and there is no reward for hiking a dark trail to photograph cloud. Our live Mt. Fuji dashboard and the Fuji webcam feeds will tell you within a minute which kind of morning you are looking at.