Mount Fuji has been a place of pilgrimage for a thousand years, and the lodging houses in Fujiyoshida are what the pilgrims used. Believers in the Fuji cult, called the Fuji-kō, travelled in confraternities from Edo and farther away, and when they reached the foot of the mountain they stayed with an oshi, a guide and priest who arranged their prayers, their meals and their climb. The streets of old Kamiyoshida still have a few of these houses, with deep entrances, long rooms and a small shrine inside, designed for groups to eat, sleep and prepare. UNESCO lists one of them as part of the Fujisan cultural landscape.
The setting helps. From the long straight main street of Fujiyoshida, Fuji rises at the end of the road, cone-shaped and enormous, with a water channel running beside the pavement and a sense that the whole town was laid out to face the mountain. Nearby is the Kitaguchi Hongū Fuji Sengen shrine, with cedar trunks wider than a person, from where the old pilgrim trail up the Yoshida route begins. In late August the Fire Festival lights the streets with giant torches, a spectacle worth seeing, though crowded.
Fujiyoshida is a proper town of nearly fifty thousand, so fuel, convenience stores and cafes are everywhere. The local speciality is Yoshida udon, a chewy noodle served with cabbage and a spicy miso sauce, cheap and filling. Fujikawaguchiko, on the lake shore to the south, is the tourist magnet, and you can reach the Five Lakes region in minutes.
The riding is lovely, though it needs timing. The Fuji Subaru Line climbs up the mountain to the fifth station, with long bends through larch and pine, but it has toll fees, seasonal restrictions on traffic and is closed for winter, so check its status. Around the lakes the roads are smooth, wind in gentle curves and give views of the peak that are frequently hidden by cloud. Fuji hides on most summer afternoons, so ride early. Autumn and early winter are clearest, when the air is dry, but cold, and the first snow turns the summit white. Summer weekends bring buses and heavy traffic.