Kawaguchiko Sta, Lake Motosu Sightseeing bus 46 mins to Sekirui Iriguchi bust stop (石塁入口).
This was a really interesting and fun castle ruin and probably one of a kind. The castle itself is a fairly typical borderland ridge line mountain castle, but the ruins of the structures around the base of the mountain are really impressive. First, this castle sits on the edge of the Aokigahara forest. This is a deep forest around the base of Mt. Fuji for several kilometers covered in thick trees and lava rock. The woods is very difficult to walk through except on cleared paths because of the fallen trees, roots and loose small lava rock everywhere. This lava rock was used in the construction of several structures and stone walls around the base of the mountain and castle some of which we don't even know their use of today. There are sections of long stone walls, some ring formations and a couple gates. Across the road from the base of the mountain (at the bus stop) a stone wall goes at least 2km deep into the forest. I did not walk the entire wall, only about 1km but I would not mind going back again to explore even more. It seems that the highly porous lava rock also makes for a good substrate for growing moss. Most of the stones have a thick covering of moss adding to the mysterious and somewhat spooky atmosphere. For such a unique and interesting site I'm really surprised it's not more well known. The Lake Motosu tourist information center (April to October) has a model of the castle but I did not visit since it was November.
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