Our cruise ship will be in Yokohama May 3-4, '06. Is it realistic to try to get closer to Mt Fuji and wander the small towns in that area on a day trip? Any suggestions on what to see? So many great sounding sights but not sure how easy it would be for non-japanese speakers to get around in the area, and it is closed to hiking so early.
Thanks.

Actually depends on how much hours you have in the day. Travelling time would be couple of hours. To be more productive you can visit Minato Mirai and from there walk over to Chinatown.

It's only an hour by train from Yokohama to Hakone Yumoto station. From there (or from Odawara) you can use an Odakyu Rail Hakone Free Pass to get around the Hakone region. I'm sure that you could sign up with a tour group for a day trip, if you didn't want to go on your own. But it is not difficult getting around there, they have plenty of non-Japanese visitors. Mt Fuji is a popular day trip from Tokyo and Yokohama is a half hour closer.

You must mean that the hiking up Fuji-san is closed in May. You should be able to find hiking elsewhere in the park.

That is Golden Week when you are there.

Just so you are clear and we are not assuming you know this, there are areas to see Fuji from (Hakone, as mrwunrfl said, and if the weather is clear) and there is a different itinerary for actually going closer to Fuji and the "five lakes" region that surrounds the mountain. From what I have read and heard, Hakone is more tourist oriented, and if you are at the far end of Lake Ashi or passing through that area and out on the Lake on a boat, you might see the top portion of Fuji, if the waeather is clear (and that is a big "if", as clouds move in routinely and unexpectedly). The other trip involves going further to Gotemba and getting closer to the base of Mt. Fuji. There are not the tourist sites there as there are in Hakone, but there is an amusement park (Fuji Highlands), a hotel affiliated w/that park where you can have lunch and catch the view if you are lucky, many small inns on the lakes surrounding the base, and lots of hiking opportunities. I beleive there is a tour offered by JTB (Japan Tourist Bureau) that goes from Tokyo station to Fuji Highlands area.

I just want to be sure you know what area you are talking about going to. From what I have read on other forums, either can be done as a day trip from Yokohama, but Hakone is the more popular and tourist-oriented one and is definitely closer and more directly accessible from Yokohama. To get to Fuji Five Lakes region I believe you have to go from Yokohama to Tokyo station, then it is about 2 hrs by train or 3 hrs by bus. So definitely Hakone is a better bet for a day trip, but again, I just want to be sure you know what you are talking about regarding "getting closer to Fuji".

Because of the problem w/cloud cover, you might not see Fuji at all. Or you might be lucky, as we were last March on the train from Tokyo to Kyoto, and see it in full, clear sunshine. But Hakone has a lot to offer in other ways, even just on a day trip. It is to your advantage that you will be there mid-week when crowds are much smaller than on the weekends.

For a good discussion of what there is to see/do in Hakone, see:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html

The Open Air Museum (described on a link from that page) interests me, and we are going there in April, but other things might interest you.

Thanks so much to all of you! I've checked out the various sites and looked into day tours. None of them do it during Golden Week - I am getting the message that we would be 'wrong' to try it then, either. Getting lost without a crowd is easy enough - no sense in getting lost in a MOB!
Perhaps we will return at another time...

I talked to a sushi chef from Yokohama last night. He liked to ride his motorcycle in the Hakone/Fuji-san area. He agreed that Hakone would be extremely busy during G.W. but thought that it would not be bad on a weekend in early April (emd) as it would still be a bit cold and off-season.

GREAT! Thanks for tasking adn transmitting the first hand info re early April. And thank the motorcylce riding Yokohama sushi chef too.