It was a relieve to know that bookings for Fuji Lake Hotel opened 3 months in advance so I could get over and done with it. But I had to reshuffle everything after figuring that it was far more convenient to travel from Tokyo to Kawaguchiko, instead of Osaka to Kawaguchiko. Hop on a bus and forget about everything for 1hr 45min versus 4 trains + 1 bus for a total of 6hrs? The choice is obvious.
Given that it's still considered early, we still got our desired dates, but not before giving myself a good scare about paying much more for our room in Tokyo.
Apparently, the promotions on the hotel website change frequently. When I first booked, the early-bird plan had no stay limit, but now it had to be a continuous stay of at least 5 nights. Now we were breaking up our stay to go to Kawaguchiko, the plan threatened to charge the rack rate for 2 nights. Fortunately, I was still able to find a combination of plans that still resulted in the same price as before.
Lesson learned: Puzzle-solving skills are essential for booking hotels.
