Tourist arrival in Japan during Lunar New Year holidays

Tourist spots near Japan’s Mount Fuji are crowded with visitors from China and elsewhere ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. Resorts on the Yamanashi Prefecture side of Japan’s highest peak have been bustling this week with an increasing number of inbound tourists. At a ski resort in the prefecture’s Narusawa Village, 151 groups from China rented skis or other items during the week through Thursday.

The figure is up about 70 percent from the previous week. A hotel near Lake Kawaguchi said it is almost fully booked from this week to February 10, with about 90 percent of the reservations made by people from China. The hotel manager said winter is the off season, but the hotel has received more reservations this year than last year.