Day trip from Tokyo in March

Hello. I'm trying to decide on a day trip from Tokyo around March 26. It's my first time in Japan, and my itinerary includes 1 week in Tokyo, 1 week travelling across the country with a JR Pass, and then 1 week in Osaka-Kyoto. I have one spare day in Tokyo, during which I'd like to visit a place in the surrounding area.

Nikko and Enoshima-Kamakura are already in my itinerary. I'm currently considering Fuji Five Lakes and Hakone, but I'm not sure whether the timing is good to visit either of these places. Seems that it might be a bit early for seeing the postcard scenery in Fuji Five Lakes, and the scenic train and cable car in Hakone are both out of service right now. Also, because the date is fixed, I don't have the option to pick the day to go when the weather is good.

I'm looking for suggestions on what might be a good day trip from Tokyo in late March. Should I visit Fuji Five Lakes or Hakone, or is there a better alternative?

Thanks in advance!

Are you interested in gardens? Kairakuen has their plum blossom festival on at that time.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6201.html
If you like mountains and nature there's a few close to Tokyo such as Takaosan and Nokogiriyama.
Are you also visiting Yokohama? There's plenty to do down there, including Chinatown, ramen, rollercoasters....

Your interests will be best to guide your choice.

Seconding Kairakuen in Mito!

I'm going for the start of the festival in February and would love to be able to go in March again because the ume is better then than February, but March is not an option for us.

A friend who use to live in Mito mentioned that sometimes there are special varieties of umeshu you can sample then made with ume from the garden.

Hakone tends to be very crowded in March. I believe a lot of colleges have a break or maybe people just take off then and but it is popular with Japanese couples because it is so easy to reach from Tokyo. The one time I went in March, it was much more crowded than when I went other times of year, including during hydrangea season. Also the Tozan line is still being worked on and I personally think the Tozan line train is the most enjoyable part of the Hakone circle route.

Outside of hiking Mt. Fuji or going to Fuji Q, I've yet to really see the appeal of Kawaguchiko, but I know others do not feel that way.

Yeah, I'm not a great Kawaguchiko fan either. Karuizawa is always on my list as a nice town within an hour or so from Tokyo.

For some other ideas, there is also Nikko, Kusatsu, Izu, Kawagoe, Takao, Okutama, the Ushiku Great Buddha, Nokogiriyama, Showa Kinen Park, and more. Near the end of March is also the tulip season at Showa Kinen Park, plus around then at the Hitachi Seaside Park there are over 1 million narcissus in bloom.

Thanks for the suggestions! These are some very interesting places to visit, particularly Mito and Nokogiriyama.

Glad you liked them. You have two options for getting to Nokogiriyama by the way. Train via Chiba, or ferry across the bay from Kurihama. There's a teahouse as you're heading down/up which is lovely too.

We took the ferry from Kurihama to Nokogiriyama, got a view of Mt Fuji in the distance on the way. It's a bit of a palaver-long train trip, then taxi to the ferry terminal, but on a good weather day a very nice boat ride.

Nokogiriyama itself is a nice day out-we had a good lunch at one of the restaurants by the port, and took the funicular up the mountain then walked down, with my friend's very sprightly 80+ mother.

Train back shows you another side of Japan, it's very rural so close to Tokyo.

I'm also a big fan of Mt Takao, and the bath by the station on the way home.

I made a three-minute video of an attractive place where I could go on a day trip from Tokyo

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