Numazu

Chubu, Japan · City, Sea / Beach

The fishing port that feeds much of Tokyo: dried fish, creatures hauled from Japan's deepest bay, and a tsunami floodgate doubling as an observation deck. Half an hour away by bus, the Uchiura coast faces Mount Fuji across the water and is the real-world setting of Love Live! Sunshine!!.

The essentials

Getting there

Train + bus — Numazu has no shinkansen station: take a Kodama or Hikari to Mishima (45-55 min from Tokyo), then switch to the JR Tokaido Line for 5-6 minutes and ¥190 more - about 1h10-1h20 and roughly ¥4,600 with a reserved seat. The cheap alternative is the ordinary Tokaido Line train straight from Tokyo with no transfer: 2h15 and ¥2,310. The Odoriko does NOT serve Numazu (it runs Tokyo-Atami and on via the Izukyu line to Shimoda, or splits towards Shuzenji via Mishima), so don't plan around it. From Shizuoka it's about 55 min on a local train, or 25 min by Kodama via Mishima. Everything else is by bus from the station's south exit: 10 minutes to the port, and for Uchiura and the west coast, Tokai Bus (bay 3, towards Kio / Eri / Osezaki) and Izuhakone Bus towards Izu-Nagaoka. A car saves a lot of time on the Uchiura coast but is not necessary.

Frequently asked questions about Numazu

What to do in Numazu: 26 activities

• Byuo, the tsunami floodgate viewpoint 1 h must-see

  A tsunami gate 40 m wide, 9.3 m high and weighing 406 tonnes, wired to seismographs so it closes by itself in about five minutes. Thirty metres up there's a glazed walkway with Mount Fuji, Hakone, Suruga Bay and the boats coming in. Open 10:00-20:00 (Thursdays only until 14:00), ¥300 for adults and ¥150 for school children.

• Numazu Deep Sea Aquarium (Coelacanth Museum) 1.5 h must-see

  A small building devoted to what lives 2,500 metres down in Suruga Bay: giant spider crab, frilled shark, giant isopods and a hundred more species. The unique pieces are two frozen and three mounted coelacanths - the only frozen ones on public display anywhere. Adults ¥2,200, school children ¥1,200, ages 4-6 ¥600; open 10:00-18:00 with last entry at 17:30.

• Numazu Port and its restaurant street 2.5 h must-see

  About a hundred places packed between the fish market and the floodgate: seafood rice bowls, Suruga Bay tuna, fried horse mackerel and maruten (deep-fried fish paste) eaten standing up. It's 10 minutes by bus from the station's south exit, around ¥200. Almost everything shuts between 15:00 and 17:00, so the port is a lunch plan, not a dinner one.

• Cape Osezaki: diving, the sacred pond and the junipers 4 h

  A kilometre-long spit reaching into the bay, counted among Japan's best shore-diving sites, with clubs renting gear and calm water almost all year. At the tip are Ose Shrine, a grove of 130 junipers designated a natural monument in 1932 including two specimens around 1,500 years old, and Kamiike, a freshwater pond metres from the sea whose origin nobody has explained (¥100). One hour by bus from the station.

• Ikesuya, live horse mackerel from the Uchiura co-op 1.5 h

  The canteen run by the Uchiura fishing co-operative itself, which farms more horse mackerel than anywhere else in Japan: the aji bowl is made with fish taken out of the pen that hour. It's in Koumi, right by the coast bus stop. Kitchen 11:00-15:00 (last order 14:30), shop 9:00-16:00; closed Wednesdays and Thursdays, and it fills up at lunchtime.

• Lalala Sun Beach 4 h

  A man-made beach of white sand mixed with shell and crushed coral - unusual on the west Izu coast - sheltered by breakwaters and shallow: the best one around for children, with showers, changing rooms and a rocky area of tide pools. In 2026 the lifeguarded swimming season ran 19 July to 31 August. The site itself is open year-round 8:30-17:00 (16:00 in winter) and free; parking is ¥1,500 a day. About 50 minutes by bus from Numazu station. Bring water shoes - the shells cut.

• Love Live! Sunshine!! pilgrimage around Uchiura 5 h

  Uchiura is one of Japan's most active anime pilgrimage communities: the Sannoura tourist office, Mito beach, the Nagahama castle ruins, the Nagaisaki school and the Yasudaya inn all appear frame-for-frame in the show. Port shops and local buses are liveried with the characters, and the city publishes an official route. This is a village that lives off fishing: don't enter private property, don't block access ways, and don't photograph residents.

• Numazu summer festival and Kano River fireworks 4 h only two nights in late July

  Some 12,000 shells over two nights above the bed of the Kano River, between the Eitai, Gosei and Ayumi bridges, with the crowd right on the riverbank in the middle of town: in 2026 it was 25 and 27 July, 19:10-20:10. It is the largest urban fireworks display in the Tokai region and within walking distance of Numazu station. Paid seating is sold and the trains home are packed.

• Numazu's dried fish (himono) 1.5 h

  Numazu is Japan's largest producer of himono: horse mackerel butterflied open, splendid alfonsino, mackerel and squid salted and dried in the bay wind. The workshops line the Shizuura and Uchiura coast and the port shops sell it by weight or vacuum-packed. If you stay at a local inn, breakfast comes with one on the grill almost by law.

• Senbonhama pine grove and shore 1.5 h

  Ten kilometres of black pines planted in the 16th century to stop the wind and sand, with Mount Fuji rising behind them and the sun setting over Suruga Bay in front. The shore is grey shingle, steeply shelving and with a strong undertow: this is a place to walk and look, not to swim. The park is 15 minutes on foot from the port and free; watch out for kites snatching food from your hand.

• The Uchiura and Nishiura coast by bus or bike 3 h

  Route 17 runs along a string of coves with horse-mackerel pens, terraced mandarin groves and Mount Fuji directly opposite across the water. The Tokai Bus leaves from bay 3 at the station's south exit towards Kio, Eri and Osezaki and costs ¥740 to Mito; it isn't frequent, so check the timetable before setting out. By bike it's the most rewarding stretch of the whole west Izu coast.

• An evening around Nakamise arcade and the centre 2.5 h

  The port shuts early and the evening happens downtown: the covered Nakamise arcade and the streets behind the station's south exit, with neighbourhood izakayas, Shizuoka sake bars and the odd place plastered with Love Live posters. This is a provincial city with no foreign tourism, so you eat well and cheaply but almost nothing has an English menu.

• Awashima Marine Park, the island aquarium 3.5 h

  A three-minute ferry takes you to an uninhabited island in the bay, with Mount Fuji behind it and a 40-minute walk around the shore. It has Japan's largest frog house with over 45 species, Humboldt penguins, seals and sea lions, and keeps bottlenose dolphins in a pool with daily displays. It closed in February 2024 when the operator went under and reopened that July under new ownership. Admission ¥3,000 adults and ¥1,500 children, ferry and shows included; 9:30-17:00 March-October, 10:00-16:30 in winter.

• Eating Suruga Bay sakura-ebi 1 h

  The pink shrimp fished nowhere else has two seasons a year: spring ran 29 March to 5 June in 2026, and autumn runs from late October to Christmas Eve. It's landed at Yui and Oigawa rather than Numazu, but the port restaurants serve it raw in season and boiled or dried the rest of the year. Since the stock collapsed in 2018 the cooperative has kept closed areas and self-imposed limits, and some years there is barely any.

• Izu-Mito Sea Paradise 3 h

  A 1930 aquarium on Uchiura Bay with some 300 species and a large children's area. It keeps bottlenose and Pacific white-sided dolphins in captivity and runs shows with them and with sea lions several times a day; say so up front if you're travelling with someone who cares. Adults ¥2,600, children from age 4 to primary school ¥1,300 (¥2,400 and ¥1,200 booked online), open 9:00-17:00. Bus 25-30 minutes from the station, ¥740.

• Kakita River springs 1.5 h Shimizu · 20 min

  Rainwater from Mount Fuji takes decades to cross the lava and surfaces here at a million cubic metres a day, at 15°C year-round, forming a mile and a half of transparent river. Two viewing platforms look straight down into the spring vents, with a boardwalk alongside. It's in Shimizu-cho, 20 minutes by bus from Mishima station, and free.

• Minato Shinsenkan covered market 1 h

  At the entrance to the port, a hall of stalls selling fish, dried fish, wasabi grated to order, Shizuoka tea and local vegetables, plus a couple of cheap canteens. Open 9:00-17:00, closed the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. This is where you shop without the prices of the tourist street next door.

• Mito beach 2.5 h

  A small cove of grey sand and fine gravel at the head of Uchiura Bay, sheltered from the swell and facing Mount Fuji; this is the beach from the series. It is staffed with lifeguards for only about six weeks, from mid-July to the end of August, and outside that it's somewhere to walk. From Obon onwards jellyfish arrive and locals treat the swimming season as over.

• Mount Kanuki and the Shibazumi lookout 2 h

  A 193-metre hill just across the Kano River, half an hour's walk from the station: a dirt path, a war memorial pagoda and the Shibazumi lookout over the city, the bay and Mount Fuji. At night it is one of Japan's hundred mountain night-views; there is no lighting on the path, so bring a torch or drive up.

• Numazu fish market (INO) and the dawn auction 1.5 h

  The auction is watched from a glazed walkway on the first floor, 5:45-7:00; you can't go down onto the floor for hygiene reasons. The observation corridor is open 5:00-17:00 and free. It closes on Saturdays plus two or three scattered days a month, so check the calendar before setting an alarm.

• Numazu Imperial Villa Memorial Park 1.5 h

  A summer residence built in 1893 for the convalescence of the future Emperor Taisho, open as a park since 1969, with the pine grove and sea behind it designated a national place of scenic beauty in 2016. You can walk through the west and east pavilions with their original furnishings. Open 9:00-16:30; ¥300 for the garden and around ¥600 including the buildings (rates revised in April 2026). Fifteen minutes by bus from the station.

• Ose Matsuri, the cross-dressed fishermen's festival 4 h only 4 Apr

  Every 4 April the fishing boats of the whole bay arrive at Osezaki dressed overall, and their crews - men in women's clothes with their faces painted white - dance on board to pray for a good catch. It's classed among the country's strangest festivals and is a red-letter day locally. Buses and car parks are overwhelmed, so go early.

• The baths of Izu-Nagaoka 2 h Izunokuni · 35 min

  Numazu has little hot spring water of its own, but half an hour away is Izu-Nagaoka, a mildly alkaline onsen town where several inns open their baths to day visitors for ¥800-1,500. Reach it on the Izuhakone Sunzu line from Mishima or by bus from Uchiura. Most refuse visible tattoos; some accept them covered with a patch and others rent private baths, which is the safe option.

• Nagahama castle ruins 1 h

  A 16th-century Hojo naval base on a headland over the bay, from which they watched the Takeda fleet: the earthworks and dry moats survive, and there are replicas of the war boats. It's a ten-minute climb from the bus stop, free to enter, and from the top you see the whole of Uchiura with Mount Fuji behind.

• The Numazu Alps traverse 6 h

  A chain of five hills between 190 and 390 metres, strung between the Kano River and the bay, that takes about six hours to link up, with fixed ropes on several pitches and mud after rain. Little altitude, a lot of cumulative climb. Start at Kanukiyama and finish at Taheiyama, with a bus back to the station.

• Yasudaya Ryokan in Mito 1 h

  A late-19th-century wooden inn facing Mito beach, listed as a registered tangible cultural property: Dazai Osamu wrote part of The Setting Sun here and the room is preserved. It is also the heroine's house in Love Live! Sunshine!! and the most photographed facade in Uchiura. It still operates as a hotel, so admire it from outside without disturbing anyone and go in only if you're staying or eating.

What only happens on specific dates

• Ose Matsuri, the cross-dressed fishermen's festival 4 Apr
• Numazu summer festival and Kano River fireworks two nights in late July

Chains well with

More destinations in Chubu