Chubu, Japan · City
Tokugawa Ieyasu's old castle town at the foot of Mt. Fuji, with Shizuoka Sengen Shrine, the Toro rice-paddy ruins, Sunpu Castle Park, and the Nihondaira viewpoint, linked by ropeway to the Kunozan Toshogu shrine-mausoleum; the heart of Japan's biggest tea-growing region.
Train — Direct Tokaido Shinkansen, no transfers, from Tokyo (Hikari ~60min/Kodama ~90min, ¥5,940 unreserved) or from Nagoya (Hikari ~60min/Kodama ~80min, ¥5,940 unreserved); Nozomi doesn't stop here. Fully JR Central track, covered by the Japan Rail Pass. Nihondaira (Fuji viewpoint) and Kunozan Toshogu Shrine require a local bus (Shizutetsu Justline, only 4 departures/day on weekdays) and the Nihondaira Ropeway (¥600 one-way/¥1,100 round-trip), neither covered by any JR pass.
A Shinto shrine complex, traditionally the protector shrine of the Tokugawa clan, with vermilion-lacquered buildings and a staircase up to a viewpoint over the city.
Seven kilometres of pines on black sand facing Fuji across the bay, part of the Mount Fuji World Heritage listing; legend places here the pine where a celestial being left her feather robe.
Shizuoka oden is different: a black broth made with beef tendon, everything on skewers and dusted with dried fish powder. It is eaten in two covered alleys packed with tiny stalls.
A plateau viewpoint with views of Mt. Fuji and Suruga Bay, connected by ropeway to Kunozan Toshogu Shrine, the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, designated a National Treasure.
Shimizu is the largest frozen tuna port in Japan; at the port market you eat tuna rice bowls on the upper floor at market prices.
Around eighty per cent of Japan's plastic model kits are made here: Tamiya is headquartered in the city along with the Gunpla factory, there is an exhibition hall devoted to the hobby, and robot statues stand around town.
The castle grounds where Tokugawa Ieyasu retired after stepping down from power, with a reconstructed turret and gate, a moat, and gardens open to the public.
Shizuoka produces around forty per cent of Japan's tea: you can walk the plateaus covered in green rows and, from late April to June, take part in the picking.
Ieyasu spent his childhood here as a hostage and returned to Sunpu to die after unifying Japan; you can see the open excavation of the foundations of his castle keep and follow the thread up to his first tomb on the hill.
The first wasabi cultivation in the world is documented in this valley, around 1600: stepped stone terraces with mountain water running through them, and wasabi grated on sharkskin.
The classic anime about the girl Maruko is set in 1970s Shimizu; the shopping centre at the port has recreated her house, her school and her neighbourhood.
Suruga Bay is the only place in Japan where this translucent pink shrimp is fished commercially; it is eaten raw, fried or sun-dried on the fields of Yui. There is a season only in spring and autumn.
Devoted to a Living National Treasure of stencil dyeing, in a building by Seiichi Shirai that is itself a work of architecture.
Shimizu is the cradle of Japanese football and its team plays in a stadium with Mount Fuji behind it; the Shizuoka derby against Jubilo Iwata is one of the fiercest in the country.
In early April a feudal lord's procession recreates Ieyasu's departure among illuminated cherry trees; in late July, 15,000 fireworks over the bed of the Abe River.
Centre with workshops in the crafts of Suruga: round bamboo rod basketry (a nationally designated craft), hina dolls, lacquer and marquetry; you can try them with a booking.
A Yayoi-period (1st-3rd century) rice-paddy settlement, with full-scale reconstructed houses and granaries next to an archaeology museum.
At the end of the Abe River valley, at 1,000 metres: sulphurous waters known for more than a thousand years, in a village of family-run inns with nothing resort-like about it.
A teahouse has served the same grated yam soup since 1596, in a post town on the old Tokaido that appears in a Hiroshige print and in a haiku by Basho.
Two easy plans with children: the zoo on the hill and a boat around Shimizu port with gulls following the wake and Mount Fuji ahead.
The major annual Japanese modelling fair, in mid-May; only some days are open to the general public and a ticket is required.
Shizuoka produces more tea than any other prefecture in Japan; tea houses and shops right by the station offer tastings of local varieties, with plantations visible on the surrounding hills.
The historic way to reach the shrine is not the ropeway but climbing more than a thousand stone steps on foot from the coast, with the bay at your back.
A preserved stretch of the old paved Tokaido, with an 1876 brick tunnel that was among the first in Japan and is still crossed on foot.
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