Chubu · Prefecture Guide
Mt Fuji's southern gateway — Japan's tea capital, the world's finest wasabi, volcanic hot spring peninsula, cherry blossom shrimp from the deep bay, and grilled eel by the lakeside
Shizuoka Prefecture stretches in a long arc along Japan's Pacific coast from the volcanic drama of the Izu Peninsula in the east to the broad estuaries and lake-fringed plains around Hamamatsu in the west, making it one of the most geographically varied prefectures in the country. At its northern edge, Mt Fuji rises from Shizuoka's own soil — and it is from this southern side, via the Fujinomiya Trail, that the mountain is climbed most steeply and viewed most classically, framed by the ancient pines of Miho no Matsubara above a sea that carries the mountain's perfect reflection. Inland, the Makinohara plateau and the river valleys are carpeted with tea farms that produce roughly 40 percent of all Japanese green tea. The deep waters of Suruga Bay — Japan's deepest, at over 2,500 metres — bring extraordinary marine riches to the table, including the cherry blossom shrimp found nowhere else on earth. Meanwhile, the Izu Peninsula's geothermal energy surfaces in dozens of hot spring towns from the railway resort of Atami to the bamboo-shadowed streets of Shuzenji, and Hamamatsu anchors the western end as Japan's eel capital.
Shizuoka sits directly on the Tokaido Shinkansen — Japan's busiest high-speed rail corridor — making it fast and straightforward to reach from Tokyo, Nagoya, or Osaka. Atami, the eastern gateway to the Izu Peninsula, is reached in just 1 hour from Tokyo by Shinkansen.
Deep-dive guides to help you plan every aspect of your visit — from top sightseeing spots to the best restaurants and seasonal events.
The Fujinomiya Trail is the steepest and most dramatic of all Fuji climbing routes, starting higher than any other trailhead and cutting a direct path to the summit crater rim. Shizuoka's side of Fuji feels raw and vertical — the final ridgeline looms overhead from the moment you arrive at the 5th Station. On a clear morning, the Pacific Ocean glitters far below while the crater opens up in front of you in a scene of extraordinary volcanic scale.
Miho no Matsubara is a long crescent of white sand fringed by centuries-old black pine trees, stretching out with Mt Fuji rising perfectly from the sea on the far horizon. Registered as a UNESCO World Heritage component, this pine grove has been painted and photographed as the definitive image of Japan for over 400 years. At dawn or dusk the combination of glassy sea, ancient pines, and snow-capped Fuji creates a scene of almost unreal beauty.
Perched on a steep forested hilltop above Suruga Bay, Kunozan Toshogu is one of Japan's most ornate and historically charged Shinto shrines — built as the first resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the warlord who unified Japan. Blazing lacquerwork in red, black, and gold decorates every surface of the main hall, tucked into deep cedar forest above the sea. A scenic ropeway connects the shrine to the Nihondaira plateau, offering sweeping views of Mt Fuji and the bay.
Nestled in Shimada at the heart of Shizuoka's tea country, Daitokuji temple combines a serene stone-and-moss Japanese garden with an immersive matcha tea ceremony experience. Visitors kneel in a traditional tatami room while a tea master prepares powdered tea with slow, deliberate ritual, the garden visible through open shoji screens. This quiet corner of the prefecture offers one of the most authentic and unhurried introductions to Japanese tea culture.
Kakegawa Castle is one of a rare handful of Japanese castles rebuilt entirely using traditional wooden construction methods, rising white and graceful above the town with its classic multi-tiered donjon perfectly intact. The interior traces the castle's feudal history through armour, weapons, and local artifacts, while the upper floors give sweeping views across the surrounding plains toward the sea. The cherry-blossom-lined approach in spring makes this one of Shizuoka's most photographed castle settings.
Ryugenbuchi is a deeply cut volcanic gorge near the Izu Peninsula, where dark columnar basalt cliffs drop straight into churning jade-green water below. The gorge was carved by ancient lava flows meeting the sea, creating a dramatic geological landscape of jagged walls, sea caves, and stacked rock formations. Walking the clifftop path here gives an exhilarating sense of Izu's violent volcanic origins, with ocean swells crashing far beneath your feet.
Shiraito Falls is one of Japan's most distinctive waterfalls — not a single powerful plunge but a wide, lace-like curtain of water seeping from porous volcanic rock and flowing from hundreds of thin threads simultaneously across a 200-metre cliff face. Fed entirely by snowmelt filtered through Mt Fuji's lava layers, the water arrives crystal clear and cold even in midsummer, wreathing the forest below in mist. As a UNESCO World Heritage component it forms part of the Fujisan Cultural Landscape.
Suruga Bay is Japan's deepest bay, plunging to over 2,500 metres — deeper than most of the open Pacific shelf — and its cold abyssal waters nurture an extraordinary range of deep-sea creatures found nowhere else in Japan. From the shoreline, particularly around the town of Yui, Mt Fuji fills the entire northwestern sky above the sea, making this one of the most painterly mountain-ocean panoramas on earth. The bay's upwellings bring rich nutrients to the surface, feeding the sakura shrimp and tuna fisheries that define the region's cuisine.
Hidden in the forested interior of Izu, this atmospheric cedar approach winds between enormous ancient trees whose straight silver trunks disappear into a canopy that filters the light into green columns. Stone lanterns and mossy temple markers line the path, lending the walk a meditative quality that makes it feel genuinely removed from the tourist circuits along the coast. The cedar smell and cool stillness here are extraordinary in every season — oppressively ancient in midsummer, ghostly in winter mist.
Hamamatsu is the undisputed capital of musical instrument manufacturing, home to the global headquarters of both Yamaha and Roland and dozens of specialist makers across the city. The Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments houses the largest collection of instruments in the world — over 3,000 pieces spanning every culture and century — and visitors can play many of them. Factory tours and brand showrooms reveal the craftsmanship behind some of the most recognisable instruments on the planet, from concert grand pianos to synthesisers.
Nestled in Shimada at the heart of Shizuoka's tea country, Daitokuji temple combines a serene stone-and-moss Japanese garden with an immersive matcha tea ceremony experience. Visitors kneel in a traditional tatami room while a tea master prepares powdered tea with slow, deliberate ritual, the garden visible through open shoji screens. This quiet corner of the prefecture offers one of the most authentic and unhurried introductions to Japanese tea culture.
Shizuoka produces around 40 percent of Japan's entire green tea harvest, and the rolling plateau of Makinohara — terraced with rows of clipped tea bushes stretching to every horizon — is the most iconic tea landscape in the country. The prefecture's humid Pacific climate, volcanic soils, and temperature variation produce complex, grassy, and deeply fragrant sencha that sets the benchmark for Japanese tea worldwide. Visitors can walk the tea rows, meet farmers, and taste freshly steamed leaves at estate shops throughout the region.
Hamamatsu is Japan's undisputed unagi capital, where freshwater eels raised in the warm brackish shallows of Lake Hamana are split, steamed, and grilled over charcoal before being lacquered with a sweet soy-and-mirin tare sauce. The result — served on a bed of glossy rice in a lacquered box — is intensely smoky, silky, and richly flavoured in a way that mass-produced eel never approaches. Dozens of specialist restaurants line the city streets, many with queues forming before the doors open.
Sakura shrimp — delicate pink crustaceans named for their cherry blossom colour — are found in commercial quantities in only one place on earth: the deep waters of Suruga Bay. Harvested twice a year in spring and autumn, they are eaten fresh in crispy kakiage tempura fritters, dried and sprinkled over rice, or piled raw on top of bowls of vinegared sushi rice at harbourside restaurants in Yui. The flavour is sweet and briny with a faint oceanic perfume unlike any other shrimp.
The clear, ice-cold mountain streams of the Izu Peninsula create perfect conditions for growing real wasabi — the genuine rhizome that most of the world has never tasted, replaced everywhere by horseradish paste. Izu farms grow wasabi in stepped stream beds shaded by bamboo, and the freshly grated root has a subtle, floral heat that builds slowly and clears the sinuses without burning. Paired with hand-cut soba noodles at a riverside restaurant, this is one of the most rewarding gourmet experiences in all of Japan.
Shizuoka oden is strikingly different from the pale versions served elsewhere in Japan — the broth here is a deep, almost black soy-based liquid that has been simmering for years at some establishments, loading every skewered ingredient with umami depth. Topped with dried fish powder (aoniko) and a smear of hot mustard, it is eaten standing at shops in the city's covered arcades, warming your hands on a winter afternoon. Fish cakes, beef tendons, eggs, and konnyaku all absorb the dark broth beautifully.
In late April the Makinohara plateau and the hillside farms of the Abe River valley fill with pickers harvesting the first flush — the ichiban-cha — the most delicate and prized tea of the year. Many estates invite visitors to join the harvest, learning to select only the two leaves and a bud at the shoot tip that produce the finest sencha, and then to steam and roll their own small batch of tea to take home. The landscape during picking season — rows of vivid green tea bushes in the slanted spring light — is one of rural Japan's great visual spectacles.
The Fujinomiya Trail is the steepest and most dramatic of all Fuji climbing routes, starting higher than any other trailhead and cutting a direct path to the summit crater rim. Shizuoka's side of Fuji feels raw and vertical — the final ridgeline looms overhead from the moment you arrive at the 5th Station. On a clear morning, the Pacific Ocean glitters far below while the crater opens up in front of you in a scene of extraordinary volcanic scale.
Miho no Matsubara is a long crescent of white sand fringed by centuries-old black pine trees, stretching out with Mt Fuji rising perfectly from the sea on the far horizon. Registered as a UNESCO World Heritage component, this pine grove has been painted and photographed as the definitive image of Japan for over 400 years. At dawn or dusk the combination of glassy sea, ancient pines, and snow-capped Fuji creates a scene of almost unreal beauty.
Ryugenbuchi is a deeply cut volcanic gorge near the Izu Peninsula, where dark columnar basalt cliffs drop straight into churning jade-green water below. The gorge was carved by ancient lava flows meeting the sea, creating a dramatic geological landscape of jagged walls, sea caves, and stacked rock formations. Walking the clifftop path here gives an exhilarating sense of Izu's violent volcanic origins, with ocean swells crashing far beneath your feet.
The clear, ice-cold mountain streams of the Izu Peninsula create perfect conditions for growing real wasabi — the genuine rhizome that most of the world has never tasted, replaced everywhere by horseradish paste. Izu farms grow wasabi in stepped stream beds shaded by bamboo, and the freshly grated root has a subtle, floral heat that builds slowly and clears the sinuses without burning. Paired with hand-cut soba noodles at a riverside restaurant, this is one of the most rewarding gourmet experiences in all of Japan.
The Izu Peninsula juts into the Pacific like a clenched fist of volcanic rock, its coastline slashed by cliffs, sea caves, and hidden coves that plunge straight into some of the deepest blue water in Japan. Dozens of hot spring towns are scattered across its mountains and shores, fed by geothermal waters that burst from the earth in the most dramatic ocean-facing settings imaginable. From the wild black sand beaches of the west coast to the coral reefs of the south, Izu rewards travellers who venture beyond the famous onsen towns.
Shiraito Falls is one of Japan's most distinctive waterfalls — not a single powerful plunge but a wide, lace-like curtain of water seeping from porous volcanic rock and flowing from hundreds of thin threads simultaneously across a 200-metre cliff face. Fed entirely by snowmelt filtered through Mt Fuji's lava layers, the water arrives crystal clear and cold even in midsummer, wreathing the forest below in mist. As a UNESCO World Heritage component it forms part of the Fujisan Cultural Landscape.
Suruga Bay is Japan's deepest bay, plunging to over 2,500 metres — deeper than most of the open Pacific shelf — and its cold abyssal waters nurture an extraordinary range of deep-sea creatures found nowhere else in Japan. From the shoreline, particularly around the town of Yui, Mt Fuji fills the entire northwestern sky above the sea, making this one of the most painterly mountain-ocean panoramas on earth. The bay's upwellings bring rich nutrients to the surface, feeding the sakura shrimp and tuna fisheries that define the region's cuisine.
The western Izu coast is Shizuoka's most untamed shore — a narrow road clings to cliffs above crashing surf, passing through tiny fishing villages where outdoor hot spring baths have been carved directly from the rock face at the ocean's edge. At certain rotenburo you can soak while waves break metres away, the horizon vast and orange at sunset behind a silhouette of volcanic islands. This stretch has no train service and rewards those who arrive by car or motorbike with a sense of genuine remoteness.
Hidden in the forested interior of Izu, this atmospheric cedar approach winds between enormous ancient trees whose straight silver trunks disappear into a canopy that filters the light into green columns. Stone lanterns and mossy temple markers line the path, lending the walk a meditative quality that makes it feel genuinely removed from the tourist circuits along the coast. The cedar smell and cool stillness here are extraordinary in every season — oppressively ancient in midsummer, ghostly in winter mist.
Dogashima on the wild west coast of Izu is famed for its cluster of volcanic sea caves — some of which can be entered by glass-bottom boat tours that glide through sea-carved tunnels while fish dart below the transparent hull. The largest cave has a collapsed roof open to the sky, creating a natural skylight cathedral of rock and sea that fills with turquoise light on sunny days. The surrounding cliffs, eroded into pillars and arches of white tuff, make this one of the most visually dramatic stretches of coastline in Japan.
The Nishi Izu Skyline is a winding mountain road that traces the spine of the western Izu Peninsula above the clouds, with views that open alternately to Mt Fuji on one side and the Pacific island chain on the other. By bicycle the descent to the west coast is exhilarating — a series of switchbacks through cedar forest that eventually deliver you to the seafront with the smell of the ocean rushing up to meet you. E-bike rental has made the challenging climbs accessible to all fitness levels, and the quiet roads see little traffic outside summer weekends.
Each year on July 10 the Fujinomiya Trail officially opens for the climbing season, marked by ceremonies at the 5th Station and the removal of the wooden barriers that close the upper mountain through spring. The opening weekend draws serious mountaineers and first-timers alike, many beginning their summit attempt at midnight to reach the crater rim at dawn for the legendary goraiko sunrise. The Shizuoka side celebrates the mountain as its own in a way the more famous Yoshida Trail on the Yamanashi side does not — quieter, steeper, and more intimate.
The Izu Peninsula juts into the Pacific like a clenched fist of volcanic rock, its coastline slashed by cliffs, sea caves, and hidden coves that plunge straight into some of the deepest blue water in Japan. Dozens of hot spring towns are scattered across its mountains and shores, fed by geothermal waters that burst from the earth in the most dramatic ocean-facing settings imaginable. From the wild black sand beaches of the west coast to the coral reefs of the south, Izu rewards travellers who venture beyond the famous onsen towns.
The western Izu coast is Shizuoka's most untamed shore — a narrow road clings to cliffs above crashing surf, passing through tiny fishing villages where outdoor hot spring baths have been carved directly from the rock face at the ocean's edge. At certain rotenburo you can soak while waves break metres away, the horizon vast and orange at sunset behind a silhouette of volcanic islands. This stretch has no train service and rewards those who arrive by car or motorbike with a sense of genuine remoteness.
Atami is the classic Japanese hot spring resort city — the place Tokyoites have been coming to soak their troubles away since the Meiji era, and its hillside ryokan, retro arcades, and harbour cafes carry a wonderful faded grandeur. The town sits at the narrow neck of the Izu Peninsula where the mountains drop straight to the sea, and its thermal waters bubble up in dozens of public baths and hotel spas with ocean views. The MOA Museum of Art, perched high above the bay in the forest, houses one of Japan's finest private collections of Japanese and Asian art.
Shuzenji is one of Izu's oldest and most beautiful hot spring towns, a compact cluster of traditional inns and tea houses set along a willow-lined river at the base of bamboo-forested hills. The town's founding is attributed to the Buddhist monk Kobo Daishi in the 9th century, and the ancient Shuzenji Temple at its centre still draws pilgrims and travellers alike. An evening stroll through the stone-lantern-lit streets in a cotton yukata, stopping to dip your feet in the riverside foot bath, is a quintessentially Japanese experience.
Dogashima on the wild west coast of Izu is famed for its cluster of volcanic sea caves — some of which can be entered by glass-bottom boat tours that glide through sea-carved tunnels while fish dart below the transparent hull. The largest cave has a collapsed roof open to the sky, creating a natural skylight cathedral of rock and sea that fills with turquoise light on sunny days. The surrounding cliffs, eroded into pillars and arches of white tuff, make this one of the most visually dramatic stretches of coastline in Japan.
Hamamatsu is the undisputed capital of musical instrument manufacturing, home to the global headquarters of both Yamaha and Roland and dozens of specialist makers across the city. The Hamamatsu Museum of Musical Instruments houses the largest collection of instruments in the world — over 3,000 pieces spanning every culture and century — and visitors can play many of them. Factory tours and brand showrooms reveal the craftsmanship behind some of the most recognisable instruments on the planet, from concert grand pianos to synthesisers.
The Nishi Izu Skyline is a winding mountain road that traces the spine of the western Izu Peninsula above the clouds, with views that open alternately to Mt Fuji on one side and the Pacific island chain on the other. By bicycle the descent to the west coast is exhilarating — a series of switchbacks through cedar forest that eventually deliver you to the seafront with the smell of the ocean rushing up to meet you. E-bike rental has made the challenging climbs accessible to all fitness levels, and the quiet roads see little traffic outside summer weekends.
Atami's fireworks displays are held multiple times throughout the year, fired from a barge in the enclosed horseshoe harbour so that the bursts of colour reflect perfectly in the still water below, creating a mirrored double image that photographers travel from across Japan to capture. The enclosed bay amplifies every explosion into a rolling boom that echoes off the hillside hotels, and the combination of hot spring town atmosphere, hillside lanterns, and seafront crowds makes these events feel like quintessential Showa-era Japan. Summer and New Year displays are the largest, but even the smaller off-season shows are spectacular.
In late April the Makinohara plateau and the hillside farms of the Abe River valley fill with pickers harvesting the first flush — the ichiban-cha — the most delicate and prized tea of the year. Many estates invite visitors to join the harvest, learning to select only the two leaves and a bud at the shoot tip that produce the finest sencha, and then to steam and roll their own small batch of tea to take home. The landscape during picking season — rows of vivid green tea bushes in the slanted spring light — is one of rural Japan's great visual spectacles.
Every year from May 3 to 5, the vast sandbars of the Nakatajima sand dunes at the mouth of the Tenryu River become the battleground for what is considered the world's largest kite fighting festival, drawing over a million spectators over the three-day Golden Week event. Teams from different neighbourhoods fly enormous hand-painted kites on lines of woven hemp, attempting to cut their rivals' strings in a tradition dating back over 430 years. The noise, colour, and crowd energy across the dunes — with dozens of massive kites clashing overhead — is overwhelming in the best possible way.
Each year on July 10 the Fujinomiya Trail officially opens for the climbing season, marked by ceremonies at the 5th Station and the removal of the wooden barriers that close the upper mountain through spring. The opening weekend draws serious mountaineers and first-timers alike, many beginning their summit attempt at midnight to reach the crater rim at dawn for the legendary goraiko sunrise. The Shizuoka side celebrates the mountain as its own in a way the more famous Yoshida Trail on the Yamanashi side does not — quieter, steeper, and more intimate.
Atami's fireworks displays are held multiple times throughout the year, fired from a barge in the enclosed horseshoe harbour so that the bursts of colour reflect perfectly in the still water below, creating a mirrored double image that photographers travel from across Japan to capture. The enclosed bay amplifies every explosion into a rolling boom that echoes off the hillside hotels, and the combination of hot spring town atmosphere, hillside lanterns, and seafront crowds makes these events feel like quintessential Showa-era Japan. Summer and New Year displays are the largest, but even the smaller off-season shows are spectacular.
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