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August 15-16, 2025 Marti Eicholz Cruising into Shimizu Port, near the city of Shizuoka, located southwest of Tokyo, features a diverse landscape with both mountains and coastal areas with stunning views of the harbor, beaches and bays. Mount Fuji dominates the skyline. The weather is hot and humid. The sun is shining in and out of the clouds, moving around to dominate the sky. Shimizu Port offers various attractions, including shopping malls, museums, and access to the Miho Pine Grove where 30,000 pine trees grow along the three-mile-long coastline, a scenic spot. Shizuoka is in the Tokai region, the very center of Japan. This is a quiet and conservative part of Japan, the spiritual center, the heart of Japan. With over 700,000 residents, Shizuoka is a medium-sized modern city situated halfway between Tokyo and Nagoya, the capital, of Shizuoka Prefecture that blends urban life and natural beauty. City center is located around Shizuoka Station, while Shimizu and its port make up a secondary center. It's a transportation hub and home to Sunup Castle Park. The city also features cultural attractions, shopping complexes, and a sushi museum. Shizuoka, located along the Pacific coast, has two distinct faces. One is stunning natural beauty, mountainous and green, dominated by deep forests, verdant tea plantations, and Mt. Fuji with numerous vantage points offering breathtaking views. The other face is liquid, the sea, beaches and onsen where you come to relax in hot springs. Izu Peninsula is known for its rugged coastline, white-sand beaches, relaxing onsen hot spring experiences, and unique experiences like canyoning, jumping from waterfalls. and sliding down streams. Shizuoka is known for its manufacturing of musical instruments and motorcycles. It's home to Toi Gold Mine with its tunnels, a museum highlighting gold mining history and the world's largest gold nugget, 550 pounds. Shizuoka is also known for its unique culinary experiences like the night spearfishing experience where you can catch your own dinner and enjoy it on a raft under the stars. In Japanese, "unagi" refers to the freshwater eel, especially Japanese eel, a common ingredient in Japanese cuisine with a higher fat content, giving it a richer, buttery flavor than saltwater eel. Unagi is considered a delicacy, believed to be nutritious and good for combating summer fatigue. Perhaps it will help with “sightseeing fatigue.” Unagi kabayaki is a popular dish: eel is grilled over charcoal, tossed in a sweet, thick sauce made with soy sauce, mirin, and sugar, and served over rice. There is a pun on "unagi" in the popular TV show "Friends," where Ross uses it to refer to a state of total consciousness. The city is in the heart of one of Japan’s top agricultural regions, producing forestry and fishery products, producing strawberries, mandarin oranges, hothouse melons, wasabi, bonito, tuna, Sakura shrimp and sardines. An abundance of cherry shrimp and Meguro tuna comes from the long coast on Sagami Bay and, inland, a healthy harvest of chestnuts, soft fruit and tea leaves supply the family-run restaurants and dessert shops. Stop by one of the many dessert shops, specializing in exotic desserts and indulge your sweet tooth. Taste fruity creations, towering French desserts in a glass. Feast your eyes on the chestnut puree piled in tendrils like spaghetti and topped with a dollop of whipped cream like a snow-capped mountain as part of the Mont Blanc dessert, a delicate sweet delight. Bright green tea fields stretch like a saturated photograph against the mountains. Shizuoka’s climate and water quality have made it the country’s leading producer of premium green tea with a history of tea cultivation dating back to the mid-12th century. You can explore tea fields and learn about tea culture. Learn about tea picking and production at Fuji Marumo Tea Farm, a sprawling tea farm almost in the shadow of Mount Fuji. The earth around Japan’s iconic peak is rich in minerals, so tea harvested here carries its own distinct and complex taste. You can learn how to harvest the tea leaves, how to produce tea, and try your hand at blending your own unique concoction as Mount Fuji watches over you. The experience is complete with a tea sampling session. There is something special about sipping tea surrounded by the verdant green terraces from where the tea leaves are sourced. Three mountain ranges are close with Shizuoka’s most famous resident being Mount Fuji, whose iconic ash-stained peak rises above the landscape. With its tranquil forests and quiet coastal towns, it is hard to believe that Shizuoka is just a 50-minute ride on the bullet train from central Tokyo, making it perfect spot to explore Japan’s natural beauty, artistic heritage, and traditional gastronomy. The quarter of a mile long suspension bridge, Mishima Skywalk, is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in Japan. From the bridge, you can see the highest mountain, the deepest bay, and the longest suspension bridge, the three tops of Japan from one place. Located at the foot of Mt. Fuji, a subject of faith and source of art, is a natural monument and popular scenic spot, Shiraito Falls, reminiscent of strands of white silk, hundreds of waterfalls, all spring water, of varying sizes tumble from a cliff, up to 1.5 tons of water falls per second. At the base, you experience its dynamic and mystical beauty. In addition, at the foot there is a large safari park where you can see how lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, and bears live in the natural setting. Kinomiya Shrine is worshipped in Atami as the God of fortune and luck. The shrine is home to a sacred camphor tree, a Natural monument, and a source of spiritual energy. Hamanako PalPal is an amusement park with lots of rides including a carousel and a Ferris wheel “Kokoo,” where you can meet the cute characters designed by Takashi Yanase. The Mokichi Okada Art and Culture Foundation is a private gallery dedicated to housing and curating the sprawling art collection of Mokichi Okada, an imposing, glass-fronted structure, built into slopes above Atami town. Explore the Buddhist sculptures, calligraphy, ancient Chinese ceramics, and lacquerware on display in spotlessly minimalist rooms. Pause for reflection in the tranquil Japanese garden and admire the tea houses and noh theatre, a form of classical Japanese dance-drama. Take a stroll through Acao Forest. Cascading down the hillside of Atami, Acao Forest is the perfect place for a stroll in nature. The picture-perfect gardens burst with blooming flowers at every turn. Rose-lined walkways splashed with candyfloss pink, crimson and white are a photographer’s dream and mossy stone walkways weave between the wildflower meadows. You can catch a thought-provoking art installation celebrating nature or witness a street piano performance to the backdrop of the never–ending Pacific Ocean. Admire the views of Sagami Bay at Coeda House, an imposing structure, which means ‘house of small branches,’ created by a world-renowned architect, stacking cedar boards on top of each other. The effect is a clean, warm Scandinavian space inside. Pause in the cafe for a lemongrass tea, coffee and one of their signature orange cheesecake tarts before perusing the gardens. Sitting in the observatory, rain falling in an impenetrable white curtain, creating a visual barrier where the world outside is an indistinguishable blur. I sip tea, wishing for one more look when Mount Fuji is not dissolved into a hazy, watery veil. |
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