We’ve put together a list of the major events that happen in Shizuoka- there’s something to do whatever time of the year you visit!
こんにちは！マイホテル竜宮から、主な静岡のイベントをご紹介します。
いつお越しいただいても、 静岡には楽しいイベントがありますよ♪
Winter(冬)
See Mount Fuji（冬の富士山）
Winter is considered the best time of year to see Mount Fuji- with generally clear skies and lower humidity, as well as the most picturesque snow covering. Make sure to wrap up!
Shizuoka is famous for its strawberries, and strawberry growing season is from December until May. Head over to the Kunozan area to pick your own delicious strawberries!
We hope you will find something fun to do in Shizuoka no matter what time of year you visit! Don’t forget to check out our other posts about Shizuoka if you’re visiting-
Shizuoka Festival boasts a procession of people dressed as daimyo and their servants parading round Shizuoka, along with food stands. The Sakura in the park are lit up after dark and the atmosphere is great.
Shincha, or new tea, is in season in Spring. It is supposedly the best tasting in this season, so make sure you pick some up for yourself and some for omiyage souvenirs!
Chakkiriya is an izakaya which serves loads of different dishes. We’d recommend the very instagrammable Mt Fuji Gyoza! (They are green and come in a huge mount fuji shaped pot. Definitely a must). The best thing about an izakaya is that you can buy lots of dishes to share, so this is the perfect place to try things like oden, kurohanpen fish cakes or sakura ebi cherry shrimp kakiage. Chakkiriya have an English menu too!
Shizuoka is famous for its’ oden, and where better to go than a whole street full of small independent oden shops? Try oden with a beer or with ochawari, Shizuoka green tea mixed with shochu. Oden Yokocho and oden street both also get bonus points for being very instagrammable. Some of the oden-ya like Roman have English menus, but many don’t, so be prepared.
This little alleyway near Shizuoka station has got personality in spades, and loads of different options to choose from including seafood, kushikatsu and yakitori. No english menu, but the staff are super friendly and helpful, and if you’re feeling brave just ask for omakase or osusume. The atmosphere is really great- there is often live music playing and the alleyway is cluttered with neon and lanterns for the perfect Japanese side street vibe.
Sawayaka Burger
This Shizuoka burger chain is famous in Japan- depending on the time of day you might have to line up for a while (up to two hours on a Saturday!), but it is pretty yummy!
Hinode
This teeny yakitoriya grilled chicken place is really close to My Hotel Ryugu, and we always get rave reviews from our customers. They are teeny and close fairly early, so get in there quickly!
Sushi
Shizuoka is a port city, and it is famous for its’ seafood! There are conveyor belt sushi restaurants like Kura Sushi south of JR Shizuoka or at Higashi Shizuoka but we recommend going to Shimizu’s S Pulse Dream Plaza for their Sushi market- they even have a sushi museum! There are also lots of yummy seafood places around town and in JR Shizuoka station too!
Coco ichi
It’s not unique to Shizuoka, but Coco Ichi is a must try when you’re in Japan, especially when you’re catering to vegetarians or if you’re sick of Japanese food (it happens apparently…) Japanese curry is delicious and filling, and won’t break the bank. There is a coco ichi about 30 seconds walk from My Hotel Ryugu, and they even do takeout if you’re feeling lazy!
By Manami Miura, award-winning sake sommelier at the Ginza Kimijimaya liquor store, instagram.com/sakephygram By Manami Miura, award-winning sake sommelier at the Ginza Kimijimaya liquor store, instagram.com/sakephygram My city in a nutshell Tokyo is a city of gigantic proportions: 47 neighbourhoods slotting together like parts of an elaborate puzzle, home to more than 4,000 shrines and temples, 6,000 parks, and 300,000 restaurants (10 times as many as New York).
静岡市トラベルガイドはこちら：
Also, don’t forget to have a look at our guides to Shizuoka city：
Shizuoka is a great place for foodies! It’s surrounded by ocean and mountains, so along with loads of amazing fresh fish and sushi, there is loads of amazing local produce and of course green tea to try! In this post, we’re rounding up 9 foods you should try when you visit Shizuoka:
Shizuoka is famous for its’ green tea- ryokucha, not matcha. This also makes a great omiyage- we recommend the chamachi area of town if you have time, there are some amazing tea shops. If you are pressed for time, the omiyage gift kiosks in the station have lots of reasonably priced options.
Shirasu are small white fish, which are usually served boiled, but in Shizuoka you can also try nama (raw) shirasu, which is a rarity in Japan!
Tororo
this one is for people who like trying new food- and aren’t put off by a slimy texture- Tororo is made from grated yamaimo mountain potato. You will either love it or hate it, but it’s definitely a unique food to try for the more adventurous!
Shizuoka is famous for its’ oden, which is like stewed vegetables. This is another one that is a bit unpalateable to some people, and definitely doesn’t look the tastiest, but trust us, it’s really yummy! Places like oden yokocho and oden-gai have a great atmosphere (and are totally instagram worthy too!)
Sakura ebi
Sakura ebi are tiny shrimps, which are laid out to dry in the sun in spring and autumn. You can buy sakura ebi furikake- which is seasoning to put on rice, which is small and would make a great omiyage for any foodie friends.
Kuro Hanpen fish cake
hanpen fishcakes are available in other parts of Japan, but Shizuoka’s are black instead of white. Try them deep fried at an izakaya!
Ocha Wari
Shizuoka’s famous green tea, but with alcohol! A must try if you’re in an izakaya.
Wasabi
Shizuoka is also famous for its’ wasabi- you can even find wasabi flavoured ice cream next to parco on Gofuku-cho dori!
Kuno-zan in the south along the coast is called the ‘ichigo kaigan‘ as there are loads of strawberry farms! The strawberry season is from December to early May, and you will find many small strawberry farms that do pick your own strawberries during that period. Even when the strawberries aren’t in season, you can pick up strawberry flavoured souvenirs, jam, ice cream and snacks. Read our post on Where to go in Shizuoka City: Kunozan Toshogu for more information ♡
Thanks for reading! What’s your favourite Japanese food? Are there any more famous Shizuoka foods we missed? Please let us know in the comments!
And if you’d like more information about Shizuoka, please check out our blog and our instagram page!
Shizuoka city may be small, but we have a lot to offer in terms of cafes! Here are a few of our favourites, so get ready for some instagram worthy (and most importantly, really tasty!) places to try while you’re in Shizuoka
TW Brunch is a cafe/ restaurant about a minute’s walk from My Hotel Ryugu and is open from 7am-10pm. Their food is yummy and they use a lot of seasonal and local Shizuoka ingredients.
Hug Coffee (and sister craft beer stand Hug Hop) is a staple of the Shizuoka coffee scene- check out the main store for a relaxed atmosphere and ‘oishii curry vibes’. The staff are really friendly and the Ryogaecho store is always open until around 2am and buzzing with people.
Ethicus is a modern and stylish coffee shop near Shin Shizuoka station- the owners are super friendly and they are serious about coffee! We also recommend you try their sweets. Make sure to check their instagram to see when they are open- as it’s an independent shop and they often do events abroad.
Maruzen Tea Roastery is a modern and minimalist cafe serving green tea and green tea ice cream. The perfect place to try shizuoka green tea, and they offer tea roasted to different degrees so you can try lightly roasted gyokuro tea up to deep roasted houjicha.
Daybreak is a cafe-bar in Tenma-cho really close to My Hotel Ryugu! Both their coffee and cocktails are great, and the atmosphere is really friendly and laid back. Make sure to check on their instagram for when they are open!
Blue books is stylish and has looads of seating, unlike some of the smaller cafes on this list. You can get coffee, alcohol, food or desserts here and it’s open until 10pm (last order is 9pm).
Kinzaburo sells Shizuoka tea and tea accessories, but they have a cafe space on the second floor where you can eat in and try their amazing selection of desserts! We recommend nabbing a table on the tatami section if you can.
Let us know if we’ve missed any of your favourite coffee shops in Shizuoka- there are many more cafes in town, so we might be back with a part two soon!
We love sharing things on our instagram @myhotel＿ryugu, but we also love it as a place to get information about all the things that are happening in Shizuoka, and for some major travel inspiration! Here are a couple of our favourite accounts that we recommend if you’re looking for places to go in Shizuoka:
@fieja.jp.1 Fieja is a free paper about Shizuoka which you can pick up in loads of places, including at My Hotel Ryugu. Their account showcases loads of local businesses so it’s a really good place to check out if you want to find a new cafe or are searching for places to go.
@ shizuoka_photo_club , as the name suggests, is an account dedicated to showing off the best photography of Shizuoka. As such, there are loads of amazing places featured, and it’s a great one to check out if you’re into photography.
@kawane3939 is an account dedicated to the trains of the Oigawa tetsudou railway line, which is a 300 year old steam railway deep in the Shizuoka countryside. The pictures are stunning, and a ride on the steam trains is definitely on our bucket list!
@phantastic420 This account posts stunning short videos of Mount Fuji every day. We especially enjoy their uploads in summer, as it’s too cloudy to see Mt Fuji from Shizuoka city in summer most days.
@dreamplaza3360 is the account of S-Pulse Dream Plaza, a shopping mall in Shimizu. It’s well worth a visit and has loads to do apart from shopping. There is sushi museum and the sushi market which serves fish fresh from the port, a ferris wheel and a cinema- perfect if you’re looking for rainy day activities. It’s also home to Chibi Maruko chan land, see below! The account posts dreamy pictures of Shimizu port, as well as cute pictures of soccer team S-Pulse’s mascot, Pul-chan
@chibimarukochan_land is the account of chibi maruko chan (a popular manga and animated series whose creator, Sakura Momoko, was from Shimizu. We recommend checking out this account if you like kawaii things! They also post information about chibi maruko related events in Shizuoka.
@shizuokajin2016 is an account dedicated to Shizuoka! They showcase a lot of events and also a lot of Shizuoka-ben, or shizuoka dialect. If you can read Japanese, we recommend you take a look. You often hear about the famous Kansai dialect, but Shizuoka-ben isn’t really that well known, so it’s really cool to have a place that showcases it.
After last month’s post 6 things to do in Shizuoka City, we’re back with 5 more ideas of day trips and places to go in Shizuoka city and in Shizuoka prefecture. All of these are easily accessible on foot from the city centre, or by public transport. Along with some more famous places, we’ve included some of our personal favourites too~
view of Mount Fuji from yatsuyama 静岡市谷津山から見える富士山
Hike up Yatsuyama
Kiyomizu dera (no, not the one in Kyoto) is a small and calm temple a few minutes walk from My Hotel Ryugu and Shizuoka station. Carry on along the path past the temple for an enjoyable hike, and views of Mount Fuji at the top. The path goes along to Shizuoka Gokoku Jinja, a large and impressive shrine. From from there you can walk further, turn back, or visit the nearby Mark is shopping centre. You could also ride the Shizuoka Tetsudo train back to the town centre for only 120 yen.
Izu Peninsula
The Izu peninsula is a bit further afield but easily accessible by train from Shizuoka city, (especially for those with the JR pass!) it’s beautiful and a must-do if you are in Shizuoka for enough time. It’s famous for its onsen hot springs and the coastal scenery.
view of mount fuji from Fujinomiya, Shizuoka prefecture
富士宮市から見える富士山
Fujinomiya
Fujinomiya is a great day trip from Shizuoka city, and there is a beautiful view of Mount Fuji up close from the main Sengen shrine. There are lots of places to buy omiyage souvenirs, and we recommend you try some Fujinomiya yakisoba. You can also visit the recently opened Mount Fuji World Heritage Centre. A bit further afield is the waterfall shiraito no taki.
静岡県掛川城
Kakegawa castle in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan
Kakegawa
Kakegawa city is just a short train ride from Shizuoka. The castle is beautiful and was reconstructed using wood, unlike many others in Japan which are made of concrete. Kakegawa is also home to Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido, and the Shiseido art house and the company museum are both free to enter and interesting, so are a great way to spend the afternoon after visiting the castle.
old style japanese houses in okabe shuku, shizuoka 静岡県岡部宿の街並み
Utsu no ya and the Meiji tunnel
To get to this area you have to take a bus ride from Shizuoka or Shin Shizuoka station. This area is great for hiking as it is near the Tokaido and the old Tokaido routes. A short hike from Okabeshuku is the Meiji tunnel, which is now disused but was the first tunnel in Japan that you had to pay to get through. Now it is disused and is peaceful, if a little spooky. Also in the area is the Tsuta no hosomichi, which was first recorded in the Ise monogatari. There are also several picturesque post towns along the tokaido, including okabeshuku and mariko shuku
We hope you enjoyed our post! Hopefully now you have got some more ideas for where to go on your next trip to Shizuoka!
