6 Best Day Trips from Shizuoka
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Shizuoka City makes a workable base for day trips in every direction, north to Fuji, east to Izu and Mishima, west to Hamamatsu, and it also sits close enough to Tokyo and Nagoya for a genuine day trip either way on the Shinkansen.
6 day trips, at a glance
| Trip | Direction | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| Fujinomiya | North | Sengen Taisha, Shiraito Falls, Fujinomiya yakisoba |
| Mishima | East | Taisha shrine, the 400m Skywalk |
| Atami | East | Onsen, MOA Museum of Art |
| Hamamatsu | West | Unagi, Yamaha/Kawai music history |
| Tokyo | North | ~1 hour by Hikari or Kodama |
| Nagoya | West | ~1 hour by Hikari or Kodama |
Fujinomiya, the Fuji side
Head to Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha, head shrine of more than 1,300 Sengen shrines nationwide and a component of Fuji’s UNESCO listing, then Shiraito Falls, a wide curtain fed by Fuji’s own meltwater, another component of the same listing. Have Fujinomiya yakisoba for lunch, and if it’s late April or May, detour to Obuchi Sasaba for the classic tea-rows-with-Fuji photo. This is a viewing day only, not a climb, the actual Fuji ascent is a separate, permit-required, summer-only undertaking covered in our main Shizuoka guide .
Mishima, a quick east-side trip
Mishima Taisha shrine and the Mishima Skywalk, Japan’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge at 400m (roughly ¥1,100), both sit within a short train ride of Shizuoka Station, an easy half-day that doesn’t require a rental car.
Atami, onsen and art
Atami is the closest Izu onsen town to Tokyo and generally the best value of the three main Izu bases. Even as a day trip rather than an overnight, the MOA Museum of Art (roughly ¥2,000) and Kinomiya shrine’s roughly 2,000-year-old camphor tree are worth the trip, our places-to-stay guide covers Atami as an overnight base if you’d rather stay the night.
Hamamatsu, unagi and music history
West of the city, Hamamatsu covers charcoal-grilled unagi (Lake Hamana is where Japanese eel farming began), the Museum of Musical Instruments (Yamaha and Kawai’s home city), and Hamamatsu gyoza, arranged in its distinctive ring around bean sprouts, for dinner before heading back. Kakegawa Castle, a rare authentic-wood reconstruction, sits on the same line if you have an extra hour.
Genuine day trips further out: Tokyo and Nagoya
Both Tokyo and Nagoya are roughly an hour away by Hikari or Kodama Shinkansen (the faster Nozomi doesn’t stop at Shizuoka), genuine day-trip range if your Shizuoka base is really a stop on a wider Tokaido journey.
Are Hakone or the Fuji Five Lakes Shizuoka day trips?
No, and it’s worth getting this right before you plan around it. Hakone is in Kanagawa Prefecture, a different prefecture entirely, though it pairs naturally with an Atami or Izu leg rather than Shizuoka City. Fuji-Q Highland and the Fuji Five Lakes (Kawaguchiko) are on the Yamanashi side of the same mountain, not a quick trip from Shizuoka City, don’t file either under a Shizuoka day trip.
Do I need a car for any of these?
Fujinomiya, Mishima, Atami, Hamamatsu, Tokyo, and Nagoya are all reachable by train. A rental car only becomes worth it if you’re adding the Izu interior or tea country to the same day.
One concrete tip: pick one direction per day rather than combining Fuji and Izu into a single trip, the distances between them make that a rushed day rather than two good half-days.