7 Days in Shizuoka: First-Timer Plan

Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use.

Seven days is the 6-day Fuji-area-plus-Izu-loop plan with one more day added at the end: Hamamatsu, on the prefecture’s western side. If six regions in a week feels like too much ground, drop back to the 6-day version, or fork off to just Fuji (3-day ) or just Izu (4-day ) instead.

Book these before you go

Day 1: Sumpu Castle and Shizuoka City

Arrive at Shizuoka Station on a Hikari (about 1 hour from Tokyo, roughly ¥6,000) or Kodama, not a Nozomi, which doesn’t stop here. Spend the morning at Sumpu Castle Park, Ieyasu’s retirement castle, then try a tea-tasting experience in the afternoon. Order Shizuoka oden for dinner.

Day 2: Miho no Matsubara and Kunozan Toshogu

Visit Miho no Matsubara’s pine-grove coastline, a genuine Fuji UNESCO component, then ride the Nihondaira Ropeway (roughly ¥1,250 return) to the Yume Terrace deck and down to Kunozan Toshogu, Ieyasu’s original 1617 shrine, older than Nikko’s.

Day 3: Fujinomiya, the Fuji side

Head to Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha, head shrine of over 1,300 Sengen shrines and a Fuji UNESCO component, then Shiraito Falls, fed by Fuji’s own meltwater. Have Fujinomiya yakisoba for lunch, and if it’s late April or May, detour to Obuchi Sasaba for the tea-rows-and-Fuji photo. This is a viewing day only, the Shizuoka FUJI NAVI permit is only for actually climbing, a separate summer-only trip covered in the main guide . Return to Shizuoka City for the night.

Day 4: Into Izu, base at Shuzenji

Travel to Shuzenji, “the Little Kyoto of Izu,” an onsen town with roughly 1,200 years of history and the Chikurin-no-Komichi bamboo path along the Katsura River. Check into a ryokan; this is your base for the next two nights.

Day 5: Shimoda and the Jogasaki coast

Head south to Shimoda, where Commodore Perry’s Black Ships landed in 1854 and the Treaty of Shimoda ended Japan’s isolation; walk Shirahama Beach if the weather holds. On the way back, stop at the Jogasaki coast’s lava cliffs and the Kadowaki suspension bridge.

Day 6: Wasabi farms and Kawazu

Visit an Amagi wasabi farm, Shizuoka grows roughly 80% of Japan’s real hon-wasabi, using a terraced-streambed method recognized as a GIAHS heritage system. In Kawazu, walk the Nanadaru Seven Waterfalls trail, or, if you’re here in early February, catch the Kawazu-zakura cherry blossoms (the 2026 festival runs February 7 to March 8). Head back toward Shizuoka and on to Hamamatsu in the evening; it’s a long travel day, so start early.

Day 7: Hamamatsu, unagi and Lake Hamana

Hamamatsu was young Ieyasu’s own base before Sunpu, and Hamamatsu Castle covers that history. Lake Hamana, the birthplace of Japanese eel farming, is still the place for charcoal-grilled unagi at lunch. Hamamatsu also calls itself “the City of Music,” home to Yamaha and Kawai; the Museum of Musical Instruments is worth an hour if time allows. For dinner, order Hamamatsu gyoza, arranged in its distinctive ring around a mound of bean sprouts, before catching a Hikari or Kodama on from Hamamatsu Station toward Nagoya or back to Tokyo. If you have an hour between trains, Kakegawa Castle, a rare authentic-wood reconstruction, sits right on the same line between Shizuoka City and Hamamatsu.

Getting around and where to stay

Shizuoka City for nights one through three, Shuzenji for nights four and five, then Hamamatsu for night six. A rental car is genuinely useful across the Fuji area and Izu interior; the Tokaido line handles the rest, including the run out to Hamamatsu. Compare rental cars before you land.

One concrete tip: book the Shuzenji ryokan and the Hamamatsu hotel before anything else, both fill up well ahead of spring and autumn weekends, and confirm your final Shinkansen leg is a Hikari or Kodama, not a Nozomi.