Shizuoka Prefecture

I love tea. With no relation to the fact that I’m a Japanophile, I love tea. Ever since I was young, I’ve never really liked coffee, so when it was cold outside I would (for the most part) drink tea. Ever since moving to the land of the rising sun, I’ve tried many varieties of Japanese tea that aren’t in other countries and throughout doing so, have come to enjoy tea all the more. In Japan, there are a number of regions known for its tea. Two of those regions are Kyoto prefecture and Shizuoka prefecture. As I’m sure you may know, tea is made from tea leaves. These leaves are picked and then processed into tea. There are a few places across Japan (for a slight fee) in where you can pick tea leaves yourself and bring them home with you. I’ve wanted to pick tea leaves for some time now, so in May I headed to Shizuoka prefecture and did just that! Seeing as I was going to go all the way to Shizuoka prefecture, I decided to make a bit of a trip out of it and spent 3 days exploring this prefecture that despite being close to Tokyo is one I hadn’t spent much time in. This is my 3 days in Shizuoka prefecture drinking lots of tea and discovering everything that this prefecture has to offer.

As always, I bought a 駅弁 (ekiben), a boxed meal that’s sold at railway stations across Japan. Seeing as Shizuoka prefecture is close to Tokyo I didn’t have much time to eat, so I bought this small box of sushi. Seeing as I love salmon, this ekiben was gone in almost an instant. The first stop on the list wasn’t near Shizuoka station, so I didn’t ride the bullet train. The first stop was a tea field, known in Japanese as 茶畑 (chabatake), where I was to pick tea leaves, so I rode local trains from Tokyo station to the station in Shizuoka prefecture nearest the chabatake that I was headed to. For those thinking about picking tea leaves yourself, I highly recommend making a reservation ahead of time, which is exactly what I did. This ensures that you’ll have no problems being able to pick tea leaves on the day you desire. I’m not sure if it was because I’d made a reservation early in the morning or not, but there weren’t any other people collecting tea leaves when I did. I had the entire plantation to myself!






This is what’s known as the 韮山反射炉 (nirayama hansharo) or the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace. Apparently, many many years ago, they used to make cannons here. It’s now a UNESCO world heritage site.




These are the tea leaves I picked.


These are tea leaves that have been fried into tempura that I ate at a restaurant nearby.



After collecting some tea leaves it was off to the Shizuoka Mt. Fuji World Heritage Centre. Here you can learn all about Mt. Fuji, which became a UNESCO world heritage site back in 2013. For those who’ve climbed Mt. Fuji, for those looking to climb Mt. Fuji, for those who just want to learn more about Mt. Fuji this is the place for you. Unfortunately, taking photos and videos is prohibited inside.



Seeing as Mt. Fuji is close to Shizuoka prefecture, there are a number of characters designed in the prefecture that bear a resemblance to Mt. Fuji. On the second morning, I saw these near Shizuoka station.








On this day, I stopped off for lunch at ‘San Grams’, a cafe that I knew I’d like to visit for some time. This is a great place for those that like both Japanese food and Japanese tea. Here, they sell a number of Japanese tea related products, so for those Japanophiles such as myself, I was in heaven!






No big deal, but after lunch, I bought a ¥200 Dragon Ball scratch lottery ticket and won ¥1,000！(￣＾￣) 



Next, I headed to the city of Fujieda. Here, I visited ななや (nanaya) a Japanese tea store that’s known for making the world’s richest 抹茶 (matcha), or powdered green tea, flavored ice cream. I love matcha, so naturally, I love this rich ice cream. For those who aren’t such big matcha fans, be careful when ordering. You can choose between 7 kinds of matcha ice cream, from the richest in Japan to one with a very light taste so it might be best to try ordering one with a lighter flavor.







The city of Hamamatsu is known for it’s 餃子 (gyoza), a Chinese-style dumpling usually stuffed with ground pork and vegetables which are either boiled or fried. I’ve eaten gyoza in this city once before but seeing as they were some of the best I’ve ever eaten in Japan I just had to come back and made it my dinner. Despite the city of Hamamatsu not being near Shizuoka station or some of the other sightseeing destinations in the prefecture, the gyoza in this town is well worth going out of your way for.


After dinner, I made my way back to Shizuoka station and entered a sushi restaurant. They had a Shizuoka green tea flavored Coca-Cola that I just had to try. Let's just say that fizzy drinks and Coca-Cola don't match one another.



On the last day of my trip, I ate breakfast at a cafe near the hotel in which I stayed in. I know it doesn't look like it based upon the photo, but this sandwich was rather large!



I rented a bike near Shizuoka station and headed towards the sea. I visited a Shinto shrine known as 久能山東照宮 (kunosan toshogu). While climbing all the stone steps that lead up to the main shrine itself, I got to enjoy a fantastic view of the ocean. This Shinto shrine is home to one of the graves of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who brought a long period of civil wars to an end and united all of Japan, however, no one is exactly sure if he’s buried there. Tokugawa Ieyasu has another grave in the 日光東照宮 (nikko toshogu) another Shinto shrine in the city of Nikko, Ibaraki prefecture. He was most likely buried in one of these two locations.








This is the grave of Tokugawa Ieyasu




The 御朱印 (goshuin), a type of stamp and or seal received at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, for kunozan toshogu.


With no relationship to kunozan toshogu, these are some interesting and very well designed manhole covers that I happened to find across Shizuoka prefecture.



Seeing as Tokugawa Ieyasu is such an important figure in Shizuoka prefecture, there's a statue of him not too far from Shizuoka station.



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