Shizuoka in 5 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)
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Five Days in Shizuoka on a Budget
Five days is enough to combine what the 3-day and 4-day itineraries each pick only one of: a night in the Fuji area and a proper Izu loop, not just an Atami stopover. The 6 and 7-day versions add Hamamatsu on top of this same spine.
Book these before you go:
- A rental car from day 3 onward; it covers the Fuji area and the Izu loop both
- A Shuzenji ryokan for the Izu night, book weekends ahead for the best rate
- A Fuji weather check before locking day 3, the mountain hides behind cloud more mornings than not
Day 1: Sumpu Castle Park and Shizuoka City
Sumpu Castle Park, free to walk, Ieyasu’s retirement seat from 1607 to 1616 (reconstructed turrets and Momijiyama Garden; no original keep survives). Dinner at an oden yokocho stall, dashi-simmered skewers and Shizuoka’s own black hanpen fish cake, a few hundred yen a skewer.
Day 1 running cost (per person, excl. hotel): turret entry ~500 + oden dinner 2,500 = **¥3,000**
Day 2: Miho no Matsubara, Nihondaira, and Tea
Miho no Matsubara’s pine-grove Fuji view, free and a genuine UNESCO Fujisan component, then the Nihondaira Ropeway (about ¥1,250 round trip) down to Kunozan Toshogu, Ieyasu’s original 1617 shrine and a National Treasure that predates Nikko’s, with a tea tasting worked in on the way.
Day 2 running cost (per person, excl. hotel): ropeway 1,250 + shrine fee ~500 + tea tasting ~1,000 + meals 2,500 = **¥5,250**
Day 3: The Fuji Area
Pick up the rental car and head to Fujinomiya. Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha, head shrine of the more than 1,300 Sengen shrines dedicated to Mount Fuji, sits alongside Shiraito Falls, a wide curtain of waterfalls fed by Fuji’s own groundwater; both are free-to-view UNESCO Fujisan components. Lunch on Fujinomiya yakisoba, a cheap bowl of steamed noodles fried with nikukasu and dusted with sardine powder, a B-1 Grand Prix Hall of Fame dish.
Day 3 running cost (per person, excl. hotel): shrine offering ~200 + yakisoba lunch ~700 + other meals 1,800 = **¥2,700**
Day 4: Shuzenji, the Izu Onsen Base
Drive to Shuzenji, inland along the Katsura River, a “Little Kyoto of Izu” with a hot-spring history running back roughly 1,200 years. Check into a ryokan, then walk the free Chikurin-no-Komichi bamboo path along the river before an evening onsen soak, the actual reason for this day, not another paid sight.
Day 4 running cost (per person, excl. hotel): bamboo path free + meals 2,500 = **¥2,500** (plus the ryokan rate)
Day 5: The Izu Loop
Drive to Shimoda, where Commodore Perry’s Black Ships landed in 1854, and walk free Shirahama Beach, or take the Jogasaki coast instead, lava cliffs and the Kadowaki suspension bridge. Either way, stop at a wasabi farm near Amagi on the way back; walking the terraced streambeds costs nothing, and Shizuoka grows roughly 80% of Japan’s real hon-wasabi here, grown in cold mountain-spring water. Suruga Bay sits at the northeastern end of the Nankai Trough earthquake zone, worth knowing rather than worrying about as you drive the coast. Return toward Mishima or Shizuoka City for departure.
Day 5 running cost (per person, excl. hotel): wasabi farm walk free + fresh wasabi to take home ~800 (optional) + meals 2,200 = **¥2,200-3,000**
Five-day total: roughly ¥15,500-16,500 per person, excluding hotels, the ryokan rate, and the rental car. A ryokan night with dinner and breakfast in Shuzenji runs roughly the same ¥15,000-45,000+ per person as Atami; book it before the rental car, availability disappears faster than parking does. Return the car in Mishima or Shizuoka City if you are heading back toward Tokyo by Shinkansen rather than driving all the way.