Shizuoka in 6 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)
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Six Days in Shizuoka on a Budget
Six days takes the 5-day spine, Shizuoka City, the Fuji area, and an Izu loop, and adds a day in Hamamatsu, the prefecture’s western anchor for eel and its “City of Music” identity. The 7-day itinerary stretches the Izu section further still.
Book these before you go:
- A rental car through day 5, then return it before the Hamamatsu leg, which is easy by train
- A Shuzenji ryokan for the Izu night
- A Welcome Suica or Tourist Pasmo card; it covers Hamamatsu’s local transit too
Day 1: Sumpu Castle Park and Shizuoka City
Sumpu Castle Park, free to walk, Ieyasu’s retirement seat from 1607 to 1616. Dinner at an oden yokocho, dashi-simmered skewers and Shizuoka’s own black hanpen fish cake.
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, 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 B-1 Grand Prix Hall of Fame dish of steamed noodles fried with nikukasu and dusted with sardine powder.
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, walk the free Chikurin-no-Komichi bamboo path, and take an evening onsen soak.
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 the coast to Shimoda, where Commodore Perry’s Black Ships landed in 1854, or the Jogasaki coast’s lava cliffs and Kadowaki suspension bridge, then Kawazu’s Nanadaru Seven Waterfalls trail. Stop at a wasabi farm near Amagi on the way, free to walk; Shizuoka grows roughly 80% of Japan’s real hon-wasabi in terraced streambeds fed by cold mountain-spring water.
Day 5 running cost (per person, excl. hotel): wasabi farm walk free + meals 2,200 = **¥2,200**
Day 6: Hamamatsu
Return the rental car and take the JR Tokaido Line to Hamamatsu, about 45 minutes west of Shizuoka City. Hamamatsu Castle was young Ieyasu’s own base before Sunpu; the Museum of Musical Instruments backs up the city’s “City of Music” identity, built on being home to Yamaha and Kawai. This is eel country: Lake Hamana is where Japanese eel farming began, so if the budget allows, order unagi grilled over charcoal, the one real splurge meal on this itinerary. If it does not, Hamamatsu gyoza, dumplings arranged in a circle around a pile of bean sprouts, is the cheap local specialty and just as much the point of the stop. Kanzanji, on Lake Hamana, is the area’s onsen town if you would rather stay the night here than push back to Shizuoka City.
Day 6 running cost (per person, excl. hotel): castle ~500 + Museum of Musical Instruments ~800 + unagi lunch ~2,500 (or gyoza dinner ~900 as the cheaper swap) + other meals 1,000 = **¥3,200-4,800**
Six-day total: roughly ¥19,000-20,000 per person, excluding hotels, the ryokan rate, and the rental car. Hamamatsu connects onward to Nagoya in about 40 minutes by Shinkansen, useful if this trip continues west rather than looping back through Tokyo. Confirm your Hamamatsu train times before leaving Izu; the Tokaido Line runs frequently, but the connections from Shuzenji or Atami take a change or two.