SHORE EXCURSIONS CREDIT

Visit a serene shrine and one of Japan’s most stunningly natural seaside settings, both lying in the shadow of majestic Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest mountain. Settle in for a drive into the beautiful countryside that lies in the foothills of Mount Fuji. Japan’s national symbol and one of its most extraordinary settings, Mount Fuji has been deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a sacred place and source of artistic inspiration. Prior to ascending Mount Fuji, climbers often pray at Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Shrine, which you’ll visit. The shrine has been considered a guardian deity that prevents natural disasters and ensures easy childbirth. More than 500 cherry trees grace the surrounding grounds. Inside, there is a pond fed by melting snow and ice from Mount Fuji. The pond has been designated a Special Natural Monument and attracts pilgrims that come to purify themselves in the clear water. Next stop is the Mt. Fuji's 2th Station, at approximately 4,700 feet. You will have chance to see dynamic view of Mt. Fuji. The 2th Station offers stellar views of the mountain's magnificence. Last stop is the Mt.Fuji World Heritage Centre. This is newly openen in December 2017 and consists of three buildings. The central building is covered with the wood lattice and characteristic shaped of the inverted cone. This wood lattice is made from Fuji cypress. From the top floor, you will enjoy magnificent view of Mt. Fuji as picturesque.

Sample a selection of sake made with water from Mount Fuji and then visit a heritage center dedicated to the mountain and its influence throughout Japan.

A scenic drive through the countryside will bring you to Fuji Takasago, a sake brewery founded in 1831 at the foot of Mount Fuji, where its groundwater is most abundant. The water from the snow melt that runs off the mountain takes nearly 100 years to filter through the earth’s underground layers, leaving the water extraordinarily pure.

Following an enlightening tour of the brewery, where you will watch rice being turned into sake, you will be offered a selection of Fuji Takasago’s rice wines. During the sampling, you may notice that the Mount Fuji water imparts a mild taste to the sake. Being high in amino acids, these sakes are also rich in umami, a flavor associated with rice wine.

You will gain a different perspective of Japan’s most celebrated peak at the Mount Fuji World Heritage Center nearby. Its exhibitions include Japanese art and literature that the mountain has inspired and paper screens that show Mount Fuji changing with the seasons. Another highlight is the building’s inverted lattice cone sculpture that mimics the shape of Mount Fuji when viewed in the reflecting pool.

The center was named to recognize UNESCO declaring Mount Fuji to be a World Heritage site for its solitary beauty, iconic shape and deep impact on Western art. It may well be the world’s most famous stratovolcano.

This mostly panoramic tour affords you magnificent views of Mount Fuji from both a hilltop outlook and a beautiful coastal pine grove so stunningly scenic that artists have captured its beauty for centuries.

Head to Nihondaira Park Outlook, which offers a glorious view of Suruga Bay and majestic Mount Fuji. You might also catch a glimpse of Kunozan Toshogu Shrine, perched high above the outlook.

Your scenic drive takes you to the seaside pine grove - Miho no Matsubara. The grove consists of more than 50,000 pine trees, including a 650-year-old tree thought to have mythical powers. The view from the shore with Mount Fuji lording over the scenery has been rated one of the top three views in Japan.

Delve into Japanese culture by visiting an art museum, enjoying a ritualistic tea ceremony and admiring one of the most spectacular views of sacred Mount Fuji.

Visit the Tokaido Hiroshige Art Museum in the fishing village of Yui. More than a thousand woodblock prints from Utagawa Hiroshige, a 19th-century master of the ukiyo-e genre, are beautifully displayed here. As you will discover while browsing the works of art, the ukiyo-e genre typically depicts subjects of everyday life that include landscapes, birds and flowers.

Hiroshige’s genius for landscape composition and color in works such as The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido influenced European painters such as Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh.

At a tearoom in a nearby park, you’ll enjoy a tea ceremony. You will be served traditional green tea, but the ceremony involves more than merely the beverage. It is a ritualistic art form in which the tea must be prepared and presented in a certain manner known as the Way of Tea.

Drive to the seaside pine grove Miho no Matsubara. The grove consists of more than 50,000 pine trees, including a 650-year-old tree thought to have mythical powers. The view from the shore with Mount Fuji lording over the scenery has been rated one of the top three views in Japan.

OVERVIEW

Marvel at glorious Mount Fuji while riding a cable car to a hilltop Shintō shrine and then delve into the Japanese culture by making chopsticks. While some people climb the 1,000 or so steps leading to the Kunozan Toishogu shrine, you will ride to the summit. The higher you ascend, the greater the views of the city below and majestic Mount Fuji beyond. No other sight in Japan is more iconic than the snow-capped mountain, the tallest peak in Japan. More wonders await you within the shrine complex, a collection of brightly painted ornate buildings dedicated to the shōgun that unified Japan in the early 17th century. Be sure to notice the well-armed guardian statue near the Romon gate. You will experience Japan’s creativity at Sumpu Takumi Shuku, a cultural workshop where artisans produce traditional crafts using centuries-old techniques. There you will have the opportunity to produce your own pair of lacquered chopsticks hands-on.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ride a cable car to hilltop Shintō shrine while admiring the views of Mount Fuji.
• Browse the shrine, which is dedicated to a revered shōgun that brought peace to Japan.
• Create your own lacquered chopsticks at a workshop for traditional artisans.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Dress in weather-appropriate clothing.
• Wear flat comfortable walking shoes.

See how the clear mountain spring water that originates on Mt. Fuji is used for rainbow trout farming and to grow wasabi. After about 50 years of underground filtering, the water emerges in natural springs or is extracted to supply the people of the Shizuoka Prefecture with water of extraordinary quality. The area supports more rainbow trout farms than anywhere else in Japan, one of which you will visit. It will be an enlightening experience as you will discover how these beautifully colored fish are cultivated in great numbers. The majority of the wasabi consumed in Japan also comes from the prefecture. After observing how it is grown, you will sample a rice ball that contains freshly ground wasabi and rainbow trout. Few foods are so emblematic of the area and the obsession with the pure water from Mt. Fuji. At Jimba Waterfall, you will watch that water gently cascade into a pool below.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Gain insight into how rainbow trout are farmed in water that originates on Mt. Fuji.
• Visit a farm that relies on that same pure water to grow wasabi or Japanese horseradish.
• Sample a traditional rice ball made with wasabi and rainbow trout.
• Behold the beauty of Jimba Waterfall, whose water comes from Mt. Fuji.

HELPFUL HINTS
• Dress in weather-appropriate clothing.
• Wear flat comfortable walking shoes.

Enjoy a stunning view of Mount Fuji from a beautiful shrine complex built to honor one of Japan’s feudal lords and savor a seafood lunch at a bustling fresh fish market. Head to the Nihondaira Park Outlook, which offers a glorious view of Suruga Bay and majestic Mount Fuji. Kunozan Toshogu Shrine perches above the outlook, which you will reach via cable car. Dedicated to the feudal lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan in the early 1600s, the shrine is a complex of ornate bright-red buildings constructed in the Shinto style. While browsing, be sure to notice the guardian statue near the Romon Gate and the drum tower. The three main halls within the complex are elaborately decorated, but vary architecturally. The carved ceiling in Honden Hall is particularly interesting. For a bit of entertainment, you might select a random paper fortune from a box and then tie it to a string in hopes that the fortune will come true. This common practice at Japanese shrines is known as omikuji. Stroll through Kashi-no-Ichi, a large fish market on Shimizu’s waterfront. While the signage will be in Japanese, the guide will translate the names of the seafood that you may not recognize. Afterwards, you will enjoy lunch at a restaurant within the market before returning to the pier.

Explore a park built around a nearly 400-year-old castle, an unusual shrine complex and a coastal pine grove that offers a stunning view of Mount Fuji. You will drive inland to Sunpu Castle Park, an expansive oasis developed around the ruins of a castle where the legendary Shogun warrior Ieyasu once lived. While the moats and walls are original, some of what you will see is a reproduction, including the main gate and the structure from which heavy stones were dropped on invaders. Inside, you will find a bronze statue of Ieyasu with a falcon on his arm.Visit nearby Shizuoka Sengen, a shrine complex that consists of three main shrines and other smaller ones. The architecture is Momoyama, which extensively uses lacquer, wooden carvings and gold leaf. Although the large worship hall and some of the corridors are currently undergoing renovation, the guests can see the beauty of the vermilion lacquered lacquer in the romon gate and the corridors after the renovation is complete. The worship hall offers a spectacular view of snowcapped Mount Fuji looming in the distance (Weather permitted) . Mount Fuji also plays a dominant role as the backdrop for the seaside pine grove Miho no Matsubara. The grove consists of more than 50,000 pine trees, including a 650-year-old tree thought to have mythical powers. The view from the shore with Mount Fuji lording over the scenery has been rated one of the top three views in Japan.

Gaze upon sacred Mount Fuji from several perspectives that include a hilltop shrine and a coastal pine grove so stunningly scenic that artists have captured its beauty for centuries.

Stop at the Nihondaira Park Outlook, which offers a glorious view of Suruga Bay and majestic Mount Fuji. Kunozan Toshogu Shrine perches above the outlook, which you will reach via cable car.

Dedicated to the feudal lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan in the early 1600s, the shrine is a complex of ornate bright-red buildings constructed in the Shinto style. Ieyasu’s son Hidetada, the second shogun of the Tokugawa government, built the temple to honor his father. The three main halls within the complex are elaborately decorated, but vary architecturally. The carved ceiling in Honden Hall is particularly interesting. For a bit of entertainment, you might select a random paper fortune from a box and then tie it to a string in hopes that the fortune will come true. This common practice at Japanese shrines is known as omikuji.

For a different perspective of Mount Fuji, you’ll drive to the seaside pine grove Miho no Matsubara. The grove consists of more than 50,000 pine trees, including a 650-year-old tree thought to have mythical powers. The view from the shore with Mount Fuji lording over the scenery has been rated one of the top three views in Japan.