Shizuoka Matsuri

The Shizuoka Festival is Shizuoka city’s biggest Spring festival. The three day event features a Yatai mura (outdoor food village), nebuta floats (see Nebuta Festival), cherry blossoms, parades, performances and cosplay. In fact, there’s not much that the Shizuoka Matsuri doesn’t have.

Access

Shizuoka Station can be reached on the Shinkansen Tokaido line from Tokyo, with the journey taking around an hour and costing around ¥6,000. On local trains, the journey takes approximately three hours with one-two changes (Atami and/or Numazu) and costs about half the price of the bullet train.

Accommodation

Onyl a couple of hundred meters from the train station, CO-YA Hostel has capsule spaces, wifi and a well-stocked bar to keep you busy. Also near the station, Hotel Abant offers compact but smart rooms with wifi and laundry services. A little fancier, the Hotel Century has sweeping staircases, more room and in in-house restaurant.

(Greg Lane)