Shimizu Traditional Experience & Nihondaira Outlook

Description

Be sure to read the Special Notes further down this page for important requirements and restriction.

Visit Sumpu Takumi Shuku where is the experience facility like to create, play, learn, touch, see and taste featuring the traditional industries and crafts of Shizuoka city from the 16th Century. Among them you will have experience of the crafts and tasting. First you will make own chopsticks from the lacquered one. After that enjoy to taste the tea ceremony with Abekawa-mochi, which is a sweet soft rice cake sprinkled with kinako (roasted soy bean powder and suger) known as a Shizuoka.

Then you'll board an aerial ropeway for bird's-eye views as you're whisked up the mountainside to the Kunozan Toshogu Shrine. Dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), the famous leader credited with bringing peace and unity to Japan after a long period of civil war, Kunozan Toshogu Shrine was built upon Ieyasu's request for a mausoleum on Mount Kunozan. A climb of 1,000 stone steps is the traditional approach to the shrine, but the addition of the ropeway has made it accessible to many more visitors.

Gorgeous vistas of Suruga Bay serve as the backdrop to Kunozan Toshogu, a picturesque shrine complex with an extensive collection of vermilion buildings ornately decorated and constructed in the Shinto shrine style of architecture. Kunozan Toshogu Shrine is a designated cultural landmark. At the entrance, you will see the beautifully embellished Romon Gate, a wonderful commemorative picture. Look carefully at the framed name plaque hanging from the gate building. It is believed to have been carved by Emperor Go-Mizunoo himself. Be sure to snap a photo of the Sadaijin guardian statue to the left side of the gate; he's quite a colorful and imposing figure!

Continue inside and up the stone steps to the drum tower and stables, pausing to admire a series of ancient copper lanterns. You'll soon reach Shaden, the main building, a striking wooden complex that is comprised of three sections, Honden Main Hall, Ishinoma Interconnecting Hall, and Haiden Worship Hall. All three are architecturally diverse and elaborately decorated. Be sure to look up at the masterfully carved ceiling and snap a photograph of the exotic blue lion on the west side of Honden Hall. Adjacent to the Shaden building, you can purchase a good-luck fortune written on a strip of white paper, which you then tie to a frame next to the shrine so that your fortune will come true!

Conclude the day with a ropeway ride back to the station where you'll meet your comfortable motorcoach for the drive back to the port.

Special Notes:

This tour will open from April 1, 2018.
There are still approx 120 steep steps at Kunozan Toshogu shrine.
The rope way is not operated depend on the wehater. Visiting order may vary
Views of Mt. Fuji are weather dependent.