Shizuoka

Shizuoka (静岡市) is a curious city, nestled between the mountains (including Fuji-san) and the Pacific Ocean. The central commercial district is quite small, but thriving with Japanese sensibility. Shizuoka is famous for its green tea - the green tea and white chocolate cookies are an amazing creation. It seems an honestly conservative and traditional city; very clean, seemingly safe, the people are polite - if curious that westerners are visiting their town. When the sun goes down and the neon lights (mainly around the crossroads outside Don Quijote (ドン キホーテ) come on, out come the pretty boy yakuza types, in their sharp suits and manga hair styles. Their job is to pimp out the hostess bars to drunken salary men. It was the end of the financial year so there was an abundance of drunken salary men.

The traditional heritage of the city lies in its history as the home city of Tokugawa Ieyasu, considered as the greatest Shogun, who unified Japan. He is buried in a mountain shrine - just outside the city.

 

The spring season is celebrated in Japan with the blossoming of cherry trees (sakura), Shizuoka also holds their annual city parade. Hundreds of people in traditional dress parade around the central park - where the Shogun’s castle once stood.



 



Shizuoka isn’t all about tradition, it has a thriving fashion scene - with the main players like Visvim, WTAPS, Neighbourhood, Sophnet etc getting good coverage through stores such as Figure, Re In Force and Four Star as well as UNDFTD and Bape stores. Definitely a city I would recommend visiting for a concise and simple taste of Japan.

(see more in the Shizuoka photoset)