Shizuoka

Ieyasu's first burial place, with a lacquered main hall listed as a National Treasure. From the seaward entrance it is 1,159 stone steps, roughly 20 minutes of climbing. Skip them by riding the ropeway across from Nihondaira.

A lookout designed by Kengo Kuma. The gallery that rings the building looks over Suruga Bay to Mount Fuji with Shimizu port below. The terrace costs nothing to visit, and the Kunozan ropeway station is only a short walk away.

The castle Ieyasu retired to, its moat and stone walls standing right beside city hall. The park itself is free; only the rebuilt Tatsumi turret with the Higashi gate and the Momijiyama garden charge for tickets.

A pine grove running along a shingle-and-sand beach, listed as part of the Mount Fuji World Heritage site. A straight avenue of pines, the Kami no Michi, leads from Miho Shrine to the shore, and that is the way to walk in.

Three shrines share one precinct, their painted halls rebuilt in the late Edo period and set in a row. The Sengen-dori shopping street runs straight to the front gate, so walking up from the station along it brings you in head-on.

An excavated Yayoi-era settlement and paddy field, with rebuilt pit dwellings and a raised granary on the grass. The site park is free and only the museum beside it charges; in the museum's hands-on room you can try on Yayoi clothing.

The pass Utagawa Hiroshige drew for his Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido. Today the highway and expressway run along the sea at your feet with Mount Fuji beyond. It takes about an hour on foot from Yui station, much of it between mandarin orchards.

Joseon envoys lodged here on their missions to Japan, and the plaques and poems they left still hang inside. The JR Tokaido line cuts between the outer gate and the main hall, so you cross a footbridge over the tracks to get in.

The showroom of a city that calls itself the plastic model capital, home to Tamiya and Bandai's model works. It sits in the building just outside the station's south exit and is free, which makes it a fit for a spare half hour before a train.

The fish market beside Shimizu port, one of Japan's biggest landing points for frozen tuna. A market hall adjoins a restaurant hall, and most visitors eat a tuna bowl rather than carry fish away. Expect a queue at lunch.

The creator of Chibi Maruko-chan grew up in Shimizu, so the S-Pulse Dream Plaza at Shimizu port rebuilds the cartoon's neighbourhood. You can sit in Maruko's living room and classroom. The same building has a sushi street, which makes it a lunch stop too.

Fuji's snowmelt, filtered through the mountain, pours from cracks in a lava cliff at Fujinomiya in hundreds of silky threads. The drop is about 20m but the curtain runs 150m wide. Listed with Fuji as World Heritage, it is a quick walk down steps from parking.

A narrow suspension bridge over the emerald lake of the Sumatakyo gorge. Only a set number may cross at once, so in leaf season the queue at the end can top an hour. It lies over two hours of mountain roads from Shizuoka city.

A 400m footbridge opened in 2015, the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in Japan. On clear days Mount Fuji fills the view ahead and Suruga Bay lies to the south. Go early in the day, before clouds gather round the peak.