Port of Fuji is an independent English guide to Shimizu — Japan's Mt. Fuji cruise port — written for the passengers who walk off the gangway and want to run their own day. We are not a cruise line, not a coach-tour company, and not the port authority. The site is produced by MONOGATARI, the independent studio of Shizuoka-based creator Takumi Yamada.
This is, at heart, a local project. Shizuoka sits between Tokyo and Kyoto, and most of the world rides straight past it — yet it has Japan's tea heartland, its deepest bay, its best-loved mountain, and a port town where the tuna lands eight minutes from your gangway. We want overseas visitors to see what locals see in Shizuoka, and a cruise call is the perfect first taste.
Most of what passengers find online is either a ship's excursion brochure or a generic travel page written from a desk far away. So we built the guide we thought this port deserved: timed to real all-aboard deadlines, priced in real yen, and honest about what doesn't fit your hours. If your six hours in Shimizu are good, you'll come back to Shizuoka for a week — that's the bet this whole site is making.
Every plan on this site is built backwards from the same principle: be back on board at least 60 minutes before all-aboard. If a sight doesn't fit inside that margin, we say so — even when it's a famous one.
Transparency matters to us. Some experiences and tours link to our partner Viator (a Tripadvisor company); if you book through those links we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Those links are always labelled, and they never change our verdicts — this site tells you when a tour doesn't fit your call, too. We also work directly with select local operators, such as Natural Action for Fuji River rafting.
Photos come from our own shoots, Google Maps contributors, and Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses — every third-party photo is credited on the page and aggregated on our credits page.
Corrections, partnership enquiries, or a question about your call at Shimizu:
takumi.yamada@monogatari-inc.com
Operators and tourism organisations in the Shizuoka area: we're glad to link official resources and fix anything we've got wrong — write to us any time.
Be back on board at least 60 minutes before departure. Every itinerary on this site is designed around your all-aboard time, not around opening hours.
Mt. Fuji is clearly visible roughly 3–4 days out of 10, best in early morning. Check the official live camera before you commit to a view-based plan — and see our Plan B.
See which cruises call at Shimizu in 2026, and when — times verified against the official port schedule. Note: if your ship docks at Okitsu Pier, walking out is not permitted — plan transport ahead.