Shizuoka: Events Worth Planning Around
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A lot of “Shizuoka festivals” lists pad out with vaguely-dated events nobody can actually confirm. Here’s what’s genuinely on the 2026 calendar, plus the seasonal windows worth building a trip around even when they aren’t a single fixed date.
The calendar at a glance
| Event or window | 2026 dates | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Kawazu early cherry blossoms | Feb 7-Mar 8, peak ~mid-Feb | Izu Peninsula |
| Shizuoka Festival | Apr 3-5 | Shizuoka City |
| Shincha (new tea) season | Late April-May | Prefecture-wide, best at Obuchi Sasaba |
| Fuji climbing season opens | Jul 1 (Subashiri), Jul 10 (Fujinomiya, Gotemba) | Shizuoka-side Fuji trails |
| Typhoon season | Aug-Oct | Prefecture-wide |
| Atami sea fireworks | Roughly 15 dates a year | Atami |
| Fuji climbing season closes | Sep 10, all trails | Shizuoka-side Fuji trails |
Spring is the window to build a trip around
Kawazu’s early cherry blossoms, on the Izu Peninsula, run February 7 through March 8, 2026, peaking around mid-February, weeks ahead of Tokyo’s own bloom and one of the earliest sakura windows anywhere in the country. The Shizuoka Festival follows in the city itself, April 3-5, 2026. Shincha, the first-flush tea harvest, comes right behind it, late April into May, the same stretch that makes the Obuchi Sasaba tea rows photograph best with Fuji standing behind them.
Summer opens the mountain, and the risk alongside it
Mount Fuji’s Shizuoka-side climbing season is short and exact: Subashiri opens July 1, alongside Yamanashi’s Yoshida trail, while Fujinomiya and Gotemba open July 10; all three close September 10. None of the Shizuoka trails cap daily climbers the way Yoshida does, but all three share a 2pm-3am gate closure that requires a booked mountain hut, so treat the opening date as a planning deadline for that hut reservation, not just a calendar note. Typhoon season runs August through October alongside it, worth building slack into any late-summer trip whether or not Fuji is on the itinerary.
Atami’s fireworks, on no single date
Atami runs sea fireworks roughly 15 times a year rather than on one marquee date, a rolling schedule rather than a festival to circle on a calendar months out. Check the current year’s dates close to your trip if a fireworks night is the reason you’re timing an Atami stop specifically.
For the fuller trip plan around any of these windows, see the guide ; the 3-day itinerary works an Izu onsen night in around the spring cherry-blossom window.
One concrete move: if the early cherry blossoms are the draw, book for mid-February specifically. Kawazu peaks weeks before Tokyo’s own season, and travelers timing a trip to Tokyo’s bloom miss it entirely.