Kakegawa Castle & Green Tea Fields

Kakegawa Castle sits just 700 meters from Kakegawa Station, reached by a 15-20 minute Kodama Shinkansen ride from Shizuoka or Hamamatsu, or a 30-40 minute JR Tokaido Main Line local, followed by a short 5-10 minute walk. The castle's main keep was reconstructed in 1994 using traditional wooden joinery techniques after the original Edo-period structure, itself rebuilt following a 16th-century campaign led by Tokugawa Ieyasu, was lost to earthquake damage; the adjacent Ninomaru Palace survives as one of Japan's few original Edo-period palace buildings open to the public. Beyond the castle, the Makinohara plateau 10-15 km away is one of Japan's largest contiguous green tea growing regions, reached in 20-30 minutes by car or local bus, with a tea museum and viewing points over the terraced fields. A typical day starts with the short walk from Kakegawa Station to the castle and Ninomaru Palace, allowing an hour or so to explore the keep's reconstructed interior and the palace's tatami rooms, followed by a car or bus trip out to the Makinohara tea fields for a walk among the terraces and a stop at the tea museum, where tastings of local sencha are often available. Restaurants near the castle serve regional specialties including grilled eel and tea-infused dishes, useful for lunch before heading to the tea plateau. May and October give the best views of active tea cultivation, with the fields freshly trimmed after the spring and autumn harvests, though the castle and palace are worth visiting in any season.