You can't go very far in Shizuoka without seeing tea fields: the place joins Uji (south of Nara) as one of Japan's most famous tea growing areas. Here the mountains of Fuji and Hakone change to rolling hills with a thick green pelt of the rows of tea plants you see here. If you have time, it's fun to cycle up in the hills among the tea plantations as a breack from the flat coastal road. This is just north of Shimizu, but unfortunately I can't remember which tiny road it was.

I'm used to seeing things cultivated on very, very steep terraced hillsides in Japan (translation: I've been to Shikoku). But this was a bit much even for me. If you look closely left of center in this photo, you can see one tiny patch of tea being cultivated on this hillside. It can't possibly be enough tea to make it worth trekking all the way up there and back...