In the Sanura district of Numazu, made up of Nishiura, Uchiura and Shizuura, mandarin growing can be traced back about 450 years, and full-scale cultivation began in the early Meiji era. In 1975, Jutaro Yamada, a mandarin farmer in Nishiura, found a bud mutation of the Aoshima unshu mandarin and named it Jutaro unshu. It is a little smaller than the Aoshima, with higher sugar and acidity and a richer taste; it is picked in December, stored, and shipped from around February. It now accounts for half of Numazu's mandarin acreage, and on November 18, 2020, Nishiura Mikan Jutaro was registered under the national Geographical Indication system.
Sources: pref.shizuoka.jp pref.shizuoka.jp maff.go.jp
This moment in the journey
Mandarins under the kotatsu
I switched on the kotatsu, and with it, the winter switch was turned on. Under the bare bulbs, with the sea outside the window, I slipped under the quilt. Warming my body while topping up on nutrition with mandarins.
Delicious, easy to peel by hand, and they keep well. Mandarins under the kotatsu may be the wisdom of our ancestors.
As the sun sank, Mt. Fuji across Suruga Bay turned the color of the sunset. Beyond a fishing boat pulled up on land, there was Mt. Fuji again. An old-fashioned Japanese winter. At night, the windows of the old house glowed.
Watch this scene on YouTube5:06
More notes from this journey
Numazu, Shizuoka
Numazu bowl (Numazu-don)
Numazu-don is a local specialty born at a Numazu bowl contest in 2000: rice cooked with dried horse mackerel, topped with raw whitebait, raw sakura shrimp and c…
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Sakura shrimp kakiage
Every sakura shrimp landed in Japan comes from Suruga Bay.
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Horse mackerel chazuke
The half of the chopped horse mackerel I had set aside while making the Numazu bowl spent the night in soy sauce and became the next morning's chazuke.
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Asa-Ichi, the morning market in the Arcade Meitengai
A morning market held in the shopping arcade near Numazu Station on the first day of every month except January, from 8 a.m.
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Numazu himono, dried horse mackerel
Numazu is one of Japan's leading producers of dried fish; fish drying at the Numazu post town even appears in Hiroshige's Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido.
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
Sakura shrimp of Suruga Bay
Sakura shrimp also live in Tokyo Bay and Sagami Bay, but only Shizuoka Prefecture licenses the fishery, so every shrimp landed in Japan comes from Suruga Bay.
From: Gifts of the sea in a town that looks out on Mt. Fuji
More notes from Tokai
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Rice cooked over a kamado
In this house the tiled kamado is still in daily use.
From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Satsuki's lunch box
A recreation of the lunch Satsuki gets up early to make in My Neighbor Totoro: rice cooked over a kamado, grilled dried sardines, green peas, pink sakura denbu…
From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Wild boar hot pot over the hearth
Most of Hamamatsu's Tenryu Ward is forest, and the Tenryu Gibier Fes, a festival of wild game, is held in Futamata (its fifth edition was in May 2025).
From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Skewered yamame trout
Every summer a yamame-catching festival is held on the Misakubo River (the 28th was in July 2025).
From: Lighting the kamado in a house in the sky
Numazu, Shizuoka
Rice-ball bento in bamboo sheath
I wrapped freshly made rice balls in bamboo sheath with rolled omelet and pickled cucumber and carried them down to the water.
From: Making sushi with a view of Mt. Fuji
Numazu, Shizuoka
The Numazu special: nigiri and gunkan sushi
Numazu Port is where the fish of Suruga Bay come ashore, with a street of restaurants serving seafood fresh off the boats.
From: Making sushi with a view of Mt. Fuji