Cannery Row Italian restaurant

This may be one of the best restaurants in Fuji City . It was certainly the one that came most highly recommended. After walking along the path lined with olive trees, rosemary and basil and glancing at the beautiful decor, I sat down to look at the menu and was shocked at how reasonably priced everything was.

First off, if you miss really good pizza, go to this place. They do pizza really well and there's a fantastic variety on the pizza menu, including Italian style and Japanese style choices.

And if you're a pasta junkie like me...again, go to this place. I recommend the spaghetti with smoked salmon cream sauce. Best of all, you can get lunch sets where you choose a main dish (pizza or pasta) and get unlimited salad bar and drink bar. And let me say that the salad bar alone is worth the price of the entire meal - rices, seafood, potatoes and a vast array of vegetables. And all of this will cost about 1200-1400 yen! I'm not sure if dinner is more expensive.

Finally, you can add TWO dessert choices to your lunch for a mere 240 yen or THREE for 340 yen. Cannery Row is well known for its great desserts. The momblan (Mont Blanc) cake is particularly good.

Cannery Row is located close to Fuji High School. See here for a map.

Jumbo Encho home center

Jumbo Encho is a huge home center in the Yoshiwara district of Fuji City. It has everything you may need for your home at reasonable prices. For example you can buy:

kitchen supplies

hardware supplies

garden supplies

a puppy (and general pet supplies)

You can also get electronic appliances, heating and air conditioning stuff, stationery, bicycles, cleaning supplies, paint and anything else you may need to turn your fetid apaato into something livable. It's about a 10 minute walk from Yoshiwara Chuo Station. See here for a map.

Land of Oz bar

In every Japanese city, there's at least one gaijin-friendly joint where foreigners go to sip familiar beer and speak English to each other. Land of Oz is Fuji City's. It's made up like a kitschy Australian bar and serves a pretty good selection of international beer and liquor, including Guinness on tap. Plus you can get food like tacos, nachos and chicken wings and meet cool people from all over Shizuoka.

It's just about a five minute walk from Fuji Station's North exit. See here for a map or here for their Facebook page with upcoming events.

Fuji Festival

There's nothing quite like a Japanese summer festival - girls draped in yukatas, delicious food and fantastic fireworks. Almost every town has its own festival and Fuji City is no exception. Fuji Festival is on the fourth Saturday in July every year. It takes place in Fujikawa, with panoramic views of the Fujikawa bridge and the Minami Alps. Against this backdrop, and with the shinkansen racing by from time to time, the fireworks were really something to behold.

Take the train to JR Fujikawa Station and follow the mob of people. It's about a ten minute walk to the festival site. The most comfortable place to view the fireworks is from a picnic spot but you have to buy a ticket that costs around 5000 yen (you can maybe fit up to ten people in each spot). This year, the fireworks started at 7:30 pm but come early to enjoy the festival mood.