In November 2025, I finally got to stay at THE VILLA, a brewery run by West Coast Brewing (WCB), located in Mochimune, Shizuoka City . WCB is a craft beer brewery that brews its beer in Mochimune and has expanded its restaurants and beer stands in Shizuoka City, Hamamatsu City, Umeda and Shinsaibashi in Osaka, and has further expanded to Okinawa and Toranomon and Marunouchi in Tokyo, making it a brewery to watch. THE VILLA is located across from the brewery, and what’s noteworthy is that each guest room has its own tap . You can pour your own 10L bottle of beer and enjoy it to your heart’s content.
The nearest station, Mochimune Station, is the second station from JR Shizuoka Station on the Tokaido Main Line towards Hamamatsu. Mochimune is a port town with a fishing port and beaches, and the fresh whitebait landed in Mochimune is particularly renowned for its delicious taste.
Kanehide Kobayashi Shoten: A fish shop with incredibly low prices and direct delivery from Mochimune Port.
THE VILLA is about a 15-minute walk from the station. On the way, we stopped by ” Kanehide Kobayashi Shoten” a shop about 5 minutes from the station where you can get fresh sashimi from Mochimune, to pick up the sashimi platter I had reserved in advance. The women running the shop were friendly and sent us off saying, “So you’re staying at that hotel? Have a drink!”
On another occasion, I purchased medium-fatty tuna sashimi, boiled whitebait, flounder sashimi, Shizuoka’s specialty black fish cake, and dried barracuda. I couldn’t believe my ears at how cheap it all was, totaling only 2100 yen. It was before evening, but they said it would be possible to take it back to Tokyo the same day if I added plenty of ice packs, and they kindly provided a large quantity of ice packs free of charge. The boiled whitebait, in particular, was delicious with its rich flavor and aroma.
The sea appears emerald green.
We walked to THE VILLA along the road facing Mochimune Green Space, which is located along the coast. Mochimune Green Space has pine trees planted around it, and beyond the adjacent parking lot is a beach that becomes a swimming area in the summer, where people are doing stand-up paddleboarding (SUP). On a sunny day, the sea looks emerald green.
“Itto,” a small shop in town where you can also sample local sake for a fee.
Along the way, we spotted a small shop called “itto” Intrigued, we peeked inside and found they sold local Shizuoka souvenirs, sake, and other regional goods. I bought some Shizuoka (Kakegawa) powdered green tea and some snacks. They also had a paid sake tasting machine, so I tried two kinds. (I can’t remember which ones…)
With its stylish exterior reminiscent of a resort hotel, West Coast Brewing’s “THE VILLA”
Upon arriving at THE VILLA and checking in, we were offered a welcome beer at the taproom counter on the same first floor. The taproom also serves as a restaurant, offering a menu centered around Tex-Mex cuisine. There’s also a merchandise corner where you can buy canned beer and original goods. My friends who were with me were very excited and bought T-shirts, hats, glasses, and other items. However, the refrigerator in our room was only for canned beer (which was a paid item), so we asked the staff to store the sashimi we had bought earlier in the kitchen refrigerator.
After enjoying a welcome beer, a staff member navigated us to “Nelson” that was the loft room we had booked. The room was on the second floor, and amenities such as a water dispenser, slippers, towels, and skincare sets were available in the common corridor, so guests could take what they needed to their rooms.
“Nelson” is a room with a loft, and this time we stayed there as a group of four. The beer on tap is brewed exclusively for guests. After putting down our luggage, we all immediately toasted with beer from the tap. We were told that the trick to pouring is to pull the lever all the way, so at first only foam came out and we struggled a bit, but we gradually got the hang of it. The beer was refreshing citrusy with a moderate body, the kind you wouldn’t get tired of drinking. (Alcohol content is about 5%)
Mochimune Minato Onsen, where you can see Mount Fuji across the street.
After enjoying a beer and taking a break, we headed to “Mochimune Minato Onsen” located across the road from THE VILLA, using the unlimited access hot springs plan we had opted for. This building was formerly used as a fish market, but is now jointly used by the hot springs and WCB’s beer brewery. The bathhouse is spacious and includes an open-air bath. Entering the Fujimi Hut in the open-air bath, you can look outside through a small window, and apparently you can see Mount Fuji during the day. (We went at night, so we could see the moon.) There is also a restaurant and a shop selling souvenirs and other items.
After returning from the hot springs, the party began. We picked up the sashimi that had been kept for us in the kitchen refrigerator (we were also given soy sauce), spread out the snacks everyone had brought on the table, and enjoyed plenty of tap beer. When the party was in full swing, the first 5L tank was empty, so we exchanged it for a second 5L tank. We could also order from the restaurant’s Tex-Mex food menu via QR code (the staff would bring the food to our room), but we were already full, so we decided against ordering anything this time. And, as you might expect, we couldn’t finish the second 5L tank. (It’s a shame I forgot to take a picture of the beer itself.)
The next morning, we toured the brewery.
The next morning, we enjoyed freshly ground coffee using the manual grinder provided in our room, which had been prepared in the refrigerator. The manual grinder had a long handle, making it very easy to use. We were tempted to have the breakfast waffle set (for an extra charge) at the taproom on the first floor, but we weren’t very hungry, so we skipped it this time.
After checking out, we participated in the brewery tour (3000 yen per person) that we had booked in advance, starting at 10am. It seemed that other hotel guests had also booked, as everyone was there. At the taproom on the first floor, which was the meeting place, a staff member gave us a brief lecture about WCB, and there was also a quiz where you could win a Hop Dude sticker if you answered correctly. Fortunately, we answered correctly and got a sticker. Afterwards, we visited the brewery adjacent to the Mochimune Minato Onsen. Photography is allowed inside the facility from the entrance. The staff member gave us a detailed explanation of the ingredients and manufacturing methods of WCB beer, and we were able to ask various questions at any time. What was particularly striking was that the malt used as an ingredient is imported from overseas, such as the UK, so it is greatly affected by exchange rates, and with the current weak yen, costs have increased significantly.
After the tour, we returned to the taproom on the first floor of THE VILLA, where we could choose to have a glass of our favorite beer or take a can of beer home as a souvenir. We decided to have a beer right there. I chose Natural Sugar, one of my favorites from the lineup at the time. I recommended it to my friend, and he liked it too. It’s quite different in color from typical yellow beers, but it’s a well-balanced beer with a rich sweetness and tartness from cassis and berries. It’s not too sweet and easy to drink, although the alcohol content is a relatively high 8.5%. It’s not currently on sale because the planned production run has been completed, but I hope it will make a comeback.
Exquisite raw whitebait at local fish restaurant “Ooishi”
After enjoying some beer following our brewery tour, we said goodbye to THE VILLA. Since it was almost lunchtime, we headed to ” Ooishi, ” a local seafood restaurant about a 5-minute walk away, which was recommended by the WCB staff. Lunch is served from 11:30 to 14:00, but when we visited, they had already started closing around 13:30, so it’s best to go early.
I decided to splurge a little and ordered the Suruga Gozen (3000 yen), which allows you to enjoy all of Mochimune’s specialties at once: raw whitebait rice bowl, sashimi, and sakura shrimp tempura. I’m not usually a big fan of raw whitebait, but just as the owner said, this whitebait was very fresh and exceptionally delicious. Whether or not it’s available depends on the weather, but it’s available except during the closed fishing season from January 15th to mid-March. The sakura shrimp tempura was also very tasty, as was the sashimi. (The tempura in the photo is a portion for two people to share.)
We also had a tasting set of three local Shizuoka sakes. (I think it was around 1000-1500 yen.) According to the owner, the most popular is “Karakuchi Tokubetsu Junmai Shosetsu” (Kanzawagawa Brewery), which uses Homare Fuji, a sake rice variety unique to Shizuoka Prefecture. Its fruity and refreshing taste was well-received by my friends as well. “Shidaizumi Unfiltered Unpasteurized Junmai Ginjo Sake” (Shidaizumi Brewery) offers the fresh taste of unpasteurized sake and the umami of unfiltered sake. “Special Junmai Dry Takasago” (Fuji Takasago Brewery) is quite dry with a +10 rating, but it is a superior junmai sake made with Yamada Nishiki and Gohyakumangoku rice, which won a bronze medal at the Sake International Challenge 2019, and was a very satisfying drink.
Minato Yokocho: A blend of modern and retro.
If you walk for about 5 minutes down the street that THE VILLA faces towards Mochimune Station, you’ll find ” Minato Yokocho .” Previously, it was “Seaside Minato Yokocho,” a dilapidated alleyway that seemed frozen in time from the Showa era, but now it has been renovated in a modern style and houses Thai restaurants, izakayas, cafes, and more. Inside, however, traces of the alley’s original character remain.
This time, we went to a fried bread shop called ” MARU MER “. Although they mainly sell sweet items, I bought the Shizuoka specialty shirasu (whitebait) cheese flavor and the sakura shrimp potato cheese flavor. Since they are savory items, I was told to heat them in the microwave if I was going to eat them after they had cooled down at home. They were small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and looked like small hamburgers. When I got back to Tokyo, I reheated them in the microwave and ate them. When I think of fried bread, I imagine it being a bit greasy because the oil seeps through to the inside, but they make the dough using a time-consuming and special method called the tangzhong method, so it was fluffy and chewy, and the oil didn’t seep through to the inside, and it didn’t feel greasy at all. The shirasu, sakura shrimp and cheese were a perfect match and it was quite filling, so I was pretty full after eating two.
This is a ramen I never would have thought of: “Noodle Kitchen Terracosta”
On another occasion, in March 2026, I visited ” Noodle Kitchen Terracosta ,” a popular restaurant that serves Western-style noodles that fuse Italian and ramen cuisine . It’s located along the road facing Mochimune Green Space, which is on the coast on the way to THE VILLA. The interior, on the second floor, is more like a cafe than a ramen shop. You purchase a meal ticket from a vending machine at the entrance and are shown to your seat by a staff member. Looking at the menu with pictures, which is also displayed outside, in addition to salt noodles and soy sauce noodles, there are menu items not usually seen in ramen shops, such as tomato miso noodles, rich cheese carbonara noodles, and chicken and dried sardine soup genovese noodles. I was also curious about the tomato miso, but this time I ordered the genovese ramen with a boiled egg (1300 yen). Water and iced tea are self-service. The noodles were definitely ramen, and the genovese sauce soup, which combines basil with the flavors of chicken and dried sardine broth, was rich but not heavy and easy to drink, and it was so delicious that I drank it all. As of March 2026, the most popular item seems to be the rich shrimp and tomato dipping noodles with cheese (1200 yen). Incidentally, alcoholic beverages available included Corona beer, Moretti, and red and white wine by the glass.
“La Palette” gelato that rivals the authentic Italian gelato.
The other day, I went to a gelato shop in Florence, Italy that always has a long line, but there is a delicious gelato shop in Mochimune called ” La Palette ” that is just as good and always has a line. On this day (March 16th), they were having a Strawberry Fair, and the only flavors available were strawberry-based, which is irresistible for strawberry lovers. I ordered the Triple Petit, which lets you choose three flavors, and Mariko Black Tea (I misread it as “Maruko,” but it’s actually “Mariko”) for 1000 yen. All three gelato flavors were sweetened with natural sweetness without any added sugar, and the Benihoppe strawberry gelato in particular was exquisite, allowing you to really taste the original flavor of the strawberry.
Map of the places mentioned here
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Take a short trip to Kakegawa Flower and Bird Park
Kakegawa Kachoen (Kakegawa Flower and Bird Park ) is located about 30 minutes from Mochimune towards Hamamatsu on the Tokaido Main Line, and about a 12-minute walk from Kakegawa Station . Parking is available. Admission fees are 1800 yen for junior high school students and older, 900 yen for elementary school students, free for infants, and 1500 yen for seniors (65 years and older), with other fee structures also available. There are four large greenhouses with high ceilings. One building, decorated with many hanging flowers, mainly houses a food court, while the other buildings have large aquariums with floating water lilies and exhibit birds mainly from warm regions, including owls and horned owls. Some owls and horned owls are displayed in individual cases, but many are free-roaming, and visitors can feed them directly.
The main attraction here is Futaba (female), a shoebill stork. Inhabiting the wetlands of eastern and central Africa, it has a large beak and eyes that look angry when viewed from the front, resembling a cartoon character, and is famous as the “bird that doesn’t move.” Standing perfectly still and motionless, it looks just like a statue. It has a large space all to itself. There are also pure white peacocks, colorful parakeets, and outdoors, black swans, African penguins, and emus.
Map of Kakegawa Flower and Bird Park
