Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko traveled Friday with Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia to the central Japan city of Shizuoka, part of a visit marking next year's 150th anniversary of bilateral relations between the two countries.

It is the Spanish king's first visit to Japan since he ascended the throne in 2014. During the trip, the state guests and the imperial couple are scheduled to observe a historical western clock presented by then-Spanish king Felipe III to the Tokugawa shogunate founder Tokugawa Ieyasu in the 1600s.

They left Tokyo station by shinkansen bullet train in the morning.

They are scheduled to have lunch at Fugetsuro, a Japanese restaurant and reception hall built at the site of a former residence of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, where the clock will be put on display.

The clock, now designated as a national important cultural property in Japan, was given as a token of gratitude from Felipe III after Tokugawa Ieyasu welcomed Spanish sailors who were rescued after their ship wrecked off Chiba Prefecture in the 1600s, and built a new ship for them to go home.

The clock is usually kept at Kuno-zan Toshogu Shrine in Shizuoka city.

The Spanish royal couple and Japanese emperor and empress also will visit the Shizuoka prefectural earthquake disaster prevention center.

It is customary that the Japanese imperial couple go together on a domestic trip with foreign royal family members who are visiting Japan as state guests.