09:00 wake up
10:40 I left Iwata to go to Hamamatsu station by train and from there directly headed to the Hamamatsu castle. The Hamamatsu castle is quite special as it was the residence for the first Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu for 17 years. As with many other castles it got dismantled at the end of the Edo period but rebuild in 1958 [efn_note] hamamatsu-daisuki, zooming-japan, wiki [/efn_note]. The castle area on itself is quite small but very well maintained. Although the castle fee was only 200 Yen i somehow did not feel like wanting to enter it. Instead i took a nap and fiddled with my playing cards there until I decided to go to the Nakajima sand dunes.
16:40 as luck is always on my site the moment I almost finished my bento and proceeded to dive into he dunes it suddenly started to rain heavily but as sudden as it started as sudden it also ended. Soaked wet I still decided to stay at the beach until the sun set for some pictures. The beach site itself contained more pebbles than sand but still better than the Miho no Matsuba Site in Shizuoka. The waves are quite heavy so leisurely swimming is not possible but nonetheless it`s a very wide beach side with a fresh salty wind breeze.
20:00 arriving at the capsule hotel DormyInn Global Cabin.
Until now I was under the impression that the lightning capsule hotel in Asakusa was already good but this one tops everything I’ve seen so far.So this capsule hotel has a huge lounge, an indoor hot bath, laundry doesn’t cost anything except for drying, they provide free instant noodles from 9pm to 11 pm and the breakfast was very comprehensive. I think the normal price per day would be 3500 yen and I got a special last minute deal through Agoda but still this might be better than some 4 star hotels for one third of the price. I am very impressed.
Hamamatsu is a nice city with around 700000 inhabitants. The inner city part near the main train station does remind of the flashy areas in Tokyo and in general you get reminded that you are in a more lively city now. Hamamatsu is actually famous for musical instrument since Yamaha has it`s HQ here and for Unagi (eels) coming directly from the nearby Lake Hamana (hamamatsu-daisuki)
Steps: 17930 (11,8km)
Spendings: 24.11 Euro Hotel, 1300 food, 600 transportation