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~4ha 4–6 hour stop ashoreJust turn up#Eat浜松城

Hamamatsu Castle and an unagi lunch

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Hamamatsu Castle and an unagi lunchHamamatsu CastleHamamatsu castle元城町東照宮高根城（浜松市）高根城（浜松市）大手門高根城（浜松市）搦手門1 / 7

Hamamatsu Castle and an unagi lunchPhoto: Toshihiro Gamo from Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan / CC BY 2.0

Tap a photo to see it large. 7 photographs, every one credited.

Round trip
4 hr
From the ship and back
Fits
a 4–6 hour stop ashore
Margin already counted
Getting there
Hired car only; 48 km, about 40 min each way without traffic
About ¥12,400–12,500 each way on the meter (our estimate, distance only) · castle ¥410, tea house ¥510
Booking
Just turn up
Nothing to reserve
Why we send people here

Grilled eel is Hamamatsu’s dish, and the castle where Tokugawa Ieyasu spent 17 years sits 20 minutes’ walk from the station, ¥200, 8:30–16:30. The rebuilt keep is concrete; the rough stone walls are original. A long-call choice only: castle and lunch, then straight back.

Before you count on it
  • 4 hr door to door means a 2–3 hour stop ashore cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
The story

Why Hamamatsu Castle and an unagi lunch is famous

Hamamatsu Castle is where Tokugawa Ieyasu spent 17 years, from the age of 29 to 45. It is nicknamed the castle of promotion, because so many lords who held it went on to high office in the shogunate. The keep is a concrete replica of 1958, but it stands on Ieyasu's own stone walls, laid in the rough unshaped style called nozura-zumi. Grilled eel is the city's dish; Lake Hamana on its western edge is a long-established eel-farming water.

Where to have it

Three places, three different answers

The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.

Where locals goUnagidokoro Nozaki, Omaezaki

The grilled-eel house on the port council’s eat list, in Omaezaki itself rather than Hamamatsu. Hours and payment not published.

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Where it is

Hamamatsu Castle and an unagi lunch and your ship

Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.

The arithmetic

Where the 4 hr goes

Counted from the moment you step off the gangway. The hour before all-aboard is not in this bar; it is already set aside.

Out40 minHired car only; 48 km, about 40 min each way without traffic
There2 hr 40 minWhat you came for
Back40 minTo the gangway

40 minutes each way is the measured figure for hired car only; 48 km, about 40 min each way without traffic, not the optimistic one. If your ship is late, cut the 2 hr 40 min in the middle. Never cut the hour at the end.

The day this belongs to

Routes that already include it

Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.

Kakegawa Castle by hired taxi4–6 hours · ~4.5h door to doorA 6-hour call and one real sight beyond the capeCastle, tea museum and tea factory by hourly hire (07:00–16:00 call)8 hours or more · ~7h door to doorThe 9-hour Westerdam call, gangway by 15:00The wet-day Omaezaki: tea museum, palace and market hallA wet day · ~4.5h door to doorRain or strong wind, when the lighthouse is shut anyway
Pairs well with

What to put beside it

Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.

Build your own day →
See · ~1.5–2h

Omaezaki Lighthouse and the cape

A white brick tower designed under Richard Henry Brunton and first lit in 1874, one of Japan’s 16 climbable lighthouses.

See the detail →See · ~2h

Makinohara tea plateau and Grinpia

The largest tea plateau in Japan, planted by former Tokugawa retainers after the Restoration.

See the detail →See · ~3h

Kakegawa Castle

The first full-scale wooden keep rebuilt in Japan, in 1994, beside a late-Edo palace that is one of four castle palaces left in the country.

See the detail →
The one rule: be back on board 60 minutes before all-aboard. Build the whole day on the Omaezaki plan page.
Everything in one pageThe complete Omaezaki guide: berth, into town, your hours, tours that fitOpen the complete guide →