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This museum gives visitors a taste of the famous Hamamatsu Festival year round, with its huge kites, festival clothing, lanterns, and banners. Videos show how the kites are made, flown and fought.
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中田島砂丘
The second largest grouping of sand dunes in Japan makes a great place for a stroll or picnic. Be careful if swimming, as there is somewhat of an undertow.
浜松科学館, Hamamatsu Kagakukan
A range of interactive exhibits divided into five zones: nature, space, sound, light, and electricity. The third floor holds a planetarium.
Hamamatsu's only skyscraper is a symbol of the city, designed to resemble a harmonica, a reminder that Hamamatsu is sometimes known as the "City of Music". The building houses shopping and a food court, the Okura Hotel, and an observatory on the 45th floor from which you can see all of central Hamamatsu. The basement floor holds two theaters at which there are frequent concerts, musicals, plays, and seminars. On the west side there is a unique rooftop park complex, and on the north there is an outdoor "Sunken Garden" used at festival times for food stalls and cultural performances.
浜松市楽器博物館, Hamamatsu-shi Gakki Hakubutsukan
This museum, just northeast of Act City Tower, houses a collection of over 2,000 kinds of ethnic instruments from around the world. Each instrument has a display attached, with headphones so you can listen to the sound of the instrument. The museum also has a hands-on room, where you can play many types of instruments; drums, xylophones, sitars and native Japanese instruments. This is a child friendly museum.
五社神社, Gosha-jinja, and 諏訪神社, Suwa-jinja
Built in 1580 and 1556 respectively, these side-by-side shrines were reconstructed in the 1940s and serve downtown locals. Especially interesting at the shrine festival on May 4 or at Shichigosan on November 15 when local families wrap their small children in kimono and come here to pray.
鴨江観音
This bright-orange-and-white modern temple is one of the most important downtown temples. It is a good place to see the locals all dressed in kimono on holidays such as New Year's Day.