Hamanako Garden Park (1) - Lakeside marvelous park

Hamanako Garden Park is one of my favorite spots in Hamamatsu. It is a huge park with an area of 56 ha. It was originally made for an event “Pacific Flora 2004,” Shizuoka International Garden and Horticulture Exhibition. After that, it has been an admisson-free prefectural park where you can see many kinds of flowers and relax. Now, Hamanako Garden Park is one of the two parks where Lake Hamana Flower Festa 2019 is held (the other is Hamamatsu Flower Park), but it remains admission-free.

The only disadvantage of this park is that public transportation is inconvenient. Even on weekends, there are only 6 buses a day from the bus terminal behind JR Hamamatsu Station to the park (it takes about one hour). During Lake Hamana Flower Festa 2019, there are 3 buses a day from JR Maisaka Station, but it is still inconvenient.

This morning, I took a train to JR Bentenjima Station. It was only 12-minute ride from JR Hamamatsu Station. Bentenjima is a little island on Lake Hamana connected with the sea, and the sea is just 2 km away from the station. From the exit, I went to the north side of the station, hoping that the weather would become better.

Then I continued to walk northward then on a long bridge Hamanako Ohashi. As Lake Hamana is connected with the sea, it was windy on the bridge and the air smelled salty. I love it. That’s why I walked to Hamanako Garden Park instead of taking a bus. The observatory tower in the park was visible all the time, but it took me 45 minutes to get to the park.

The first thing I saw in the park was a huge lawn field. On the right of it, there was a parking lot.

The first garden area of the park consists of flower beds owned by local groups such as schools, families, companies, or other organization. They are volunteers of this park and work with their own flower beds by planting, watering, etc. Today, the groups had taken their flowers to plant to their  flower beds. I saw some volunteer people working there.

Each flower bed had a board with its owner’s name.

The combination with an old bench and bricks was nice.

This was colorful.

Behind these flower beds of groups, there were larger flower beds. The brown building over there is a stage where concerts are held sometimes.

In this park, gardens are placed along a waterway. Beyond it, I saw the obervatory tower with a height of 50m. I have never been to the top, but the view over the park and Lake Hamana may be splended.