[ Apr.2017 ] At the beginning of Golden Week ( from the last few days of April to early May with 4 national holidays in between in Japan), we went to Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki prefecture in Japan with our friend in Tokyo.
We decided to meet at the station called Katsuta which was supposed to be the nearest one to the park.
My husband and I went there by slow train which took about one and a half hours, but our friend who underestimated the jam during the Golden Week could not take the limited express train she planned to take, so she came late.
Now she, who took the difficulty of travelling during Golden Week to heart, suggested that we should book the rapid train on the way back, so we did that first.
We had thought the park was near the Katsuta Station, but it was not.
From there, we had to take another train run by Hitachinaka Seaside Railway for about 30 minutes to get to Ajinoura Station, the terminal.
This train was old fashioned and rather cute.
From Ajinoura Station, we had to take a shuttle bus for about 10 minutes and finally we arrived at Hitachi Seaside Park.
By the way, it was possible to buy the ticket of this cute train combined with the entrance fee for the park.
This park is run by the state and the grounds are large as 350 ha.
In the past, this place was an airport for the Japanese army aviation school and after the second world war, it became the American Forces’ place for the aeroplanes to take target practice in 1946.
It was returned to Japan in 1973 and then it was opened as a park in 1991.
It is a huge place, but our purpose was just to see the view of the blue flowers called Nemophila blooming all over the ground.
One of my friends in London recommended to visit here in this season.
I saw some photos taken by her which was fantastic, so I wanted to come here.
We got a map of the park at the entrance and headed for this particular area with Nemophila called “Miharashi no Oka” hill.
Surely it was worth looking.
Apparently 4 and a half millions of Nemophilas were planted and the whole of this small hill looked blue, almost unified with the blue sky luckily we had on the day.
On top that, it was very interesting to see the view with people walking among the blue field following the curvy path.
It was a picture of blue with blackish curves of people.
Many people were squatting to take some close up photos of the flowers.
We walked around the hill and took many photos and after that, we had lunch of Ekiben (boxes of meal sold at a railway station) at the foot of the hill.
Then we went to the area of a half million rape blossoms next to the hill and enjoyed the colour contrast of yellow and blue.
On this Miharashi no Oka hill, after the season of Nemophila, they will plant 32000 Kochias or Bassia scoparias which get coloured in autumn, another popular time to visit here.
In this huge park, there were many facilities, such as Seaside Train which you can ride as many times as you want for the day with 500 yen, cycling course, BBQ area, big wheel and so on.
And above all, I thought it was good that there were many toilets dotted around the place.
Families can spend whole day without getting bored here.
We did not stay so long though.
After achieving our purpose, we walked a bit around the sand dune area and went back.
From the sand dune area, we could see the beautiful sea.
So the sea in Kanto Region is beautiful, too, when the sun is out.
On the way back, the limited express train from Katsuta was very fast and smooth.
After stopping at Mito, the next station was already Ueno in Tokyo.
