Hitachi Seaside Park

During fall season, a lot of people get out from
Tokyo to enjoy koyo (trees changing colors).
There are so many places to see beautiful koyo,
but I’d say Hakone in Kanagawa and Nikko in
Tochigi are two of the best-known places for it,
and even hot springs attract leaf-viewers. Of
course, I’m not an exception! Well, for me, I’m
not a city girl, so I get these itchy feet and want
to get away from this busy metropolis and just
relax surrounded by the nature any time of the
year…
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Anyway, since it was mid-October and still a bit
too early for a perfect koyo, I looked for
something different. Besides, I’ve been to
Hakone and Nikko already, so why not check out
a different place, right? As I was looking around,
one picture caught my attention: a picture of a
hill covered with bright magenta-colored plants
called kochia (also called ‘bassia’ in English). I
found out that the picture was taken at a
seaside park in Ibaraki prefecture named Hitachi
Kaihin Park. Without having a second thought, I
decided to head out there. I just fell in love with
the color at the first sight.
We took a rapid train bound for Katsuta (勝田)
from Nippori (日暮里) station and it took about 2
hours. If you want to save some time, you can
take an express train called 'Fresh Hitachi' and
pay double. After getting off the train, we
transferred to a local bus which took us to the
West entrance. The admission was only 300 yen.
Upon entering, we found a big wide-open space
with a fountain behind it. We sat down there and
had lunch while looking at a site map.
Apparently, Hitachi Kaihin Park is almost 7 times
bigger than Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. There are so
many things to do. Since it is gigantic, people
rent bicycles or get on a train called the Seaside
Train, which goes around the park. There is a
road through the park that takes in the many
gardens with different flowers, and there is also
an amusement park.
Among the gardens, my favorite is, of course,
Kochia! According to the map, Kochia was
planted around the place called “Miharashi no
oka - lookout hill”. As the name indicates, we got
the best view from there. We looked down the
magenta carpet from the hilltop on one side and
also enjoyed the view of the Pacific Ocean on
the other! To add a nice color gradation, lots of
cosmos were planted among the kochia. I wish it
was sunny day so that I could have seen the
contrast between the blue sky over the red
garden, but the view was still amazing
nevertheless!

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