Ibaraki

We had a quick breakfast this morning in preparation for our trip to Ibaraki prefecture. Come to think of it we travelled from Fukushima prefecture to Tochigi prefecture yesterday.

Back at Utsunomiya Station, my sister bought some camembert cheese sponge cake to have as a treat for our trip. Then we travelled to Oyama, and then took the train to Katsuta. It was an almost 3 hour train trip. We saw a lot of lush hills and plenty of tilled fields ready for planting.

When we arrived at Katsuta station, we saw a gentleman with a signboard advertising a return shuttle + day pass to the Hitachi Seaside Park. We followed his directions and when we got down to the street level we saw a winding queue of people bound to the flower park.

It was a flowing line of people as there was a continuous stream of buses to service the tourists. We were also quite delighted as they offered discount for visitors above 65 years old. As always, Japanese people are very efficient.

When we arrived at the venue, we were greeted by an expansive space after we entered the gates. There were multiple food trucks offering different dining options and heaps of tables and chairs both in the shade and under the sun available for the guests. We decided to have some lunch first. I had some yakisoba (stir fried noodles and vegetables and some meat) and mom and dad and my sister had some nikumaki onigiri (meat wrapped rice) and some potato with cheese. For dessert we had some of the camembert sponge cake that my sister bought earlier. After we had our fill, we began exploring the park.

Just close to the dining space, there were some tulip beds beneath a canopy of trees. There was also a small windmill there, most likely an attempt to give it the well-known tulip and windmill combination in the Netherlands.

We then decided to head to visit the area where they've planted the nemophilias. From a distance one would have thought there was an ocean on the horizon, but actually, they were blue hills -- filled with nemophilias in full bloom. Based on the Hitachi Seaside Park website, the hills turn to red in autumn as they cover it with the deciduous summer cypress.

There was a procession of people walking towards the lookout (miharashi). From up on miharashi hill, you can see the Pacific Ocean, and looking back towards the park you can see a field of canola also in full bloom and behind it are some traditional village houses. Mom and dad decided to relax in the benches just below the blue hills.

We saw plenty of visitors bringing along their pets, mostly dogs, but some brought their bunnies with them. They were excellent subjects to photograph with the blue hill as their background.

When my sister and I had our fill of the beautiful view up there, we joined mom and dad for afternoon tea. We wanted to try some dried sweet potato gelato. We were disappointed though that it was sold out. We ended up just buying some nemophilia macarons, however they were nowhere near the delicious wisteria ice cream in Ashikaga flower park. We couldn't determine any nemophilia scent in them, but it did its job tasting like macarons. Still it was a good pairing with a cup of coffee.

Afterwards we walked to where the rose gardens are but unfortunately they were not in bloom. We were surprised that there was an amusement park called Pleasure Garden and it had a ferris wheel, a roller coaster and other rides in this huge flower park.

We sought assistance from a park staff member to direct us to where the bus stop where the shuttle back to Katsusa station is situated. He told us to return to the West Gate exit. We were joined by a mass exodus of people as it was already closing time at this stage (5pm). But we didn't have to wait long as the buses were continuous like this morning. And everyone were very obedient sticking to the queue.

The train back to our accommodation has been much slower, as the services were limited and kept waiting for other train passengers from different train line services.

We decided to have a quick dinner when we arrived back at Utsunomiya Station around 9pm. There was a nearby McDonald's. They had a seasonal offering -- a crumbed chicken seasoned with yuzu (Japanese citrus lemon) mayonnaise sandwiched between rice patties. It was very delicious and was perfect as a meal before sleeping.Read more