Ibaraki day-trip: blue nemophila, tulips and pacific coast

Ibaraki may be considered the least beautiful preferecture in Japan, but I would rather say it is the most underrated. It may not have that many touristic attractions, but it certaintly knows about flowers, having the Hitachi Seaside Park. It is a large public park known for its seasonal flowers, famously known for its 4.5 million baby blue-eyes (nemophila) that bloom in Spring. Of course, if you want to do a day-trip, there are also other things that can be visited.

I will share with you my 1-day itinerary to Ibaraki to see nemophila. While you can do it using public transport, and is probably the best if you can spare 2 days, for a day, I prefered to join an organised tour especially targeted at visiting these flowers.

I booked my tour through Klook, which is widely used in Asia, but there are others such as those organised by Willer Express that combine nemophila viewing at Ibaraki with Ashikaga Flower Park at Tochigi prefecture. Most tours depart next to Higashi-Shinjuku station in central Tokyo.

We were lucky to get a minivan with only 6 other people asides me and my friend.

After a 2 hour bus ride, we reached our first destination: Oarai Isosaki Shrine, a seaside shrine with a large toori gate just next to the road, followed by stairs to the main temple. The view from the top of the stairs towards the ocean was quite special. The temple grounds had also pretty mini-temples at the back I liked checking out :)

Crossing the road, we could see Kamiiso no Tori, a toori on the coastal rocks. It is the only torii I have seen at such a location. You cannot go up the rocks to get closer to the torii, but rather appreciate it from the side. I walked a bit along the beach though and there were children playing. In spite of thinking weather would be rainy, it was half-sunny and nice.

The next stop was Nakaminato Fish Market. It is, after Tokyo's Tsukiji Market, probably the most famous fish market in Japan, albeit more local. It is just next to Nakaminato Port, allowing easy access to fish from the Pacific Ocean.

We tried several snacks like takoyaki - with actual baby-octopbus inside, not just a small slice, and fried squid. The wholesale market had a lot of fresh - and often alive- fish, and other more popular eat-in stores with long queues. Many Japanese were eating oysters, but I never quite liked them...

Finally we reached our main destination of the day: Hitachi Seaside Park (20 minute drive from the fish market). The park covers as much as 190 hectareas and depending on the season, different flowers are in bloom. Access is 800 yen.

Wow, the crowds, we largely underestimated them. We were given too little time to be honest, as the tour was worried about traffic on the way back, which required us to walk too fast. But well. It was still worth it.

The blue nemophila were simply stunning. They were fully covering the main hill of the park, as a blue carpet. They usually bloom from late April to early May, so the timeframe is quite short.

We walked up and down the hill, also appreciating yellow flowers - I think they are called nanohana (canola flowers), that were next to the blue carpet, creating a picturesque contrast.

Walking back to the main lake of the park, in Tamago no Mori area, there were many tulips in bloom, maybe over 200 types, of different colors. It was for sure a sight to behold.

We wished we could have stayed more, but we had to head back to the bus and backk to Tokyo. I would really recommend anyone to rent a car if possible and fully dedicate an afternoon or a morning to this park, and even add a second day to visit Mito - Karaikuen gardens or the castle ruins for example.