Golden Week is a series of four national holidays that takes place within the last week of April to first week of May. Due to the end of Heisei and beginning of Reiwa era, three holidays are added on this year’s Golden Week. This year, me and my friends, Carmelle and Rex, gone a three-day trips to Tokyo’s neighboring prefectures. For our first day trip, we went to the famous blue flower hill at Ibaraki Prefecture, which is located at Hitachi Seaside Park.
How we get there:
In this trip, we purchased the JR Tokyo Wide Pass. This rail pass gives you unlimited rides from Tokyo to its neighboring prefectures for three consecutive days (shinkansen and limited express trains included). Round trip ticket going to Katsuta will cost you around 7,000 yen while this pass cost only 10,000 yen. Truly a budget friendly for a travelers like us!
From Ueno, we rode a Hitachi-Tokiwa Limited Express going to Katsuta Station which takes around an hour and a half to get there. You can also ride a local train via Joban line for a cheaper alternative however it will take almost two hours to arrive.
From Katsuta Station, we rode Hitachinaka Kaihin Tetsudo Minato line going to Hitachi Seaside Park. Since that day was a peak season of the park, they offered a discounted pass worth 1,100 yen that already includes a round-trip train ticket, free shuttle service, and entrance ticket of the park.
Sea of flowers meets the sky
It took us two to three hours before we get to the Miharashi Hills (since we were doing a flower stamp rally along the way). But a few meters from the hills, we were greeted with a packed crowd marching towards the hill. But despite the crowd, the sea of blooming nemophila looks so beautiful as its color matches that day’s clear sky.
While walking across the hill, we meet this cute little dogs. The owner was so nice to let us take a photo of them with the flowers.
Aside from its famous nemophila flowers at Miharashi Hill, Hitachi Seaside Park has various flower fields (like narcissus, tulips, etc), amusement park, picnic space, cycling paths and BMX course, a good place for family bonding and dating.
Beach beside the seaside park
We went out from the park and head towards the nearby beach. Tokyo doesn’t have any shoreline and there is still a need to travel either Chiba or Kanagawa prefecture to see one. Since it is currently spring, there weren’t much people around and most of the stores were close. This will probably becomes lively when the summer comes.
For the rest of our trip,
Day 2: Karuizawa (Nagano) | Day 3: Odawara-Hakone (Kanagawa)
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