Samの英語チャンネル

Sign of spring comes with a touching pandemic message from seaside park.

Right now is a special time of year in Japan for lovers of flowers and beautiful scenery…What’s that? Cherry blossom season is pretty much over and done with? Well, yeah, we’re sort of bummed out about that, but what we’re talking about isn’t those pink sings of spring, but these blue ones.

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Late April is when the Nemophila flowers, also called “baby blue eyes,” come into bloom, and there’s no better place in Japan to see them than Ibaraki Prefecture’s Hitachi Seaside Park. You could easily spend a whole day wandering its wooded walking paths, gardens, and plazas, but right now the first place to head to on its expansive grounds is Lookout Hill, or Miharashi no Oka, to use the Japanese name.

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Located at the back of the park, Lookout Hill provides nice views of the surrounding area, but it’s the hill itself that’s the sight to see these days. We’ll save you the trouble of counting and let you know that there are around 4.5 million Nemophila covering its gentle slopes, providing breathtakingly blue scenery above, below, and on both sides as you stroll up the winding walkway that leads to the top.

淡いブルーのネモフィラたち。一輪一輪、色合いや濃淡が少しずつ違っていて、光を浴びて花開く様子はまるで宝石のようです。今日もお天気に恵まれ、キラキラと輝くように咲いていました。#ひたち海浜公園 #hitachiseasidepark #ネモフィラ #nemophila #みはらしの丘 #見頃 #花写真 #flower #青 #blue pic.twitter.com/b7qfMtcVDl

— 国営ひたち海浜公園【公式】 (@HitachiKaihin) April 22, 2021

Part of what makes the Nemophila so captivating is that their petals aren’t actually a single color. They’re white at their base and transition to a deep blue near their tips.

ネモフィラの花の大きさは約2～3cmほど。小さな花が集まって丘一面を青く染め、空と溶け合う風景を作り出します。
みはらしの丘のネモフィラは、現在＜見頃＞です。#ひたち海浜公園 #hitachiseasidepark #ネモフィラ #nemophila #みはらしの丘 #見頃 #花写真 #flower #blue #青 #縦写真 #タップ推奨 pic.twitter.com/uXXrRsBrrO

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— 国営ひたち海浜公園【公式】 (@HitachiKaihin) April 20, 2021

It’s a gradation you might not consciously register unless you look for it, sort of like with the colors of the sky, and it makes Lookout Hill especially photogenic on sunny days as the flowers blend into the horizon.

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▼ This being Japan, there are of course seasonal refreshments, in the form of blue lassi drinks made with locally produced yogurt and butterfly-pea flower extract.

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While Hitachi Seaside Park is still open and welcoming visitors, the park’s operators realize that many people are postponing travel and excursions during the pandemic, and they’ve posted a special message about that through their official Instagram account:

“Concerns about the coronavirus may mean you can’t visit us this spring, but we’ll be waiting for you next year, and the year after that. Spring will always come again. We have faith, and that’s why we plant seeds, again and again, in order to make flowers bloom.

Hang in there, and we hope someday you can come to see these views for yourself.”

スタッフブログを更新しました！「7時から18時まで。ネモフィラの時間帯別ベストショット！」https://t.co/MWTsrjSBZ5#ひたち海浜公園 #hitachiseasidepark #ネモフィラ #nemophila #みはらしの丘 #見頃 #満開 #7時開園 #18時閉園 #朝日 #夕日 #予約不要 #分散来園 pic.twitter.com/fNY9UpsuKs

— 国営ひたち海浜公園【公式】 (@HitachiKaihin) April 19, 2021

In the meantime, Hitachi Seaside Park will be continuing to post photos through its Instagram and Twitter accounts throughout this year’s Nemophila season. And even if it happens to be autumn when you finally can make a visit, Lookout Hill looks amazing then too, because of a very different reason/color.

Related: Hitachi Seaside Park official website
Source: Instagram/hitachikaihin via Curazy
Top image: Hitachi Seaside Park
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Source: SORA NEWS24