Hitachi Seaside Park
Fist off, all the best to everyone reading this back home in Europe or anywhere else around the world for that matter. I sincerely hope you, your family and friends are all well and things will be back to normal soon. Even though Japan does enforce a few restrictions due to the global COVID-19 outbreak, e.g. shutdown of schools and other places of plublic gathering, daily life in Tokyo is not impact too much, yet. I realize traveling these days -even if it’s just domestically- is a controversial thing to do, but since this was a long-planned trip with a group of friends that interact face-to-face on a daily basis anyway, we decided to follow through.
The town of Hitachi, home to the electronics manufacturer of the same name, is about 2 hours away from Tokyo main station. You can get there by train or highway bus, but having experienced the local transportation in and around Hitachi, my recommendation would be renting a car. (Turns out not every Japanese metro network is as amazing as the one in Tokyo.)
Located right on the pacific coast is Hitachi’s famous seaside park, packed with an abundance of flowers and other flora. Even though full bloom wasn’t there just yet, the extensive park area had a lot to offer – including narcissuses and cherry trees. Visiting in two weeks from now in early April must be even better, but unfortunately one cannot schedule public holidays. Our accomodation was located a bit south of town directly at the shore. Only navigating the concrete jungle all week, you tend to forget how relaxing a weekend can be once you get away from it. All of us felt like this was a much needed recharge of our batteries.
Back in Tokyo now, I believe this is going to to be the last weekend getaway for a while. That is, at least until the curve has flattened a bit. Our planning for Golden Week will likely be impacted quite a bit by this virus, but who knows what the world will look like in a month from now. Here’s to everyone staying safe and sound while living through these exceptional circumstances!
