Hitachi Seaside Park

Over 5 Million Tiny, Blue Flowers Have Bloomed in Japan's Hitachi Seaside Park | Travel + Leisure

"The current spring bloom at Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachinaka, Japan, just two hours north of Tokyo, shows millions of tiny, blue flowers that blanket the park, according to Insider. The nemophila flowers, also known as “baby-blue eyes” and rurikarakusa in Japanese, are actually native to North America, not Japan, Insider reported. The beautiful blooms only grow to be less than an inch in diameter and about seven to eight inches tall, according to the park’s website, which makes the fact that these flowers have created a spread of baby blue on the hillside all the more impressive. Overall, there are 5.3 million individual flowers that make up these fields, an area of around 8.6 acres (3.5 hectares), according to Insider. Perhaps the most striking part of this year’s bloom is the total absence of people wandering the park’s paths trying to get a good photo of the colorful flowers. Hitachi Seaside Park has been closed since April 4 due to the coronavirus pandemic. But there’s more to Hitachi Seaside Park than the nemophila. The park in its entirety is about 469 acres (190 hectares), and there are several other areas where you can see spring blooms, such as daffodils in the Narcissus Garden and thousands of colorful tulips in the Tamago Flower Garden, according to Insider. There is also an amusement park with rides for the whole family. In the fall, the flowers are essentially replaced with fuzzy-looking red bushes called kochia. The kochia are green during the spring and summer and eventually turn red with the changing of the season. The baby-blue nemophila usually bloom between April and early May, so, unfortunately, most tourists will have to wait until next year to see them in person." - Travel + Leisure Editors