Hitachi Seaside Park: Complete Visitor Guide (2026)

Disclaimer: I am not sponsored for this post. I decided to visit Hitachi Seaside Park because it looked interesting.

You probably would have seen this image on social media many times. A blue coloured hill with windy paths and loads of people on it. It looks absolutely beautiful, one of a kind and probably straight out of a movie.

That is Hitachi Seaside Park, and it’s a little bit like Disneyland but instead of a bunch of characters that made you feel like you were in a magical happy place, it was a bunch of beautiful flowers that made you feel in a happy magical place.

Hitachi Seaside Park is a large flower park located in Hitachinaka City in Ibaraki Prefecture and is most well known for it’s nemophila flowers on a hill with people strolling up and down admiring them. It also has an amusement park with rides for kids and hiking trails, cycling paths and picnic areas.

I visited the park on 21st April 2026, right during the peak nemophila bloom week and I will let you know what my experience was like visiting and why you need to put this on your list the next time you visit Japan.

Photos on this page are mine, shot on an iPhone 11 pro. Nicer photos are shot by Tessa Leong on a Sony A7 IV. 

How to get to Hitachi Seaside Park

The fastest way to get to Hitachi Seaside Park is by public transport is by taking the Hitachi and Tokiwa line from Tokyo Station to Katsuta Station. This is about 1 hr 30 mins travel time.

From Katsuta Station, you want to take the Ibaraki Kotsu bus to the main entrance of the park. This is about 17 minutes travel time.

So total travel time from Tokyo should be about 2 hours and it would cost you about ¥4450.

Hitachi Seaside Park Parking

There are 3 main parking areas at Hitachi Seaside Park. Two of them on either side of the main entrance and have about 2500 parking spaces each. The third parking is the sea breeze parking on the other side of the park and only has 350 parking spaces.

All three parking spaces are within close walking distance to Miharashi Hill (Nemophila Fields). You can move between parking lots (West ↔ South) on the same day by showing your entrance receipt in the event that you need to do so.

Alternatively you can park across the street at Fashion Cruise Newport and walk across to the park. The parking at the mall is free of charge and about maybe 5 mins more walking time.

Hitachi Seaside Park Ticket Prices

The ticketing machines accept all payment types. But prepare cash as food trucks are mostly cash only.

Hitachi Seaside Park Opening Hours

When are the Best Times to visit Hitachi Seaside Park?

The two best times to visit Hitachi Seaside Park would be during the Nemophila Season from mid-April to early May, and the Kochia season in Autumn in mid October. 

Nemophila Season

For Nemophila Season specifically the best days when they are in bloom is usually between 18th April to 28th April. This year we visited the park on the 21st April right when it was in full bloom so the flowers were really beautiful.

Kochia Season

For the Kochia Season, the best period to visit would be during mid October around 14th to 22th. This is when the 40,000 kochia bushes would turn red and create another interesting landscape. I haven’t visited during this season yet but it is on my list in the future. I will update this article when I do so.

Take note that the exact peak bloom dates will obviously change every year so you need to check their website and instagram accounts as they will announce when that period will be.

How long to spend at Hitachi Seaside Park?

There is a lot to see and do at Hitachi Seaside Park and you can easily end up spending the whole day there. If you want to see absolutely everything (I don’t recommend this) you will probably need one whole day or even more.

If you are looking to see the main attractions such as the Miharashi Hill and Eggs Forest Flower Garden, spending about 2 hours plus would be enough to see and take plenty of photographs.

For us we spent about 5 hours seeing everything. We spent way too much time taking photos of the nemophila flowers, about an hour at the Eggs Forest Flower Garden. And then tried to speed run the rest of the park just to see what it was like.

But again, Miharashi Hill and Eggs Forest Flower Garden are the main attractions you don’t want to miss and 2-3 hours is enough to cover them both.

2026 April May Event Spring World Journey

One of the on-going events when I was there was the Spring World Journey. It’s basically a stamp rally event where you can collect stamps around the park while enjoying the flowers. It’s one of their ways of getting visitors to explore the whole park.

You can get the stamp rally sheet when you first enter and there are 5 different stations around the park. However there aren’t any prizes for completing the stamp rally so it’s more of a personal quest I guess.

Check out this other flower park in Ibaraki that gives an interesting prize for completing it’s stamp rally.

Miharashi Hill – The Nemophila Fields

Now for the main highlight of the park and I honestly have no words to describe what I saw. There are many photos of places that look really great but once you get there it looks slightly disappointing. It looked great but you can tell Photoshop was used.

Standing in front of Miharashi hill with the blue nemophila flowers and loads of people on the windy paths, it looked every bit as magical and beautiful as in the photos. Photoshop editing or not, what you see when you are there is exactly what you get.

When you reach the top, there is a nice rest area that gives you a panoramic view of the whole park and the pacific ocean. On some days you might be able to see Mount Tsukuba, but it was really cloudy that day so you could barely see it.

Nemophila Soft Blue

One of the other highlights of this area is the Nemophila Soft Blue, which is basically a seasonal soft serve ice cream. It tastes like ramune (Japanese lemon-lime soda) and most importantly it is blue in colour and it matches the nemophila flowers.

It costs ¥550 and they only accept cash payment.

The queue may look long but it actually moves quite quickly. We only waited less than 10 minutes for it.

The next thing to do before you eat is to get the mandatory photo of the Nemophila soft serve with the nemophila flowers in the background.

Best Times to take photos of Miharashi Hill

There are a few times that are good for taking photos of the nemophila flowers.

Lunchtime Photos

Lunchtime is a good timing to take photos as the sun is directly above the hill. It’s like someone is placing a large studio lighting on top and the light is shining down on the flowers. So you get really nice and warm lighting on the flowers itself from the top.

Evening Time Photos

Another really good time for photos is during the evening around 4-5pm just before sunset. This is because the sun will be behind you as you are facing Miharashi Hill. So it’s almost as if someone is shining studio lightning from behind you onto the flowers. The sky is also slightly darker so it creates a very different image from before.

So you have 2 really optimal (in my opinion) options for taking photos of the nemophila flowers.

Best Place for Nemophila Selfies

The best place for taking selfies at Miharashi Hill of the nemophila flowers is basically any part of the hill that has a large backdrop of flowers behind as a “background” without people walking.

The good news is that there are plenty of such spots along the paths up and down the hill, and everyone is really respectful and no one is really “hogging” the spots. So everyone would be able to have an opportunity.

Photo Flower Card

The park also has a service where professional staff will help you take photos with the flower hill. They will then print it into a card (89x127mm) and it is given to the group for free. You can also purchase a downloadable version for ¥1500 per photo. So you don’t have to worry about finding a good photo taking spot and worry about the other visitors in the background.

Eggs Forest Flower Garden (卵の森花園)

The second highlight of Hitachi Seaside Park is the Eggs Forest Flower Garden (Tamago no Mori Flower Garden) and it’s a little bit like the “dutch-syle” flower fields that you may have seen in Hokkaido or near Mount Fuji.

But instead this garden is a (mostly) tulip only garden that probably has every type, breed and colour of tulip in existence. Almost like an encyclopedia for tulips. There were so many different shapes and sizes of tulips I didn’t know existed.

The tall trees and tulip fields in the garden also gives you a magical feel as if you have stepped inside a story book or fairy tale. It’s a really surreal feeling that you don’t get very often. There also is a small dutch windmill to complete the look.

The tulips in Eggs Forest Flower Garden bloom from mid to end April which overlaps nicely with the nemophila flowers.

Pleasure Garden

Hitachi Seaside Park also has a small amusement park area for families and kids to have fun. There are all sorts of amusement park type rides like the ferris wheel, roller coaster and a carousel. It’s not all kid activities though, there are also activities such as a BMX course and mini putt-putt golf.

We briefly walked through the area (for the stamp rally) and honestly it’s something that you can skip if you are visiting Hitachi Seaside Park. It seems like it’s meant more for the local families and kids to enjoy. If you are traveling to Japan you probably want to see the stars of the show that is the flowers.

Sand Dunes Area

The last section of the park is called the Sand Dunes Area and it is the more coastal area of the park with coastal sand dunes that were already there before the park was developed. There are also cycling and jogging paths for visitors to cycle, exercise or just stroll.

There is also a cafe called the Glass House Cafe that is a made of glass and is facing the pacific ocean. They sell cakes, coffee and tea and is quite a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

I was actually quite curious to see what sand dunes looked like in Japan and unfortunately we didn’t really see any. It was more like a sandy beach area than a proper sand dune. I visited the Lancelin Sand Dunes in Western Australia this year and that was a proper big sand dune. But I guess you probably won’t travel to Japan to see sand dunes.

The Sand Dunes area is another part of the park that is okay to skip. There really isn’t much going on there and it is really far to walk to from the main entrance and the other flower fields.

Getting Around the Park

Hitachi Seaside Park is really really huge and getting around it by just walking can be quite tiring. If you are only visiting  Miharashi Hill and Eggs Forest Flower Garden you can get by with just walking.

Rental Bicycles

The park has about 11-13km of cycling routes and there are 4 cycle centers to rent bicycles near the park entrances. Is a great way to explore the whole park quickly and also see parts of the park that you might not be able to see on foot. You can bring your own bicycles as well if you wish.

However if you are only seeing the main flower fields you don’t really need to cycle.

Seaside Train

If you want to travel around the park without sweating too much you can take the Seaside Train. It is sort of like the Disneyland train as it loops around the park and stops at all the main areas.

It costs ¥600 for a one day unlimited pass and you can bring your stroller or wheelchairs on board.

Check out their website for more information about the seaside train and bicycle rentals.

Food Trucks, Cafes & Restaurants

There are a few cafes and restaurants scattered around the park. But the main highlights food wise are the food trucks. There are probably 50 something food trucks in different parts of the park and they sell all sorts of Japanese and Western food and drinks.

The food trucks are actually quite a good idea because you don’t have to walk very far to get food and the waiting times are low as you don’t need to wait for seating etc. You can just order and either walk around or seat somewhere to eat.

The food trucks mostly accept cash only.

Some Tips

– Get the season pass to see flowers all year round.

– Prepare cash as food trucks are mostly cash only. Some cafes/restaurants might allow card payment.

– Bring sunscreen even though it may not look really sunny. I got lightly sunburnt.

– Park at Fashion Cruise Newport for free parking (5 mins more walking time).

– Baby strollers and wheelchairs can be rented for free (first-come-first serve).

Should you avoid, shortlist or visit Hitachi Seaside Park?

If you are looking to explore this side of Japan, to me Hitachi Seaside Park is a must visit especially during the nemophila season. The nemophila flowers are really beautiful and Miharashi Hill just looks like its straight out of a fantasy dream.

It’s a really popular destination with the locals especially with wedding couples. I think we spotted about 20 different wedding couples taking photos with the nemophila flowers alone.

Hitachi Seaside Park is one of the few attractions in Ibaraki that I would highly recommend taking a day trip from Tokyo. We definitely spent way too much time at this park especially taking photos of the nemophila flowers. 

Nearby Attractions

Fashion Cruise Newport

If you are looking for a big shopping mall, there is one just opposite Hitachi Seaside Park. Fashion Cruise Newport has lots of cafes, restaurants and shops making it a good shopping place to visit nearby. There is even a really large stand alone Muji outlet next to it.

It does not have a supermarket itself but it there is one next door at the Joyful Honda. The supermarket does not have as much variety as the Aeon Mall supermarket but should be sufficient enough.

We didn’t really get the chance to eat while at the park, so we treated ourselves to hamburg steak for dinner.

Where to Stay Nearby

If you are looking for somewhere to stay nearby, you can consider staying at Hotel R9 The Yard Hitachinaka. They are a franchise of container hotels that are really affordable, utilitarian and clean. The outlet at Hitachinaka Ichige is only an 18 minute drive away from the park and is really accessible by car.

Read about our experience staying at Hotel R9 The Yard Hitachinaka Ichige including room details, nightly pricing and honest pros and cons from an 8 night stay.

FAQ – Hitachi Seaside Park