Ibaraki Day Trip!

Day trip to Ibaraki planned for today woo! Woke up super early at 5:40am to go fuel up and pick up an ALT friend, and then drove back to my place where 2 other ALT friends were waiting. Set off for Hitachi Seaside Park promptly at 7:00am (the first time we have ever been so on time wow!). The drive was nice and easy, just toll roads all the way, but there was traffic at the end of the trip as the line to enter Hitachi Seaside Park had backed out all the way onto the toll roads. It didn’t feel like it took too long to get a parking spot, but when we checked the time it actually took us 40 minutes total, so we ended up actually being in the park at around 10:30am. We met up with our other ALT friends and headed to the nemophila (blue flowers!!!) area together. There were a ton of people at the park but it didn’t feel too crowded since Japanese people are very orderly. It was hot out today, so I had at least 2 ice creams throughout our time at the park hehe. The nemophila were so pretty! It really was just blue all around, and the grounds were as blue as the sky. After we finished with the nemophila area, some of us lined up for the special nemophila ice cream (it was soda flavoured blue ice cream which was actually really refreshing), whilst others lined up for other foods. We then enjoyed the tulip area for a while before heading to our next destination, Nakaminato Fish Market for lunch!

The drive there wasn’t supposed to take too long but there was traffic everywhere since Hitachi Seaside Park is insanely popular. Parking took a while again but I managed to get a spot on the streets, since street parking is allowed at this fish market on weekends – ahh I missed free street parking! There were a ton of people at the fish market as well so we had to wait a bit to get a spot at one of the restaurants. The hungry people got some snacks from the food stalls first though – everyone was raving about the massive oysters. Had sashimi don for lunch, and then we went to our next destination – Oarai beach resort! I’m not sure if it’s just this one (I hope it is) but it’s definitely not the type of “beach” we’re used to, and definitely not like the nice ones in NZ. It was very rocky and the sand was dark with a lot of sharp stuff in it so you had to really watch where you were walking! It feels weird to not walk barefoot at a beach. Surprisingly there was also a lot of rubbish around, which was quite the shock since Japan is supposed to be so clean (or Japanese people are supposed to be so clean?). There were other people at the beach too, but no one was swimming, and there didn’t seem to be an area designated for swimming either. Maybe it was because it was still too cold for swimming (I thought it was absolutely perfect weather for swimming). We still dipped our feet in the water though (it was so nice!) and just hung out and chilled at the beach for a while.

As the sun started to set, we walked over to the nearby Oarai Isosaki Shrine, which is a very picturesque shrine on top of the ocean (sea?). It’s more famous for sunrise since it’s on the East side, but tonight’s sunset was still pretty, even though the sun was on the opposite side. After we’d had our fill of pictures we started the drive home. Some people still went to play basketball after they got back! I just went straight home though.

Nemophila Fields!

Sashimi Don for lunch!