{"id":7824,"date":"2026-08-05T22:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=7824"},"modified":"2026-08-05T22:00:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:00:04","slug":"kochia-calling-right-now-is-a-great-off-season-season-to-visit-this-beautiful-japanese-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=7824","title":{"rendered":"Kochia calling: Right now is a great off-season season to visit this beautiful Japanese park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-741169\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/08\/1_269349.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Before Hitachi Seaside Park turns red for autumn, it\u2019s got a beautiful summer color to show you too<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Japan is a country with strong swings between its seasons, often resulting in splashes of color as different types of flowers or foliage reach their peak beauty. So if you\u2019re headed to an outdoor attraction while traveling in Japan, timing is important, and right now is a fantastic time to visit<strong> Hitachi Seaside Park<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWait a second,\u201d you might be thinking. \u201cI though you guys said that early summer is a good time to visit that park, since that\u2019s when its <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2026\/04\/21\/japans-5-3-million-beautiful-hitachi-nemophila-flowers-are-now-in-full-bloomphotos\/\">blue Nemophila flowers<\/a> are in bloom. And wait, didn\u2019t you say autumn is good too, because that\u2019s when the park\u2019s kochia bushes <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2014\/10\/23\/crimson-covered-hitachi-seaside-park-beautiful-awesome-and-easy-to-get-to-from-tokyo%E3%80%90photos%E3%80%91\/\">all turn red<\/a>?\u201d Yep, we sure did, but late summer is <em>also<\/em> awesome at Hitachi Seaside Park, because <strong>before those kochia can turn red, they need to grow green, and that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing now<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-741170\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/08\/2_bdb111.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The park has a total of roughly <strong>40,000 kochia plants<\/strong>, and they cover the Miharashi no Oka (\u201cLookout Hill\u201d). While the ocean is visible from the top of the hill, it\u2019s the topography itself that really catches the eye here, and the paths that wind up and around the slope let you surround yourself with greenery.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-741171\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/08\/3_6a2924.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As an added bonus, Hitachi Seaside Park tends to be less crowded in summer than in the spring or fall. A big reason for that is no doubt the higher temperatures in summer, so you\u2019ll want to bring a hat or parasol with you, but even those can lend a jaunty, fashionable look to photos you snap while strolling amongst the kochia, especially if you color-coordinate with your outfit or the blue sky above on a sunny day.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-741172\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/08\/4_b6fdb4.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>This year, the park has even planted more kochia at the base of the hill, in the section called Miharashi no Sato, which also has examples of traditional Japanese farmhouse architecture<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-741173\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/08\/5_cd4bd7.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-741174\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/08\/6_6d1a3e.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s kochia are expected to have their bright green color from now through late September, after which they\u2019ll start transitioning to autumn red. And if you\u2019re looking for other reasons to visit Ibaraki, don\u2019t forget that it\u2019s got a great <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2026\/05\/16\/lets-hike-a-japanese-mountain-that-isnt-mt-fuji-mt-tsukubaphotos\/\">beginner-friendly mountain hike<\/a> you can do plus the <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2026\/06\/19\/gama-land-the-weird-japanese-amusement-park-celebrating-toads-is-now-like-a-ghost-town\/\">mysteries of Gama Land<\/a> to experience.<\/p>\n<p><em>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hitachikaihin.jp\/\">Hitachi Seaside Park official website<\/a><\/em><br \/>\n<em>Source, images: <a href=\"https:\/\/prtimes.jp\/main\/html\/rd\/p\/000000835.000032901.html\">PR Times<\/a><\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RocketNews24En\">Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RocketNews24En\">Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before Hitachi Seaside Park turns red for autumn, it\u2019s got a beautiful summer color to show you too. Japan is a country with strong swings between its seasons, often resulting&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}