Photo/Illutration Nemophila cover a hill in Uminonakamichi Seaside Park in Fukuoka on April 9. (Kengo Hiyoshi)

Tourists are turning out to stroll the flower-lined grounds of Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Prefecture, and enjoy the millions of baby blue nemophila now blanketing its bucolic hills.

Known in English as “baby blue eyes,” nemophila is a spring flower known for its beautiful blue exterior and bright white interior, and locals say now is the best time to take in the sea breeze and view the spectacular sight.

According to park officials, it is flowering a week earlier than usual because of the warmer February and March weather.

Seventy percent of the 5.3 million nemophila covering the park’s 4.2-hectare “Miharashi no Oka” (Miharashi Hill) have opened and are expected to reach full bloom this weekend, park staff said.

Yasushi Tanaka, one of the park’s officials, encouraged tourists to “come see the view of flowers on the hill and the blue sky melting together.”

The nemophila will be at its peak until around the end of April.

The lovely blue flower is blooming in other areas as well, like in Osaka, where Osaka Maishima Seaside Park is holding its Nemophila Festival 2023 until May 7.

Visitors can enjoy some 1 million of the flowers in the 40,000-square-meter park.

In Fukuoka, around 1.2 million flowers planted along “Hana no Oka” (Flower Hill) in Uminonakamichi Seaside Park in November have painted it a whitish blue.

In Nanakita Park in Sendai in northern Japan, the view of the flowers covering the surface is often likened to an ice skating rink.

The nemophila there surround a cherry blossom tree planted to celebrate the two consecutive Olympics gold medals won by local figure skating superstar Yuzuru Hanyu.

The flowers were planted to “depict Hanyu performing on blue ice,” according to a former principal of the local elementary school that the skater attended.

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