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Summer in Hitachi Do you know how the local residents and the
visitors are enjoying summer in Hitachi? This article will introduce some
ideas to you. |
 Waterfront EnjoymentsSea bathing There are many large beautiful beaches on the long coastline, and many people are enjoying sea bathing. However, there might be the danger of drowning at far from the seashore. There is an ocean current which could carry you away to the offing easily, since the beaches face the Pacific Ocean directly. To enjoy swimming safely, you have to follow the red flags or the signs as well as the lifeguards. Also at this season, fog rises from the sea occasionally because of the ocean current. Under foggy weather conditions, the lifeguards warn sea-goers to stop swimming. Although the sea-bathing season of Hitachi is not so long term, many people, not only citizens also visitors from neighboring prefectures where do not face to the sea, come to the beaches and enjoy. So at this time of year, there are traffic jams at the main roads running west and east every morning and evening. There are good seashore at Kujihama, Mizuki, Kawarago, Oose, and Kawajiri. You can see many surfers these areas and pleasure boats or personal watercrafts near the mouth of Kuji river. Fishing Both sea fishing and river fishing are available in Hitachi. Especially, the coastline provides good fishing and many kinds of fish are caught all the year around. You can see there are many anglers around the piers and the breakwater of Hitachi harbor and Oose port on holidays. However, fishing on the breakwater is not safe so we recommend to fish at the pier of the "Nagisa park" of Kujihama. “goby”, "mackerel", "black sea bream", etc can be caught there. Of course, you can enjoy offshore fishing on a bout. It is available to hire fishing boat at Kuji and Ooose fishing port. Now, let’s turn to river fishing. At the upper stream of Kuji river, there are many anglers who fish for sweetfish (ayu, Japanese freshwater fish) in this season. However, as for as fishing for ayu, Naka river, other the A class river in Ibaraki, is more popular. Anglers who live in Hitachi also go out there. |
| Evening events During summer, there are many traditional events held in the evening, since Japanese has a traditional custom to enjoy the cool evening breeze. The prevailing events are " Anndon (paper-covered lamp shade) festival", "fireworks display", and "Bon festival dance(folk dance)." Andon festival (Kamine park) At Kamine park, Andon festival are held from early in August to the middle of the month. As it becomes dark, many lanterns with paper-covered shade along the path are turned on. It is one of the traditional events in Japan that summer nights are colored with handmade paper-covered lampshades. In this period, the amusement park, and a restaurant located on the site also open at night. Kamine zoo also hold a special event “Night at Zoo (6:00 p.m. ~ 9:00)”, showing the animals’ night habits (Not daily. Please contact them to know the schedule.). Fireworks displays (In places)  In Japan, fireworks are one of the most charming activities of the summer evening. While many people enjoy fireworks with their family or friends, they also like to view the fireworks display that go off in the night sky spectacularly very well. The big fireworks display held at several places in Hitachi, for instance, the Hitachi harbor, Kawarago port, Oose port, so on. All of firework are displayed at seashore for fire prevention. A large number of spectators are expected, so traffic may be very heavy. Please use the public transportation instead of your own car. In addition, fireworks go up highly sky, so it seems nice to look for a terrace facing the sea where you can enjoy the fireworks show, in place of a ringside view. Bon festival dance  Bon festival dances, the Japanese traditional folk dances, are performed in the community unit of various parts of city early August. The dancers form circles around the center tower that is made in wood temporarily and dance to the Bon festival dance song played with drums and whistles. The structure of the dance is simple. Anyone can join the circle without difficulty. Some people appear at the festival wearing a “yukata”, a kimono-like cotton robe. Especially, flourishing Bon festival dance are held at Hidaka, Taga, Hanayama, Omika. |
| Others There are some public camping sites in the mountain area, for example, Kiraranosato where many groups and families enjoy the outdoor activities. Amateur baseball tournament games are one of the topics, which many people bring up occasionally in summer. There are two nationwide tournaments; the senior high schools baseball tournament (we call it “Koushien” after the stadium which is held) and Intercity Baseball Tournament for industrial teams that will be on Tokyo Dome stadium. Preliminary games of the high school baseball tournament are held at several baseball grounds in Ibaraki in July, about 120 high-schools teams gathering from all over Ibaraki. Hitachi municipal baseball ground (Ikenokawa) is also one of the field. Many people, not only the students and their family also OBs, OGs, and the neighbors come there to cheer. About ten high schools in Hitachi participate the games to aim the representative of Ibaraki every year. The Hitachi 1st senior high school (Hitachi-ichi-ko) has been the winner of the preliminary games and entered “Koushien” as the representative once. Unfortunately, since then, senior high schools in Hitachi have not been the representative of Ibaraki for about 20 years. As for the industrial baseball tournament, Hitachi Ltd. team often plays on Tokyo Dome as the representative of this area. Almost of events introduced above have finished this year. Lets try next year, if you are interesterd in. |
