With woods, gardens, fields, a dune, a mini amusement area with rides, and cycling courses sewing through the vast park, one can spend a full day enjoying a variety of activities and seasonal flowers at Hitachi Seaside Park. Among the fields of cosmos, zinnia, spider lilies and pampas grass, the hill filled with kochia – or summer cypress, broom cypress, if not burning bush – is perhaps the most rare and eye-catching to see in Japan. The hill of this fluffy-looking (but actually quite prickly) shrub, more often seen on brooms than on the ground in eastern Asia, creates a peculiar yet attractive view in autumn when the branches and stems turn bright red. Here, visitors are welcome to walk among the bushes and climb to the top of the hill to get a nice view down the red hill and across the large park. Although the most famous is its “autumn foliage”, the hill shows a different charm when the shrubs are still green, before turning ablaze. Source