12 best places to see hydrangeas in and around Tokyo
Aside from the white Anabelle hydrangea, the park also cultivates beautiful blue hydrangeas Kurohime and Ezohoshino that are indigenous to Japan. These varieties will likely reach peak bloom between mid- and late June.
While you're there for these summer blooms, why not beat the heat with a refreshing splash at the nearby Tokyo Summerland? This super popular water park on the fringes of Tokyo boasts a large indoor pool for all weather conditions as well as a 650m-long outdoor pool with flowing water. (Note: advance tickets are required for Tokyo Summerland.)
To get there, take the Keio line from Shinjuku to Keio Hachioji Station. From there, hop on a local bus and you'll reach Wonderful Nature Village in about 35 minutes. For more details, including other bus connections from Keio Hachioji and Akigawa stations, see the venue website (in Japanese only).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Out
22 minutes ago
- Time Out
These are the best cities in Asia for a ‘workcation' in 2025, according to IWG
Hands up if you've taken a 'workcation' or two over the past couple of years. For those unfamiliar with the term, a 'workcation' is a hybrid of work and holiday, where remote workers base themselves in a different country without using up leave days or quitting the day job. It's a flexible way of working that's quickly become a lifestyle for digital nomads, freelancers and lucky employees with remote work-friendly companies. If you're planning to take your laptop somewhere to upgrade your office views, the International Workplace Group has just released a list of the best cities around the world for a 'workcation' – and a couple of Asian cities have scored places in the top 10 rankings. The study ranked over 40 cities based on factors like weather, broadband speed, transport, accommodation, digital nomad visa options and their costs, access to flexible workspaces and proximity to nature. Taking the top spot is Tokyo, praised for its blazing-fast broadband, world-class transport network, overall safety and newly launched digital nomad visa in 2024. The Japanese city also scores points for its balance of bustling urban life with easy access to mountains, beaches and national parks. Coming in at number four is Seoul, following Rio de Janeiro and Budapest in second and third place, for its strong broadband infrastructure, efficient public transport and digital nomad visa. Here are the top Asian 'workcation' cities in 2025: Tokyo, Japan Seoul, South Korea Beijing, China Singapore Jakarta, Indonesia Manila, Philippines Mumbai, India Hong Kong Here are the top 'workcation' cities in the world in 2025: Tokyo, Japan Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Budapest, Hungary Seoul, South Korea Barcelona, Spain Beijing, China Lisbon, Portugal Rome, Rome Paris, Italy Valletta, Malta Find out more via the International Workplace Group website here.
The Herald Scotland
19 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
I did a 30-minute treatment and lost 600 calories lying down!
How do you lose 600 calories in 30 minutes while lying down? Sounded too good to me so I booked myself into Longevity Health and Wellness Hotel ( Perched and secluded it overlooks the bay of Alvor, a village with boutique shops well worth a rummage. The hotel has a lovely organic shape: sloping, curvaceous and reminiscent of New York's Guggenheim Museum or Rome's Castel St Angelo while its progressive vibe felt part-Scandinavian, part-Swiss. They have opened another in Cascais outside Lisbon. Longevity Alvor is for adults only, perfect for solo travellers as well as couples, and chiefly attracts Brits and Germans. It's a bright and fresh space that's simple to navigate. My room (one of 70 whose rates start at €116) was modern and minimalist and offered the lovely outdoors escape of a balcony. Its calm decluttered simplicity was conducive to the purpose of my visit. I loved Pure Café on the rooftop. It's informal and its advantageous height afforded a perfect panoramic view of the sunset, the sea, Alvor and her neighbouring fields. It all felt very zen, spacious and airy through its floor-to-ceiling windows like being on some mammoth luxurious yacht with her endless decking. The small but fairly-priced portions were good for my longevity as I tucked into my colourful salad of prawns, quinoa, bean sprouts and red cabbage. Relax in the Spa (Image: Longevity) Soon I was experiencing an Iyashi Dôme. It's a Japanese concept, where I was to sweat out my 'heavy metals' from the infra-red of the treatment. Though warm in my cocoon it wasn't remotely claustrophobic but extremely relaxing. This health and wellness hotel offers a comprehensive range of treatments including osteopathy and nutritional consultations. But within this super smart, super clean set-up I felt an engagingly easy and breezy vibe. There's a yoga dome and a state-of-the-art spa whose treatments are unquestionably first rate. Longevity's mantra is 'Achieve a healthier and happier you whilst relaxing in the warmth of the Portuguese sunshine'. It did, for me, exactly what it declared. I took a five-minute drive down to the beach at Praia da Torralta. What a fabulously long stretch of a sandy strand it was! In and amongst the meadows of wild flowers blowing in the breeze I found myself at Sea Deck ( a beach restaurant whose exterior is all about the sea and the decking from which also to watch the sun's descent. Within the floor-to-ceiling glass and beneath the airy fans a waiter in his signature red and white T-shirt served me a generous helping from Chef Carlos's kitchen. Sometimes you can't beat grilled fish and salad! How wonderful then to walk it off on the six-kilometre walkway along the nature reserve and back along the beach. Falésia Beach (Image: unknown) I really relished my next stay at PortoBay Falesia ( The location is Olhos d'Água, meaning 'eyes of water'. It's famous for being 'where the sea weeps' as strangely freshwater not saltwater bubbles up out of the sand at the sea end of the rocks. It looks almost as though the sea itself has eyes streaming with tears. It's a 4* hotel and soon to have sister hotel Portobay Blue Ocean as her neighbour. Yes I could have just stretched out on the sun lounger but preferred an adventure. The landscaped grounds had plenty of room with their palms, exotic plants and banana fronds. There were lots of romantic nooks and crannies; spectacular vantage points with impressive views. Such a dramatic drop down to the Atlantic and the many miles of coastline several hundred feet below. Cezanne would have been in his element with the zigzagged, striated landscape of the ochre-coloured sandstone cliffs, the bluest of sea and skies and the skudding seagulls monitoring all from above. Not to mention the lush, sharp green pines presenting their proud, erect leaves so static and spread like the Serengeti; so full of vibrancy and aroma. The 310 rooms and suites (from E214 a night) have neutral tones with wicker lampshades and come with balconies and sheets that were fabulously cool to touch. All was bountiful and abundant in the spacious foyer with its gorgeous, gigantic gourds leading out onto a floral garden and mown lawn. Outside both birdsong and a breeze wafted over my spa treatment conducted by masseuse Rogeria Mariana whose magic touch I highly recommend. I then dined at Madeira Restaurant whose abundant buffet supper meant I could arrive in my own time to suit my own rhythm. Also at Il Basilico, the hotel's Italian restaurant, I sat outside, at a lovely spot under the pine tree of the cliffs and sea watching the fishing boats punctuating the horizon out late at night. Alfresco dining and so romantic. A standard room in the hotel (Image: Longevity) The next day I descended the wooden steps to the 5 mile-long sandy Falésia Beach to have lunch at Maré at Pine Cliffs Resort ( It offered me all I could want from a seaside restaurant. Such a gem of a place with its ambiance and sea breeze as it presides over the performing waves. Children made sandcastles before me and covered their parents in the sand. Maré offers a diverse menu featuring seafood and fresh fish along with vibrant salads, wraps and light dishes. The helpings are generous and fairly-priced and I loved it so much I went back the next day. Who doesn't love a long, lazy summer lunch. One of the Algarve's greatest joys is its embrace of slow living. There's an unspoken philosophy here that life is to be savoured, not rushed. The Algarve doesn't just welcome me; it absorbs me. It teaches me to listen to the wind and to live more fully in the moment. In a world that often races forward, the Algarve gently pulls me back: to the sea, to the earth and to the joy of simply being. I must go back whenever but soon. Alvor in Portugal (Image: Market Iniciative - Joao Teixeira) FACT BOX Adam had support from the AlgarveTourism Authority. He was covered by online travel insurance specialist, CoverForYou 0207 183 0885
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Forgotten resort frozen in time with drinks still waiting on tables 30 years later
Urban explorers have found an eerie and haunting resort town in Japan, with hotels left untouched for decades, and drinks set on tables as though guests may return at any moment Along a cliffside river, a haunting abandoned resort town has been discovered by urban explorers in Japan, and it's seriously creepy. The city was once a major tourist attraction, and the explorers found around 20 hotels that have been left frozen in time, with drinks eerily left on tables, as though the guests were due to walk back in at any moment and claim them. It's been over three decades since the entire area was abandoned, with the discovery shedding light on what life was one like in the bustling resort, and it comes after news that an abandoned UK Butlin's site is now seaside town's 'hell hole' hotel. Urban explorer Luke Bradburn, 28, hails from Bury, Greater Manchester, but his adventures have taken him all the way to the other side of the world. He originally visited Japan to take a look around the Fukushima exclusion zone in 2024. However, he stumbled across the abandoned city of Kinugawa Onsen whilst looking at other places nearby, and found a chaotic and "eerie" place. Half of the city is "pristine", as though people only just walked out, and other parts of it are dangerously disintegrated into disrepair. "It was like walking into a ghost town," Luke explained. "There were abandoned cars on the streets, and while you could drive through the area, every building around you was just left to rot. "When we stepped inside, the contrast was mad. From the outside, it's all overgrown and decaying, but inside some of the rooms were pristine – like no one had touched them in decades." Once a bustling high street and tourist hotspot, it was in the early 1990s that Kinugawa Onsen faced a rapid decline when the Japanese economy hit the rocks. Quickly, one after the other, hotels began to shut their doors, with tourism screeching to a grinding halt. However, the buildings have been left as they were because Japan has some strict laws that make demolishing things difficult, so the past is frozen in place. "It's very different in Japan," Luke explained, "The crime rate is so low that abandoned buildings don't get looted or destroyed as quickly. "In some cases, they need the owner's permission to demolish and if the owner died, they legally can't for 30 years." Of the roughly 20 hotels that have been abandoned in the area, Luke managed to make his way through about five, using corridors that connected them. "Each one felt like stepping into a time capsule," he said. "You get a sense of what life must've been like here at its peak and then it just stopped. It's eerie, sad and fascinating all at once." From rooms left exactly as they were when in use, to grand hotel lobbies and traditional onsen baths - Luke was able to get a real glimpse at what it would have been like in its heyday. "One of the strangest things was walking into a lobby and seeing a massive taxidermy deer and falcon still standing there. It was bizarre. I'd seen pictures of it online before and then suddenly we were face to face with it.' He added: "We found arcade machines still filled with toys, tables set with drinks and rooms that looked like they hadn't been touched in decades. It was surreal." However, exploring the hotels isn't for the faint-hearted, because many parts of them are collapsing or have disintegrated altogether, making it "really unsafe". "There were floors missing, staircases hanging down, parts where you had to backtrack because everything had collapsed. "It was really unsafe in some areas, you had to be so careful," he explained.
