Image of a flower with blue petals on a blue background. I can almost feel it, beneath my parka. Not quite, but almost: burgeoning, blossoming, a murmur of springtime. At the Solomon R.

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.