Kasama Geijyutsunomori Park

Kasama Park is renowned for its ceramics. This scenic park has a lot to offer and is a great place to visit as the area, in general, has a lot to do including museums, shrines and parks.

As you walk towards the park it is obvious the influence that pottery has in the local area, they have various shops where you can buy these well decorated souvenirs from. It takes about 30 minutes to walk to the park so I would recommend using Google maps. There’s multiple entrances for the park and it is very well kept due to gardeners looking after it throughout the year. The area is vast and has an art forest, open-air stage, lake, playground and sculpture areas.

With not many people around, there is a sense of serenity as you take in the mountains in the background as well as the abundance of beautiful wildlife within the park. For me, the most impressive part of this park was the thought put into the little details such as the playground; this is at the eastern part of the park and has various slides. They have two large slides, which are a massive 160 meters long! These are really fun and I would definitely recommend families to visit. The park is suitable for children of all ages and has various facilities. The park has a large stage for outdoor performances, which is framed by the green trees and the picturesque mountains.

They have a large café and gift shop here but they were not open when I visited, I imagine depending on the day this area would be very busy. Visitors can learn about pottery and visit the Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, which is one of the main attractions here. They also host two festivals throughout the year, which consist of crafts and pottery. Depending on when you go, they also offer helicopter rides but these can be quite expensive.

The park is around two hours away on the Tohoku Shinkansen line from Tokyo station, you then have to take the Mito Line to Kasama station. This route is also entirely covered with the JR East Pass.