Nojima Park

Nojima Park is an urban park on an island at the entrance of Hirakata Bay with a hill called Mount Nojima about 57 meters (187 feet) high. The hill has an observation tower where visitors can see the bay, Yokohama, and on clear days Mount Fuji and the Boso Peninsula.

The site opened as a park in 1956 and preserves the former summer residence of Japan's first Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, built in 1898 on Tokyo Bay. The hill also contains a shell mound from prehistoric times that shows evidence of ancient human settlements.

The location appears in Utagawa Hiroshige's painting 'Nojima no Sekisho' from the Edo period, part of the Eight Views of Kanazawa series. This historical artwork shows how important the area was for the visual culture of that time.

The park offers several facilities including a baseball field, barbecue areas, and campsites for different activities. Most areas are easy to walk around, and the climb to the observation tower is manageable for people with different fitness levels.

The grounds contain Yokohama's only natural beach and represent a rare example of island landscape preserved within a modern urban park. These combined features make it an unusual place to experience nature in a densely populated area.