Ibaraki Hidden Gems

Ibaraki is close enough to Tokyo to be a day trip and far enough that almost nobody treats it as one, which is the whole opportunity. The prefecture is mostly flat farmland — it grows more of several crops than anywhere else in Japan, including the natto soybeans it is teased for — with Lake Kasumigaura, the second-largest lake in the country, spread shallow across the south. The coast north of Hitachi is the interesting edge: cliffs and reefs rather than beach, with the torii at Oarai standing out in the surf. Mito was a Tokugawa branch domain and its scholars did much of the intellectual work that helped end the shogunate, which is why Kairakuen, one of the three great gardens, was built as a public park rather than a lord's private one. The flower parks are the modern draw and are engineered around single species, so a visit outside their few weeks is a visit to a hillside of stems.