Hirasawa Kanga Ruins

In the eighth century the province of Hitachi was administered through district offices, and the one for Tsukuba district stood on this terrace below the mountain. Excavation found the postholes of a compound of raised storehouses — the granaries where the rice tax was kept — and three of them have been reconstructed full size on their original footprints, in three different construction methods: a log-built azekura, a plastered earthen store, and a plank-built one.

The effect is unusual. There is no ruin to squint at and no scale model: three large eighth-century buildings stand in an open field with Mt. Tsukuba behind them, and you can walk between them. It is free, it is almost always empty, and it makes the administrative machinery of the Nara state suddenly physical. A phased redevelopment of the site has been under way since 2023, so it is worth checking current access before making a special trip.