Right after coming back from Okutama, I went on a trip to Ibaraki. It’s capital city Mito is home to Kairakuen, one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. I visited another Great Garden, Kenrokuen, in the spring when I went to Kanazawa. Kairakuen is known for its plum trees, which bloom in February and March. My friend and I took the limited express train to Mito in the morning. After eating at a sushi restaurant, we went to the garden and walked around. We also went in to Kobuntei, which used to be a feudal lord’s house. There was an area upstairs with a nice view of Kairakuen and Mito city. Downstairs was a cafe and I got to make my own matcha. Afterwards we walked around the entire garden. There was a bamboo groove and an area with trees and I saw a small snake on the path. Coming from Hawaii, this was a rare sight!
The next day, we took the bus to Oarai Shrine and Kamiiso no Torii, which is a torii gate on the rocks near the sea. There was a bunch of stairs to get to the shrine and it had a nice view of the torii gate. It was very hot that day and we walked a while to go to a kakigori cafe. It was definitely worth it, we got the strawberry and melon ones and they were delicious!
We took a train back to Mito and went to an animal cafe near the station. They had cats but also a snake, chicks, hamsters, and a tortoise. We walked to the lake and strolled around Kairakuen before heading back to the station to catch the Tokyo train.