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Kairakuen Garden

The Japan's Top 3 gardens are Kenroku-en Garden of the Kanazawa Prefecture and Koraku-en Garden of Okayama Prefecture. Although most famous for its 3,000 plum trees, which bloom in February and March, the garden also contains walkways through large stands of tall cedar trees and bamboo, and past expanses of flame-red azalea and snow-white bush clover, as well as camellia, magnolia, and cherry blossoms, depending on the season. Views within the garden are impressive enough, but the hillside garden also provides spectacular overlooks of Semba Lake and Park, full of cherry blossoms in April.

Kobuntei

This well-preserved, old-style samurai residence on the grounds of Kairakuen is well worth seeing, with its fine natural woodwork, thatched roofs, hand-painted paper doors, surrounding garden, and beautiful vistas from the higher floors. Look for the Chinese-character cheat-sheets on the walls of the Chinese poetry composing room. Admission ¥190.

Giretsukan

This small museum on the grounds of Tokiwa Jinja houses a huge rolling taiko drum, an ancient large-barrel cannon (or mortar) on wooden wheels, a lineage chart of the Tokugawa shoguns and their Mito cousins, the 400-odd volumes on Japanese history compiled by the Mito School, and other items from Mito's samurai glory days. Few signs and no pamphlets in English. Admission ¥300.

Seizanso at the Hitachi-Ota City

It is a place where Mitsukuni Tokugawa lived his old-age. He was a samurai during the Edo era. He traveled around Japan as "Mito Komon". You can see many kinds of views there. For example, you can see beautiful cherry trees in the springtime and you can see maple trees that aflame with red and yellow leaves.

Mito Arts Foundation

Mito Arts Foundation is popular with locals and it is accessible because it is not too far from Mito Station. Mito Arts Foundation, founded by City of Mito Ibaraki Prefecture in March, 1988. The spiral tower rises 100m above the ATM Plaza and was built to commemorate Mito's 100th anniversary as an official city (1989). It thus symbolizes the movement from the past to the future and from tradition to creation.

Mito Municipal Botanical Park

The Mito Municipal Botanical Parkis a botanical garden located at 504 Kobuki, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan. It is open daily except Mondays an admission fee is charged.
The garden contains a terrace, rock garden, lawn, water features, and greenhouses heated from burning waste in the adjoining garbage disposal center.
 

February - April

Information not available

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