Kanto region · the offbeat side of Ibaraki.
3 discoveries
A free, hour-long tour of the plant that grows Yakult's Shirota-strain lactic acid bacteria and bottles the drink, ending with a tasting.
A vast coastal park where an entire hillside turns sky-blue with 4.5 million nemophila flowers each spring, then blood-red with kochia bushes in autumn — one of Japan's great seasonal color spectacles.
One of the tallest statues on Earth: a 120-metre bronze Buddha visible from miles across the Ibaraki plain, with an elevator inside that lifts you to a viewing deck in its chest.
