Trip to Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

Holding my Japan Rail Pass with unlimited travel on JR trains, I decided to go on the railway path less travelled back in January and headed north from Tokyo to the city of Mito, deep in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.

I caught the Fresh Hitachi Express electric train from Tokyo to get to Mito:

The trip itself was uneventful, with very little interesting scenery along the way to photograph unfortunately!

When I arrived at Mito Station, I then took some pitcures around the platform and the train too. Here is the Mito station sign, with the Iwaki bound local line ready on the other side of the platform:

Close up of the display on the outside of the Fresh Hitachi train:

View down the platform of the Fresh Hitachi train:

Fresh Hitachi train departing for places further north towards it's terminus.

Inside Mito Station building, looking towards the exit/entrance gates:

View of the platforms at Mito Station:

Entrance to Mito Station:

Immediately Outside the station is this amazing clock tower, which does this cool display every 15 minutes:

View to the Mito Station building:

On the other side of the Mito Station Concourse, the entrance is a bit more grand:

A reasonable walk from the station is a nice lake and fountain, and next to it, an old Japanese Steam Locomotive on display in the open - so I went to take a look:

I saw one similar to this type in the SC Maglev and Railway Museum in Nagoya...Some explanatory signs in Japanese which are not much help to me!

You can climb the stairs into the cab of the loco:

Here is the view of Mito from close to the Steam Locomotive:

After this I wandered back to Mito Station to grab some Natto (famous food speciality in Mito) for my wife and family, and then caught the return Fresh Hitachi train trip back to Tokyo.

Was an interesting day trip, and the Japan Rail pass enabled me to see a part of Japan I would not have otherwise visited!