Ibaraki, Japan

Well I have to say you should be very careful eating in a different county.  I got food poisioning the second day and took three days to recover.  Ibaraki is a sleepy place and although I only stayed in Kashima the place reminded me of rural New Zealand with its wide streets and low buildings.  The shopping was average at best but I did pick up some good bargins at ABC shoes.

Probably the most interesting place to visit tourist wise is the local temple.  It has a katana sword that is supposedly the oldest in Japan and measures 3m in length (don't know how they would fight with that though) but the really interesting stuff are the temples and the water temple in particular.  Its worth a visit.