*Click Here for Day #1 of our Ibaraki Camping Trip

On Ibaraki Camping Trip Day #2, we got up early and checked out the rest of Ryujin Furusato Village. There were quite a few hiking trails connected to the campground that we would like to check out when we come back. Check out time was 9:00 am and we were grateful that we packed up most of our gear the night before. We washed up, packed up, and brought the cars back up to load our remaining gear. Afterwards, we tried the roller slider a couple of times before heading out.

We then took the short 15 minute drive to the Ryujin Suspension Bridge. We parked in a free parking lot which was only a four minute walk to the bridge. As we made the approach to the bridge, we saw these beautiful flowers growing along the side of the road.

Ryujin Suspension Bridge

As we neared the bridge, we began to appreciate the scale and size of it. We learned that the Ryujin Suspension Bridge was the largest pedestrian suspension bridge in Japan at 375 meters.

We had heard about the chestnut soft serve and knew that we had to try it. It had a very light nutty flavor and was refreshing taste. We finished up before heading towards the bridge.

We purchased our tickets and set out across. It was pretty windy on the bridge and we wished we had brought our jackets. From the bridge, we were able to see the Ryujin Dam and lake below. Along the bridge there were viewing areas with glass where we could see through the bridge. It was a little unnerving especially since we’re not great with heights.

On the other side of the bridge was a small dome structure called Kisei no Kane. We didn’t know this at the time, but there were three different chimes. For ¥100 we could choose from either love, hope, or happiness. We decided to try it, and chose happiness since love was not an option for some reason. We received a small card from a ticket machine. A few seconds later the bell chime began and it scared the living daylights out of us. It was really loud and startled us since we weren’t expecting it.

We walked around for a bit checking out the area on the far side of the bridge. We found a couple of good places to take pictures. After finishing up our mini photo shoot, we retreated back across the bridge.

Our friend we were travelling with mentioned that Cremia ice cream was really good. In typical fashion, we had to try it. It was really creamy as one might expect. The texture was a lot more dense that the typical ice cream (soft serve) we had earlier. We finished up our ice cream and headed back to our cars. We drove back towards Mito and made a stop for lunch at Roadside Station Hitachiota. After lunch we drove back to Mito to conclude our weekend camping trip.

Final Thoughts

This was a great weekend Ibaraki Camping Trip. We were able to see some amazing sites in Ibaraki and sample the local cuisine. The weather was a little cold, but it was bearable. We can’t wait to do more weekend camping trips in the future.

More to Come…