We stopped by Roadside Station Mizunosato Sawara in Chiba Prefecture to find our fourth and final Pokémon manhole cover in the city of Katori. It was located in-between the souvenir shop and the local produce market in a nice open area.

We also found this sign that detailed the other three manhole covers. Fortunately, we had heard of the Pokémon manhole covers before, we were just surprised to find them. For people who were completely unaware, this sign showed where to find the remaining.

Roadside Station Mizunosato Sawara in Chiba Prefecture is ideally located in a cove along the Tone river. There are a number of picnic tables by the river that provide a great place to eat lunch or just relax. The weather was perfect, it was slightly cloudy with a nice cool breeze.

Roadside Station Mizunosato Sawara Local Products Store

Right next to the Pokémon manhole was an omiyage (souvenir) shop selling a variety of prepackaged treats and other locally produced goods. The area was known for their sweet potatoes so we decided to try some of their sweet potato cookies.

Each roadside station has their own unique stamp. What makes this one unique is that the stamp itself is a sweet potato. We took the stamp and placed it on a provided slip of paper. We really liked how the details on the irises translated from the stamp to the paper.

Recently, we’ve noticed that many of the roadside stations we’ve been to have these pin vending machines. The pins were pretty small and only gave the name of the roadside station on their traditional blue and white formatting. At a cost of only ¥100, its another thing to collect during our trips.

We headed over to the Local Products Store. The shop was pretty big and had a lot of variety. We looked around for a bit before heading out.

There is a nice food court with a number of options. Unfortunately, we arrived a little too late and they were already closed for the day. In the future we’d like to come back and try some of their food.

The restrooms were on the far right side of the station. They were clean, but a little dated.

Final Thoughts

The view from Roadside Station Mizunosato Sawara in Chiba was quite nice. It would have been a great place to have lunch and relax by the river. However, there was absolutely no shade, so going on a slightly cloudy day would be ideal. We also learned that their would be a summer fireworks festival on August 1st. We might be coming back sooner than we thought.

More to Come…

Here is the link to their website.

Here is the link for the Pokémon Manhole Covers in Katori.