The Kinugawa river looks placid enough as it slides through the rice fields of south-western Ibaraki, but in September 2015, swollen by days of torrential rain, it breached its levee at Jōsō and flooded a vast area of the plain, forcing thousands to flee and leaving towns under water for days. Driving the levee road today, high above the fields, you can see how flat and vulnerable the land is.
This stop sits near Ishige, on the plain between the Kinugawa and the Kokai rivers, a landscape of rice paddies, vegetable fields and farmhouses. Mount Tsukuba, with its twin peaks, rises to the north-east, the only high ground in sight, and on clear days it dominates the horizon.
History runs deep here. In the tenth century, Taira no Masakado, a provincial warlord, rebelled against the imperial court and declared himself the new emperor from a base in this area. His rebellion was crushed and he was killed in battle, but he became a legend, and shrines dedicated to him are scattered across the region. His head is said to have flown back to Tokyo, where a shrine still marks the spot.
There is no swimming here: the rivers are wide, fast and muddy, and the levees are steep. The best you can do is sit on the embankment and watch the herons in the fields.
The riding is flat and straight, with long views across the paddies. Watch out for farm vehicles, narrow lanes and sudden junctions. Ishige, a few minutes away, has the pumps, konbini and family restaurants you need, and on a hot day a tray of cold soba with dipping sauce is the lunch Japan invented for exactly this weather.