A mong the highlights of any visit to Ibaraki Prefecture could well be Kita-Ibaraki in its far northeast — specifically the towns of Otsu-ko and Hirakata-ko, which offer perhaps the best opportunity in the nation to sample the great winter seafood delicacy of anko (anglerfish)
Otsu-ko can be reached in around 2 hours from Ueno Station in Tokyo by taking the Hitachi Express train to Mito (about a 60-minute trip), then changing to the JR Joban Line for another hour's ride.
One saying from my junior high school Latin class has stuck with me through the intervening decades. It is: De gustibus non est disputandum — which roughly translates as, "There's no accounting for taste."