BridgeTsuchiura · JP
Suigo Bridge
Suigo Bridge (水郷橋) spans the Sakuragawa just before the river empties into Lake Kasumigaura, a short walk east of JR Tsuchiura Station. Its name carries the old word for this watery landscape — suigo, the "water country" around Japan's second-largest lake — and the bridge is the point where the town's streets finally meet open water. As the most downstream crossing of the Sakuragawa, the longest river in the Kasumigaura system, it is a genuine waterfront landmark and an easy free viewpoint: broad footways, decorative railings, the parallel steel truss of the JR Joban Line beside it, and reeds, moorings, sluice gates and a wide pale horizon out over the lake. It is open around the clock and costs nothing to walk across.