Kanko Ibaraki, the prefectural tourism association, gives the usual peak here as mid to late November. For a gorge this close to the coast that is a little later than the flat land inland, and the cold that collects in the valley is the reason.

Hananuki runs from the Hananuki dam past Nabarigafuchi to the Kotakizawa campsite, and the scenery holds across that whole stretch. The single thing it is known for sits in the middle: the Shiomidaki suspension bridge, about sixty metres long. In autumn the branches along both banks push out over the water and meet above the deck, so crossing it means walking under a closed ceiling of leaves with the river visible through the boards underfoot.

The bridge takes its name from the waterfall beside it, which means you cross with the sound of water rather than in silence. It is short enough that how you walk it changes what you see — quickly and it is a tunnel, slowly and it comes apart into individual branches.

There is a car park, though it becomes paid during the autumn festival period, and visitors are asked to carry their rubbish out. The site is unstaffed outside the season. Come on a weekday if you can, because a sixty-metre bridge does not absorb a crowd.