Mito's disused low district water tower is a red-brick Victorian-style structure built in 1898 that looks startlingly out of place amid the surrounding Japanese residential streets. The tower was built to supply water to the lower parts of the city and operated until the mid-20th century. It's now protected as a cultural property and stands as a small, peculiar reminder of the Meiji era's wholesale borrowing of European technical infrastructure.
The tower is not open to the public but is visible from the street, and the contrast between its European industrial aesthetic and the traditional Japanese neighbourhood around it is genuinely striking. Worth a short detour if you're heading from central Mito toward the southern parts of the city.