Today we plan to visit to south side of the main island of Japan, Honshu. The first stop is Iwakuni where we intend to visit the Kintai-Kyo Bridge one of the more aesthetic interesting bridges in Japan and the old town area beyond the bridge. Finding parking is a bit confusing initially but we find the descent to the river bank where a large unpaved parking area is available. As we step out of the car we can already see the bridge, one of the top three in Japan. The original bridge was constructed in 1673, washed away in 1674, built again without any nails and then washed away in 1950 by a typhoon. The current bridge was built in 1953 trying to be as faithful as possible to the original and it is an impressive site.
We pay the toll fee (else we will likely get eaten by a troll) and walk across to the other side. The walk across the spans is surprisingly difficult as the ascent and descents are steep and the wood is a bit slippery but we make it across safely.
We can see the city from the bridge layed out along the river. It is very quiet and peaceful and we enjoy the scene before moving on to the old city on the other side.
The views from the bridge downstream are also nice with the large river flowing underneath the bridge and the fishermen catching fish underneath the bridge in the shallow water.
One of the attractions is the viewpoint at the top of the mountain near the river however it is a relatively long hike or a relatively expensive cable car ride so we decide to just walk around the old samurai houses at the bottom.
One thing that we splurge on is a chestnut icecream to help us endure in the midday heat. The old wooden samurai houses are interesting to see and have small well maintained gardens as we enter a few and see a few more from outside.
On our tour we discover an interesting water fountain built so that people can get soaked in the downpour (or at least that’s how it seems) however there is no one when we pass even though it is already quite hot.
Still the quantity of water cools the air off which energizes us a bit to continue on our walk. In fact the whole park Kikko-koen was once the estate of the ruling Kikkawa clan and that is the reason for the old samurai houses encircling it.
We encounter a few gardeners maintaining the trees and the shrubs on the side and again we marvel and how they painstakingly pick the weeds out one by one instead of relying on herbicides.
There is also a small lake behind the samurai houses which has, as we start to expect in Japan, quite a few turtles.
As we start returning towards our car we pass through the former castle area and visit the Kikko shrine which is the family shrine of the Kikkawa family. It is off the beaten tourist path and we are almost the only tourists visiting it.
And then back to the bridge where we noticed that we are missing one of the return tickets (the ticket is good for a roundtrip). However the lady that guards the bridge is quite nice and lets us pass so we can return to the car.
Before leaving we need some food though so we examine the food stalls and decide on some fried octopus which is quite good as fast food go. And then it is on as we have a few more attractions to see, next is Yamaguchi, the Kyoto of Western Japan.
