Iwakuni Day Trip – The Castle, Bridge, and 100 Flavors

Iwakuni in Yamaguchi prefecture is a great place for a day trip. The famous Kintaikyo wooden bridge is one of the main attractions in the region and is well known to Japanese.  However, with the exception of a nearby United States Marine base, the town is still off the radar for most foreign tourists. We recently spent a lovely morning on a weekday exploring the area.

Poor Kikkawa Hiroie. A senior retainer for the Mori clan, he spent eight years building a castle only to have it dismantled seven years later in 1615 under the Tokugawa Shogunate’s new Ikkoku Ichijo (One Castle, One Province) policy. A more lasting legacy of the Kikkawa clan came two generations later, in 1673 when Kikkawa Hiroyoshi built the iconic Kintaikyo (Kintai Bridge) over the Nishiki River. Designed to withstand floods, the wooden bridge with a series of arches was destroyed only after a year. Kikkawa Hirotoshi remained undeterred, and after reinforcing the river bed, the reconstructed version lasted 276 years.

After World War II, the town was unable to properly maintain the bridge, and the United States Marine Corps removed large amounts of gravel from the river for construction of a nearby runway. The weakened bridge was destroyed during a typhoon in 1950. The town banded together to reconstruct the Kintaikyo using traditional techniques only three years later.

You can see that the river bed is enforced all around and under the bridge.

The traditional craftsmanship is beautiful and the bridge structure is impressive even by modern engineering standards.

Today it costs 300 yen to cross the bridge, but it isn’t a new concept. Kikkawa Hiroyoshi imposed a toll back when the bridge was new, in order to pay for the continued upkeep.

The steps are barely visible when looking down from the top of the arch.

Can you see the steps looking down?

Iwakuni Castle was reconstructed in 1962. If only Kikkawa Hiroie knew that his castle design survived after all.

Today the hilltop castle is made easily accessible by cable car.

The castle keep offers great views of Iwakuni.

And out to the Seto Inland Sea.

The area between the cable car and Kintaikyo has several other attractions including a White Snake Museum (we skipped it).  You can also see Cormorants and learn about the traditional Cormorant fishing. A walk through the area will take you past Kin’unkaku Pavilion.

The Shirayamahime and Kikko shrines are also lovely.

There are several sit-down restaurants in Iwakuni, but for our half day trip, we tried the food stands right across Kintaikyo. Make sure to try the famous Iwakuni-zushi, the local specialty sushi made in a mold.

Iwakuni is famous for renkon (lotus root). You will find renkon in the Iwakuni-zushi, and several other dishes and souvenirs. I love renkon, but it was my first time to try renkon korokke (Japanese style croquette).

It was also my first time trying renkon soft serve.  It was pretty good!

Iwakuni is famous for Soft Serve places offering a wide variety of flavors.  Musashi across Kintaikyo offers over 100 flavors. In addition to about every chocolate, vanilla, and fruit combination you can imagine, they have a large selection of unusual flavors.  In addition to the renkon, you can try wasabi, soy sauce, habanero, curry, ramen, garlic, and natto (fermented soybean).

We also like the soy sauce.  It really works if you like salty and sweet.

Souvenir shops around the bridge have dozens of renkon products. We picked up some renkon miso.

Details

Iwakuni is an easy day trip from Hiroshima. It is only 15 minutes by Shinkansen (Kodama) to Shin-Iwakuni Station.  You can also take a local JR train to Iwakuni Station in about 1 hour.  Both are covered by the Japan Rail Pass.  Both Stations have buses to Kintaikyo in about 20 minutes, although the buses to Iwakuni Station run more frequently.

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