After a few hours in Miyajima, we took the local San-yo Line
train to Iwakuni, a small port town known for being the home of the Kintai
Bridge, a wooden bridge with five arches built over 300 years ago.
Our bus from Iwakuni station to the Kintai Bridge got stuck
in a rare Japanese traffic jam, and we instead opted to walk.
Even the blandest of
places look incredible under the cherry blossoms.
Once we finally arrived, I was taken aback by how long the
bridge actually was.
Even more impressive was the fact that the original bridge
built over 300 years ago contained no nails! Sadly the original structure
washed away in the 1950’s and was later rebuilt, this time with a modern
support structure.
As expected, the bridge itself was filled with throngs of
local tourists. However, since the crowd was overwhelmingly Japanese, this made
it an ideal place to people watch.
Sakura trees line both sides of the river bank, and quite a
few tourists were riding on one of the many riverboat cruises, although they
seemed to be merely going around in a small circle.
One unique aspect of the bridge is that it allows you to see
the Sakura trees at canopy level, resulting in some pretty exciting vantage
points.
As the sun was starting to set, we headed to the closest
local train station, which was around a 30-minute walk.
Compared to the packed JR commuter trains, this homely train
had precisely one carriage and seemed to be a relic from the past.
After a 6 minute ride, we arrived at Shin-Iwakuni station
and took a short 15-minute Shinkansen ride to Hiroshima.
Overall, while our day trip was a bit rushed, if you plan
ahead I would say visiting both Iwakuni and Miyajima on the same day to be
feasible. Make sure you leave Iwakuni before the sunset as walking in the dark
would not be ideal.
