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The wooden Kintai bridge and Iwakuni

After spending half of a day in Miyajima I took the ferry back to the mainland and from there I went to Iwakuni to visit this famous historical wooden Kintai bridge built in 1673 but it has been rebuilt by the time. After arriving to Iwakuni I decided to walk to the bridge wich was not my best decision beacuse it took me at least 40 minutes on a hot day after hiking on Miyajima so I was really exhausted.

It is a national treasure since 1922. The bridge itself is 200 meters long and as someone who works with wood I can say it is a beautiful piece of work! For nearly three hundred years, the many versions of the bridge stood without the use of The main wooden parts of the bridge were covered by sheets of copper for additional durability during renovations. This was achieved by the careful fitting of the wooden parts and by the construction of the thick girders by clamping and binding them together with metal belts.

I really enjoyed sitting at the riverside, waiting for the sunset over the bridge and watching the people crossing on the bridge after this long day around the area.

The castle is also near on the top of the hill. I’m pretty sure it is worth to go up for the view but on that day I had no more energy nor time to do it after hiking on Miyajima!

 A few months later I visited Iwakuni a second time now enjoying Hazuki, Kazushi and Samiksha company on my side. On that day first we went to Sanzoku. Kazushi’s first thing to do after getting out of the car and waking up was to play on the After that we took a walk around the place, which is really calm and peaceful. They even have a small waterfall! What a great place for a restaurant! Not to mention the safety measurements.

Even the statues had mask on them!

After that we had a really nice breakfast / lunch / brunch which was grilled rice cake in sweet bean Soup pot and looked like a miniature cooking show on the table. Interesting and really fun to grill the rice cakes by yourself then put the small pot up With the bean soup and then putting the grilled rice cakes into it and cook until it becames soft. It was soooo delicious! While someone (Kazushi: D) did not like the pickles. 🙂 

Before we left to Iwakuni it started to rain slightly but thankfully it stopped pretty soon and we had a sunny afternoon at the bridge.

Walking on the bridge in itself an interesting experience, you should try it once.

Usually you can see people fishing from small boats and many times they are fishing with a help of a bird. This is really famous but sadly I haven’t had a chance yet to see it by myself.

The huge garden on the other side, between the bridge and the mountain is really worth a walk too and takes about half an hour to one hour if you are just walking through to have a look. The best time to do so of course is late spring when the flowers are in full bloom all over the garden.

On that day while leaving we saw a guy doing a photoshoot from his car in the parking lot at the riverside where we left the car as well so I took the opportunity and snapped my own photographs too from the car! 🙂 The car looked really sick , but a bit too much for me.

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