Today is departure day from Otake. The sun is shining and the skies are clear. It is stunning how quickly the weather here can shift from good to bad. What have we learned? Always keep an eye on the weather forecast and take it seriously. Originally, we had wanted to stay in Iwakuni, a bit further along, but every hotel was sold out. In Iwakuni, the Kintaikyo Bridge, built in 1673 by the feudal lord, Hiroyoshi Kikkawa during the Edo period is there. We will take the time to tour this before heading on to Tokuyama on the Sento Sea.
As you get off the elevator, each floor has a wooden feature with the same caption, “super smile”. Barry is happy to oblige.
The most common statue that one sees along the road or at temples, is the Ojizo-sama. These statues are one of the most popular divinities and are seen as the Guardian of children.
To our surprise, the Kintaikyo Bridge is part of a much larger and very popular destination. When we arrived we were blown away by the infrastructure and the number of people. We purchased a combo ticket which included visiting the bridge, a gondola to take us up to the Iwakuni Castle, touring the castle and the gondola ride down again. There is much to see here, so we’ll have to ride faster than planned to reach our destination, Tokuyama.
Iwakuni clearly takes ice cream seriously. After crossing the bridge we encounter this mecca of ice cream shops, all offering a huge selection of flavours and toppings.
As well as the bridge, gondola and castle, there are a number of museums in the area. Barry decided to go the snake museum which featured the white snakes of Iwakuni.
The whites snakes of Iwakuni are rare albino snakes, whitened by mutation which are found in this area. They are known as the “messenger of God”, thus cherished by the local people for their good luck and fortune. The museum’s mission is to rid these snakes of the stigma often associated with them and educate visitors to their qualities.
Clearly this museum has had a positive impact on Barry. Like me, he has a natural aversion to snakes, but he found this museum fascinating and came out with a new appreciation for these creatures. Clearly the museum has achieved its purpose with him.
We thought that we would spend only a short time visiting the bridge. However, there was so much more to see. After a couple of hours of sightseeing reality hit. We still had at least 40+ kilometres to ride. However it was well worth the time spent.
