Iwakuni

Last weekend we traveled to Iwakuni. Iwakuni is a town on the coast about 1 1/2 hours from Hiroshima. Iwakuni is known for its all wooden arched bridge, Kintai Bridge, the Iwakuni Castle, and the U.S. army base located there. The Kintai Brige and Castle were built around the turn of the 1600th century by Hiroie Kikkawa, the first Lord of the Iwakuni Domain. When visiting you start by walking the Kintai Bridge, meandering through the Lord Kikkawa's manor house at the base of Mt. Shiroyama, and conclude by taking a gondola ride up the mountain to the Castle on top of Mt. Shiroyama. Everything we saw was amazing and beautiful. The kids loved riding the gondola, running the bridge, and seeing the samurai weapons and armor on display in the castle.

 

 The Castle

 

 Replicas of house boats

 

 Part of the bridge.

 

 Luke climbing!

 

 Japanese lanterns lining the streets.

 

 View of the bridge

 

 Me trying to wrangle the children on the bridge and as usual lots of Japanese spectators looking at us. I often feel like we are an entertainment show here- loud, different looking, and crazy! The Gepford family came with us, so their two girls are pictured too!

 

 The view of the Kintai bridge from the Castle.