Hello!
Today I want to share my trip in Hiroshima last month. It was 2 days trip.
In Part 1, I talk about Yamaguchi because my plan was to pass through Hiroshima first, go to Yamaguchi, and then return to Hiroshima.
Expressways vs Local roads
The starting point is the Tokai region where I live. I picked up a friend and left at 10am after work. We were stingy and nuts so we decided to use the local roads instead of the highway (Expressways have tolls in Japan and quite expensive compared with other countries).
Still, it would be crazy to go to Hiroshima by local roads.It takes very long time when you use the local roads so it doesn’t cost money but it’s a waste of time. At that day, when I set the navigation, it was 11 hours one way to Yamaguchi Prefecture.
If you really want to enjoy your trip, you’d better use the highway. But I was able to drive smoothly and comfortably on the local roads at night without any traffic jams.
Personally I prefer local roads to expressways because you can enjoy a bunch different of scenery such as buildings, local food chains, anything like that. Everything you see is fascinating. On the other hand, on the highway, the same scenery continues forever.
Yamaguchi Iwakuni city （山口県岩国市）
After 11 hours driving, we arrived at the first point, Yamaguchi Iwakuni city.
This is my first time to visit Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi is famous for its puffer fish dishes.
But this time, I wanna see a certain bridge there.
The Kintaikyo Bridge （錦帯橋, Kintaikyo）is a five-arch wooden bridge built over 300 years ago.
It’s a really unique shape. It’s great fun to actually cross that bridge.The cool breeze from the river feels good. I thought it was a fantastic place to chill and whole atmosphere there was great.
We tried a local specialty “Kawara Soba”.
Around the bridge, there are some interesting places introducing local history.
I visited one of them called “岩国シロヘビの館”(IWAKUNI SHIROHEBI MUSEUM)
Why White Snake?
I think you may wonder why white snake suddenly brought to the subject. It’s because Iwakuni city is the only habitat of the animal since ancient times. There are many local legendary of white snake which have been passed down through the ages. You can learn a lot in the museum.
There’s a lot of informative displays,and cute white snakes which never took the slightest move, you can enjoy it. https://shirohebi.info/language/en/
I went to Kashiwabara Museum too. https://www.kashiwabara-museum.jp/english/
If you are interested in Samurai period, you can definately enjoy it.
Next time, we reach to Hiroshima finally. See you next time.
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